Yoga on my own... should I?

August 9, 2007 4:34 PM

Without a teacher, I still want to give Yoga a shot. Should I, or should I wait an year when I may move to a bigger city?

Took couple of classes in last year and have some familiarity with the basic moves. I have been doing 5 - 6 poses that work wonders for me in the morning. I love what Yoga does for my stiff body.

Now without a teacher in town (well there is one, but it’s just a makeshift one hour follow-me-as-I-twist routine) I am at crossroads: do I stick with my current routine or, what I really want to do, study Yoga on my own and go deeper into the practice - explore the poses more and work on my breathing and such. I really want to grab a popular DVD and build a practice till I move next year to a place where I may be able to take a decent class. But I am always wary of do-it-alone ventures without any interaction with a teacher…

I am not looking for spiritual gains but like the emotional/mental balance I get. I may not be a “beginner”, but I don’t think I have all the basics covered either.

posted by raheel to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

I have taken yoga classes and done on my own at home. I love one or two of the yoga videos I have, find them great for guiding me through basic breathing and tempo through sun salutations at al. Would not dare to get into the more difficult postures. But I find I get a good portion of my goals through some of the at-home vids, keeps me more limber than I'd otherwise be, stretched, strong, sane etc. The psuedp-yoga excercise DVDs are a GIANT waste of time, but a good one is "almost but not quite" as good as a good class, and probably better than a bad class. I would personally by FAR use a good dvd to guide me rather than go without. My video I love best might, MIGHT, on googling, be David Swenson. Maybe add in an explicit request for GOOD vid reccomendations?
posted by bunnycup at 4:44 PM on August 9, 2007

Start here if you've done the positions before. The guys voice is nice and soothing and it's a nice workout. You can do this until you can take a class. He has a few other mp3s, so you can start learning positions well suited to stretching out other parts of your body.
posted by Deathalicious at 4:49 PM on August 9, 2007

Yoga videos aren't the end of the world. Yes, you probably won't get the workout that you get with a real class, but you'll at least get yourself moving. Try Netflix until you get one you like.
posted by lilithim at 4:57 PM on August 9, 2007

I did a bit of searching and found Rainbeau Mars. Her videos have the right stuff, flavor for me.
posted by JohnR at 5:13 PM on August 9, 2007

I highly recommend Inhale w/ Steve Ross on Oxygen, if you get cable. It's a show, which means you will get comfortable without getting accustomed, much like you would with an actual teacher.

It's a pretty bad-ass hatha workout.
posted by kickback at 6:28 PM on August 9, 2007

oh, yeah. I should also recommend Light on Yoga if you don't have it.

Having read it and worked on your own, you'll be well-prepared to choose future teachers critically.

Ultimately, though;
Sun salute -> forward bends -> inversions -> back bends -> twists -> rest
posted by kickback at 6:38 PM on August 9, 2007

Best answer: One of the preconditions for applying for yoga teacher training is that you've shown you have the commitment and discipline to develop your own practice at home. So, it sounds not just "okay" but "highly recommended." The one thing I'd worry about would be getting deep into certain ways of doing things, if those ways turned out to be wrong. Good videos would help (and a variety of videos, since no one video could include every detail about a pose). What about doing a weekend retreat six months in, or driving to the nearest big city once every couple months to get a little professional advice?
posted by salvia at 7:13 PM on August 9, 2007

I am perpetually embarrassed to mention this, but I am a huge fan of the MTV Yoga videos.

I took a full year of yoga as my PE in high school and I've dropped in and out of practice several times (so I've seen a variety of teachers). The video isn't as excellent as a good teacher moving around and correcting you, but Kristin McGee does a really great job of anticipating what the viewer is doing wrong and telling you to correct it; there have been many times when I've been in a pose and she's said not to do X and I realize that X is exactly what I've been doing. She's also great about reminding you when and how to breathe.

Good on you for wanting to take this on! I think the suggestion above of working alone with a variety of DVDs (Netflix is how I found this one) and taking a periodic retreat is a fantastic one.
posted by fuzzbean at 10:00 PM on August 9, 2007

Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha

The ultimate yoga book. From ultra-beginner to the way out there stuff. By far the most beneficial $20 you will spend on the path.
posted by emptyinside at 10:44 PM on August 9, 2007

I've really been enjoying the free yoga classes at YogaToday.com. Every day there's a new class available and you can access any from the last week, so you can choose ones appropriate for your level. The teachers are very clear and easy to follow and the video can be streamed or downloaded, or you can just download the audio portion. They're great for those of us that get bored with the predictability of doing the same dvd over and over.
posted by platinum at 12:15 AM on August 10, 2007

Yes, a good teacher is best, but you shouldn't wait. I recommend T.K.V. Desikachar's The Heart of Yoga as a gentle, broad introduction to all the different aspects of yoga, not just the postures. It is subtitled "developing a personal practice" which sounds like just the thing. Desikachar's father, Krishnamacharya , taught the teachers or grand-teachers of most of the yogis you have heard of.
posted by shothotbot at 6:39 AM on August 10, 2007