How to do yoga at home? Energy workout for beginners, video

The regime of self-isolation has brought dramatic changes in our lives. On the one hand, it deprived us of the opportunity to be active outside our own homes, and on the other hand, it gave us a chance to get acquainted with new activities and initiatives. For example, “Championship” during the quarantine supported sports fans and for the first time launched a series of free online training sessions. They are held every day in the format of live broadcast on our official page in “VKontakte”. In the program you can find classes for every taste: from soccer tutorials to energy yoga.

By the way, we will pay special attention to the latter today and go through all the nuances that beginner yogis need to know. And the coach of the adidas Runners team, Alyona Rasschepkina, will tell you how the eastern practice, tied to proper breathing and mastering asanas, helps to maintain excellent form.

But first, as is tradition, we will share with you the record of the last training session.

Table of Contents

What is yoga and why do we need it?

There is an opinion that yoga is always very slow, sedentary or just stretching. But this opinion is wrong, because there are many directions. The yoga I do is called Vinyasa Flow Yoga, which is a dynamic style of classical hatha yoga in which movement is synchronized with breathing and poses flow from one to another like a dance.

As a result of these physical and breathing exercises, all muscle groups are worked:

Thebody is worked through twists, bends, and flexes. In addition, you engage deep muscles.
Arms. They are emphasized in almost every second exercise from any standard hatha yoga complex: in the plank, downward and upward dog, staff pose and others.
Thelegs work as much as the arms. All asanas in the standing position – balances or power poses – combine static and dynamic loading or stabilization.

Regular yoga practice develops flexibility, strength, endurance, strengthens all muscle groups evenly, improves joint mobility and increases the elasticity of ligaments. In addition, classes have a positive effect on the quality of sleep and perfectly fight stress and insomnia. Of course, yoga is unlikely to be able to fully replace strength training with additional weight. But if we talk about cardio, intensive practice raises the heart rate to a range in which such classes can already be called training for the heart.

With caution: what is important for a beginner to know before starting?

To start practicing yoga, the level of physical fitness is not important, the main thing is desire. There are no age restrictions in the practice, but there are certain health contraindications that are important to be aware of.

If you have problems with the spine (herniated discs, protrusions), high blood pressure, glaucoma, you should refrain from performing some complex asanas. These include deep twists, flexions, inverted postures, hand and head stacks.

Those who have had injuries to their knee joints should avoid asana variants that put a lot of strain on them. These are poses in which the knee forms an acute angle.

Women on critical days should not perform active breathing exercises, do vacuum. It is also not recommended to perform inverted asanas. And pregnant women should be engaged in separate classes for future moms.

In addition, there are potential mistakes that can be made by beginners due to lack of practice. It is worth trying to avoid these mistakes by paying attention to three simple tips:

1. Do not perform complicated asana variations at the beginning of practice. This most often leads to injuries.

2. Do not be afraid to use auxiliary equipment. Many people mistakenly believe that if they use props, i.e. special bricks, and straps, they are not real yogis. In fact, the equipment helps you understand your body better, it makes your practice useful and correct.

3- Don’t forget the breath. Yoga doesn’t work without it!

How to practice yoga at home?

Yoga is practiced only with your own body weight. And yet for practicing at home you will need a minimum of equipment. At classes we most often use props, yoga belts, a mat or a pillow – bolster. However, you can easily replace the bricks with books, yoga straps with a regular belt, jump rope or fitness rubber band, and bolster with a couch cushion or plaid.

In yoga, as in any other type of training, it is important to warm up before the class. During it I would recommend to pay attention to all joints: from the cervical spine to the toes. In order to prepare the joints for work, joint exercises are performed. Then the practice is built with a gradual increase in load to prepare the muscles, ligaments and joints for more complex asanas.

The practice is usually designed in this way:

Breathing practice and mindset;
Joint warm-up;
Surya Namaskar – a dynamic set of asanas that warms up the whole body and engages all joints, preparing them for work;
Main practice – performing asanas;
Shavasana – complete deep relaxation of the whole body.

By the way, although Shavasana completes the practice, it plays an extremely important role in it. Yoga practice, if it is properly constructed, should give a person strength and energy. Shavasana is responsible for recovery – a pleasant and at the same time very useful end of each session. It is a pose of rest and complete relaxation. It is an important and obligatory asana, when the body remains motionless for some time and at the same time the fluctuations of the mind stop.

A classic yoga class lasts 1.5-2 hours, but if we talk about the format of fitness clubs, there the practice is 60 minutes. More often than not, the workouts differ from each other. Some are aimed at working with strength, others at flexibility of the back, opening the hip joint. As a rule, they alternate. But if you want to diversify the practice even more, you can try another style of yoga, now there are a huge number of them.

In the question of the regularity of training there are different opinions. In sports they recommend practicing three times a week, and in yoga schools they say that a day without practice is a step backwards. I would recommend starting with three regular times. Your practice may be 20 minutes long, but it is far more important that it is done at will.

Progress is about physical and spiritual development

In yoga, there is always something to strive for physically and spiritually. If you start to lack the load, you can gradually master complex poses in which you need to have good flexibility and strength. You can also increase the intensity and duration of the practice.

It is impossible to answer unequivocally when exactly you will notice progress and what it will be. You need to take into account many factors: age, gender, regularity of practice, genetics. And, of course, each person has a different result: a peaceful sleep, good mood and well-being. Some people get headaches, some people get backaches, and some people get headaches or twine.