Yoga for Beginners Safety Tips

Yoga for beginners can prove to be disastrous if taken as a rigid imitation of poses. Yoga is a fun and relaxing activity, but if you’re new to this practice, you should make sure that you do each pose properly in order to ensure your safety. You can get injured if you do a wrong pose or if you don’t follow what your instructor is saying. If you’re wondering how you can avoid injury while doing yoga, here are some safety tips for yoga for beginners.

Gentle Style

Take a class in Viniyoga, Kripalu, or Integral yoga. Yoga forms such as Ashtanga, Bikram and Power yoga are dynamic in nature and meant for more advanced students. They might prove to be too much for a beginner to handle.

Choose your Instructor Carefully

Look for someone who has experience in yoga and is certified to teach it. If you have any physical limitations such as a bad back or weak knees, let your yoga instructor know before you start the class. A good instructor should be able to fit the pace to your capabilities. They may also modify poses for you to do. Watch out for gung-ho instructors who may force you into doing poses that are beyond your abilities. Tell them to keep their hands off your body.

Warm Up and Protect Your Body

If you haven’t done any kind of physical activity prior to your yoga session, do not try to force yourself into a yoga posture immediately. Our body needs to adjust to certain movements and positions before it is expected to be fully cooperative. The proper way to warm up is to do stretching for ten minutes so that the joints will be lubricated and the muscles will be relaxed.

If you have problems with your joints and disks, avoid poses such as the full shoulder stand, plow and headstand. These can put tremendous pressure on your joints and disks.

To prevent unnecessary back aches, stick to the easier positions first and avoid the following during your first session: the full lotus, the plow, the headstand and the full shoulder stand. These poses can leave severe strain on your joints and disks.

Do not attempt to lock your knees when in a standing posture because your joints are not yet ready to receive all the pressure from this position.

Keep your neck aligned to your spine at all times, especially when you’re arching backwards. Doing so will protect your neck. Be conscious that it doesn’t drop back or down.

Dress Comfortably

Avoid baggy items of clothing, because these tend to bunch up or slide down as you go through your yoga poses. All you need is a T-shirt and a pair of pants with an elastic strap. Tuck the tail of the shirt into your pants and you’re good to go. Don’t wear any jewelry to yoga practice. It can impede the flow of energy around your body. It can even serve as a distraction or cause an accident. Jewelry can also be damaged and broken.