A yoga instructor reveals what you really need to get into good form.
So you’ve heard yoga will stretch you out, calm you down, and tone your body, but you’re not sure what you need to start your yoga practice? Read on, but prepare to leave your expectations behind.
First, the only things essential to yoga are your mind and your breath. You don’t even need to be able to move your limbs! But likely you will be moving your limbs. You’ll sign up for a class, drop into a studio, or pop a DVD into the player and follow instruction that has you exploring every range of motion of every joint, stretching your body into new and odd shapes with bizarre and illogical animal names like cow face and half frog. And perhaps you’ll hold yourself in what feels like an unnatural position for an unnatural period of time. Until you shake.
Yes, certain styles of yoga practice are incredibly vigorous. But vigorous or not, the true goal of a yoga practice is to deepen awareness in the present moment—odd, strenuous, or maybe even frustrating as it may be—which requires resisting the temptation to engage with distracting thoughts or emotions. So our essentials list will start with items that help you practice comfortably, safely, with as few unnecessary distractions as possible.
Yoga pants. Don’t show up to the studio in jeans—they won’t do. And it’s not because you’ll be doing splits in your first class. You probably won’t. But have you tried sitting cross-legged in jeans? They restrict your range of motion in the hips; you’ll feel anything but the ease in sukhasana, which translates as easy pose and is simply sitting on the floor with shins crossed and feet under knees.
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