Ashtanga Yoga for Beginner's
If you are reading this article, that means you are one more step closer to choosing
yoga for your fitness, unarguably only method with everything one can ask for,
fitness of body and mind.
Learning Ashtanga vinyasa yoga is complicated if student makes is complicated, and other way around very easy if student genuinely desires to learn. When i say complicated, is because there is so much involved in Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, there is breath, postures, alignment and most of all to remember sequence.
Student needs to understand that Ashtanga practice is for lifetime, and hurrying to learn all same day or in one week is not possible. You can learn may be about technique but to apply those in practice needs time and patience. If practiced properly, one will most likely continue to practice all life, so there is lot of time to learn everything and apply everything.
The best thing about learning Ashtanga yoga is that you will never be bored, there is always something new you will learn, it is never ending.
Now you will ask how it is best to learn. Let’s see
First of all you need to keep open mind. Once you are taken through basics, it is not important to remember all of it, but what is important, is to take few at a time and imply those in your beginners practice.
Sun salutations, which are of two types, A and B in Primary sequence, are the base for your practice. These are done 5 times each. If you learn to do these properly, everything else will follow. Do not try to hurry, because if you do, you will be out of breath and also tired very soon. The key is to use Ujjayi breathing all the way ( Ujjayi breathing is technique where certain amount of air is inhaled with certain flow, by making noise at back of throat. This helps in controlling breathing ), which will help you to create heat from inside the body and once you achieve that, even if you have stiff muscles and other issues, they will feel less, and your practice will be more fruitful.
Most people give up practicing Ashtanga vinyasa yoga because they think it is too hard. But let me tell you this, most of these people give up because they tried to hurry and didn't use proper breathing in Sun salutation A and B. It is more like when you start to learn driving, if one puts strong feet on accelerator, you crash :). If doing all 5 sun salutations makes you tired even after you did it slow, do less. # of each in first class and then keep adding in future classes.
After you have learnt sun salutations from teacher, it will be time to go through standing postures, as I said earlier, from here it is easy if you apply breathing. If you can’t use Ujjayi breathing yet, use deep inhale and exhale rhythmically. In each posture, students stay 5 breaths on each side. Meaning the postures you do, will be done first on right side and then left side. Students stay in posture for 5 breaths. This can vary, if it is too fast for some, because of factors like age or other reasons, students can stay more breaths on each side and make practice slower. But at same time student has to keep in mind that making it slower to slower is not helpful. As with practice you get flexibility, strength and stamina, start reducing breath count to 5 over the period of few classes or more.
In standing postures, alignment is key for beginners. When you start learning standing postures, balance is main problem for most. Well you master balance over the period of time. To start if you are rightly aligned, chances are that you will balance yourself better in posture and will bring you confidence. If you keep falling out of some postures where you have to make balance on one leg, it is completely fine. Keep doing it and few months you will be good at it. Patience is key.
This is all you have to know as beginner. Once you have done above mentioned aspects, postures after that cannot be expressed in same post as it will become book then. I will write more about it in my next posts. Just remember all the time that nobody was born with posture perfection, it is practice which makes it all possible. If you keep up through good and bad times, you will move towards something very beautiful and harmonious.
Learning Ashtanga vinyasa yoga is complicated if student makes is complicated, and other way around very easy if student genuinely desires to learn. When i say complicated, is because there is so much involved in Ashtanga vinyasa yoga, there is breath, postures, alignment and most of all to remember sequence.
Student needs to understand that Ashtanga practice is for lifetime, and hurrying to learn all same day or in one week is not possible. You can learn may be about technique but to apply those in practice needs time and patience. If practiced properly, one will most likely continue to practice all life, so there is lot of time to learn everything and apply everything.
The best thing about learning Ashtanga yoga is that you will never be bored, there is always something new you will learn, it is never ending.
Now you will ask how it is best to learn. Let’s see
First of all you need to keep open mind. Once you are taken through basics, it is not important to remember all of it, but what is important, is to take few at a time and imply those in your beginners practice.
Sun salutations, which are of two types, A and B in Primary sequence, are the base for your practice. These are done 5 times each. If you learn to do these properly, everything else will follow. Do not try to hurry, because if you do, you will be out of breath and also tired very soon. The key is to use Ujjayi breathing all the way ( Ujjayi breathing is technique where certain amount of air is inhaled with certain flow, by making noise at back of throat. This helps in controlling breathing ), which will help you to create heat from inside the body and once you achieve that, even if you have stiff muscles and other issues, they will feel less, and your practice will be more fruitful.
Most people give up practicing Ashtanga vinyasa yoga because they think it is too hard. But let me tell you this, most of these people give up because they tried to hurry and didn't use proper breathing in Sun salutation A and B. It is more like when you start to learn driving, if one puts strong feet on accelerator, you crash :). If doing all 5 sun salutations makes you tired even after you did it slow, do less. # of each in first class and then keep adding in future classes.
After you have learnt sun salutations from teacher, it will be time to go through standing postures, as I said earlier, from here it is easy if you apply breathing. If you can’t use Ujjayi breathing yet, use deep inhale and exhale rhythmically. In each posture, students stay 5 breaths on each side. Meaning the postures you do, will be done first on right side and then left side. Students stay in posture for 5 breaths. This can vary, if it is too fast for some, because of factors like age or other reasons, students can stay more breaths on each side and make practice slower. But at same time student has to keep in mind that making it slower to slower is not helpful. As with practice you get flexibility, strength and stamina, start reducing breath count to 5 over the period of few classes or more.
In standing postures, alignment is key for beginners. When you start learning standing postures, balance is main problem for most. Well you master balance over the period of time. To start if you are rightly aligned, chances are that you will balance yourself better in posture and will bring you confidence. If you keep falling out of some postures where you have to make balance on one leg, it is completely fine. Keep doing it and few months you will be good at it. Patience is key.
This is all you have to know as beginner. Once you have done above mentioned aspects, postures after that cannot be expressed in same post as it will become book then. I will write more about it in my next posts. Just remember all the time that nobody was born with posture perfection, it is practice which makes it all possible. If you keep up through good and bad times, you will move towards something very beautiful and harmonious.
Thank you for your blog and I agree that meditation can be profoundly centering and life-giving. I recently read an article on how meditation affects us on a cellular level and radically alters our gene expression.
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Beginner Yoga Videos
The first helpful tool for a total yoga beginner is to build basic familiarity with yoga ... I am so glad this post was helpful to you. ...
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