Yoga for noobs

July 20, 2011 12:24 PM

Yoga for beginners

Starting tomorrow at 5am I'm doing yoga in the mornings. I'm looking for a 15 minute beginner routine.

The 2 times I did this last week I followed a great video on youtube (Tara Stiles Weight loss yoga for beginners) and LOVED it!

I'm beginning to train (essentially from scratch) for a 5k obstacle run in Sept and plan on yoga in the am, interval runs Mon and Thur, Parkour on Sat, and Tue and Fri would be "regular" exercise days.

Any other free online recommendations for a beginner, around 15 minutes or so? Tara Stiles obviously knows what she's doing but I'm curious as to what the hive mind recommends.

Bonus points for youtube/downloadable content that I can stream to my apple TV.

Namaste.

posted by doorsfan to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

Best answer: yogamazing video podcasts are available on itunes, are free if you subscribe, and clock in around 20 minutes. They tend to be focused on an area of the body or a specific purpose—yoga for runners, yoga for the back, relaxing yoga, etc. They have notes on There are a lot of different ones, so you can keep mixing it up and keep it fun.
posted by peachfuzz at 12:43 PM on July 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

Best answer: I recommend getting instruction at least once in a while. Especially as a beginner it can be hard to know what you are doing right and wrong without someone looking at your form and giving you tips.
posted by grouse at 1:31 PM on July 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

What grouse said. It's important to have someone else looking at you to make sure you are aligning your knee properly, etc. to avoid injury. Once you get the hang of it, and can feel when you have the pose right Netflix has a pretty good selection of videos, as does Hulu. (the good thing about that is if the instructor is annoying or it's too hard you can stop it after a few minutes and try another.)
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 2:55 PM on July 20, 2011

Best answer: I enjoy the videos at yogayak.com very much. The ones that I prefer are a bit longer than what you are looking for (more in the 40 minute range), but you may find some that fit your parameters, or you may discover that you do actually want to try out some longer practices. I'll also second grouse's suggestion that you try a live yoga class once in a while, it is very helpful to have a trained observer helping you out. Good luck!
posted by Polyhymnia at 3:23 PM on July 20, 2011

There are different types of yoga. I used to do Iyengar, which stresses geometry and form over other aspects. Do you know what type of yoga you're doing?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:54 PM on July 20, 2011

Check your local library for DVDs, they probably have tons, and if you really like one, you can buy yourself a copy.

Grouse's recommendation is important too, though. You want to ensure proper form - you may as well get the most out of it - especially if you're only doing it for 15 minutes a day, since most yoga classes are at least an hour, and preferably 1.5 hours.
posted by backwards guitar at 5:15 PM on July 20, 2011

I love Yoga Today, but only the instructor Neesha. It's online, and for something like $10 a month you can get unlimited access to all the classes, which is what I do (I think it's $89 for a full year). There is also one free class every week, and you can also purchase the individual classes if you want to go a different route. Neesha's classes are quite detailed and precise, therefore good for a beginner, because you want to be very sure you are aligning yourself properly, rather than just imitating a shape. Otherwise you risk injury at worst, or wasting your time at best.

(There are no classes that only last 15 minutes at Yoga Today though, for one, because there is generally a good chunk of preliminary and concluding downtime in yoga. But often if I am doing a challenging class, I will only do 20 minutes of it, then a few relaxing poses before laying flat on my back for a few minutes to conclude.)

As for types of yoga, I think Iyengar yoga is best for learning proper positioning and getting the most out of the poses. Good luck!
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 4:57 AM on July 21, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks! I did yogamazing - yoga for runners this morning and loved it! I can certainly see that I'll be wanting to add additional time to the sessions so I'll definitely be looking into yogayak.com when the time comes.

And thanks for the suggestions about 'live' classes - I agree, very important so I'll be looking into that as well.
posted by doorsfan at 9:57 AM on July 21, 2011 [1 favorite]