by Kara-Leah Grant, author of Forty Days of Yoga
It’s easy when you regularly go to yoga classes to dismiss the idea of home yoga practice – after all, you don’t need it right? You’re already practicing in class 2 or 3 or maybe even 5 or 6 times a week.
However, even if you are going to class, there is much to be gained by also doing a home yoga practice.
It doesn’t have to be every day, and it doesn’t have to be long. Ten minutes is enough. Even such a small amount of time can have enormous benefits over time.
The difference between a yoga student who just goes to class, and a yoga student who goes to class and also practices at home comes in a number of ways.
One, when you take time to practice at home you’re forcing yourself to do the postures from memory, which means you’re not just learning them by rote. You begin to understand the postures in a more organic way.
Two, students that practice at home often have more questions because they’re playing with things in different ways. their learning can take them unexpected ways.
Three, students that practice at home become more confident in class, and make greater gains in their practice over-all.
Watch the video to find out five benefits of practicing at home as well as going to regular yoga classes – it could be just what you need to take your practice to the next level.
Home Yoga Practice Video Question 3:
Do I Need a Home Practice when I Regularly Go To Yoga Class?
Got a questions on Home Yoga Practice? Send me an email and I could answer it in my next video.
I think the three benefits that a student gains from home practice is:
1. personal ownership — it moves from being something where you follow to where you lead;
2. deeper understanding — what is taught in class is encoded or entrained through home practice with deeper awareness and understanding (physically and otherwise); and
3. total freedom — as you say, one can explore in their own way, and not just movement but also the deeper experiences of the practice because they can do things extended beyond the bounds of the classroom like holding postures longer, or coming out of it and going back into it to experience the mind-space of doing asana in new and dynamic ways.
It’s pretty exciting stuff. 🙂
Hey Jenifer,
Very succinctly put. I like that. Home practice is very exciting stuff!
If your practice is not totally self-led, then if you have a home practice you are free to explore professional-level, world-class offerings from teachers who do not subscribe to the no pain no gain, Top Gun acro-training school of today’s status quo yoga … and explore (without threat of ridicule from others who nay be your, ahem, contemporaries, who may not act their age, so to speak) relatively prop-free ultra slow-flow restorative, chanting-intensive mild vinyasa yoga, a highly modified power yoga class sans inversions, or – for that matter – inversions that are plyometric, athletic and not held for 5 minutes … for prices a lot cheaper than a class …
Hey Tina,
I read through your comment a few times, but I’m not sure what you’re saying. Are you talking about online yoga classes, or a home yoga practice?
I’m talking about both. Right now I am exploring yoga DVD-only (at this writing) offerings from Jillian Pransky and J. Brown (of Abhyasa Yoga).
But I also have created my own, self-sequenced, recorded practice onto an mp3 playlist.
It’s all good …
Hey Tina,
That sounds like a fabulous mix – I’ve heard nothing but good things about J. Brown’s DVD.
Hi,
I am a yoga enthusiast .. this was amazing information . i would also like to know on breathing exercises for improving lungs health and if possible can you kindly share more information on surya namaskar.