Things to consider before you start your home yoga practice
Starting a yoga home practice on your own can be daunting, especially if you are used to following your teacher’s instructions closely in class, as is the way in an Iyengar Yoga class.
Here are some key tips that I hope will help give you the confidence to make a start to cross the barrier to self practice and begin practicing yoga at home.
Not all of my ideas presented in this guide may be relevant to you. Please choose those that are relevant and beneficial for your capabilities, experience and limitations. If in doubt, please get in touch with me.
I hope you find developing a home yoga practice as a beginner, is an exciting and uplifting progression.
1. Get on Your Yoga Mat
Ok so we are starting with the super simple but it’s surprising how effective this is. Just put on a timer with whatever time you have available and go lie down or sit on your mat. Just wait for inspiration to come you. I am always surprised how this works. Your body will come up with something from class.
Have your mat available and choose a suitable spot. An area of space a bit larger than your mat. Ideally a blank wall or the back of a door can be a great spot for a home yoga practice.
If you don’t have a mat, lie down on the floor. Carpet or a rug will be better than floorboards. Bit warmer and more comfortable.
Keep the legs bent up (semi-supine) before straightening the legs, one by one. If your lower back lifts as you straighten the legs then keep the knees bent and soles of the feet flat on the floor, toes turning slightly in.
If your chin is thrust up towards the ceiling, take support for your neck and head, which should allow the chin to descend. The aim should be for the throat to be soft.
Lying down should feel relaxing and also serves as a chance to connect and observe your breath. Normal breathing through your nostrils, both inhalation and exhalation. Try and observe the quality of your breath. I know if I am overdoing it, there is a raged quality to my exhalation and it’s a quick little signal that I need to take some more time on my mat.
When I was beginning my home yoga practice, I kept asking my teacher for something to help me start or prompt me as I was trying to emulate the yoga I had done in class. However I can see now it’s a different process. You could argue that the yoga in it’s truest sense, only really starts when you get on the mat yourself, without a teacher present. What you do in class is helpful but it’s not actually yoga.
We are all students of yoga, no matter how long we have been teaching or practicing yoga.
Here’s a great quote from fellow Iyengar Yoga Teacher Elaine Spraggett from the Iyengar Yoga UK website:
“We learn yoga in class, we do yoga in our own practice.”
2. Buy an Iyengar Yoga book
These are cheap and readily available via ebay or second hand. Just about every Iyengar Yoga book has suggested sequences to follow.
I have prepared an article on my top Iyengar Yoga books that I recommend to my students.
There are sequences available for common ailments such as lower back pain, stiff knees, migraines or to boost your immunity.
Get started with a beginners sequence and just skip any poses you are not familiar with. Work within your capacity and don’t over do. Write down any questions you have and take them to your class teacher.
3. Search up ‘beginners Iyengar Yoga sequence’
Don’t feel you have to re-invent the wheel to get started with your home yoga practice. Iyengar Yoga is a world-wide community. There are over 38 Iyengar Yoga Associations across 109 countries. There are lots of excellent home yoga practice sequences available.
My personal recommendation is the Yogaontay website. They have pose of the month asana guides which offer step by step instructions to get into and out of poses. They also have 13 home practice sequences with supporting guided audio rather than video so you don’t need to keep looking at a screen to follow along. You need to register with an email address to access all 13 sequences.
If the sequence contains a pose or asana that you are not yet familiar, it’s ok to skip it. If you are keen to do in future, jot down the name and ask your teacher to look at the pose in class.
Here’s a simple Yoga sequence for Beginners from the Iyengar Yoga Institute of New York.
Here is a beginners Yoga Sequence with supporting instruction for key actions in the pose
Here are 4 Level 1 Iyengar Yoga sequences suitable for beginners from Iyengar Yoga UK.
Please remember to practice within your capacity and don’t over do.
4. Modify Your Yoga Practice during your Period
Geeta Iyengar, daughter of BKS Iyengar “From the day menstruation begins until the day it ends … one should stick to the practice of those asanas that do not obstruct the menstrual flow and help a woman keep herself healthy. Only the asanas have to be done which do not make her run out of energy or bring any hormonal disturbance.” Geeta Iyengar.
During menstruation, it is recommended that twists and inversions are avoided and the abdomen should be kept soft during all postures. Backbends should be supported.
I have found this a wonderful part of Iyengar Yoga. Other yoga traditions don’t follow this guidance and that’s ok. I personally have found this a complete game-changer for managing my energy levels.
Modifying my home practice and prioritising restorative poses every month has really helped me understand my own menstrual cycle symptoms and make them manageable.
The Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) follows a monthly “Pune Cycle,” a four-week sequence of poses: Week 1 focuses on standing poses, Week 2 on forward extensions and twists, Week 3 on back extensions, and Week 4 on restorative poses and pranayama. This structure ensures all asanas are covered over the course of the month, with variations for beginners and advanced students, though some poses like headstand and shoulderstand are often included weekly. For women experiencing menstruation, alternative poses may be used depending on their condition.
Using this monthly cycle of Yoga poses from RIMYI can be a great way of covering all the families of yoga poses in your own yoga practice.
5. Start small and work your way up to more time and more poses
A home yoga practice should be fun, explorative and introspective. In this excerpt from the Iyengar Yoga London website on the concept of Sadhana:
While the Sanskrit term sadhana is often translated directly as the English word ‘practice’, it has a more subtle meaning. In his English commentary and translation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, BKS Iyengar defined sadhana in relation to the concept of abhyasa and kriya:
Sādhanā is a discipline undertaken in the pursuit of a goal. Abhyāsa is repeated practice performed with observation and reflection. Kriyā, or action, also implies perfect execution with study and investigation. Therefore, sādhanā, abhyāsa, and kriyā all mean one and the same thing. A sādhaka, or practitioner, is one who skillfully applies…mind and intelligence in practice towards a spiritual goal.
Personally I find my personal practice ebbs and flows around daily family life and that’s ok. There is always a pose that I am keen to do, every day and sometimes that’s all I do. However I do track this and make sure there is time set aside for a longer practice during the week also.
I find Yoga such a universal subject that whatever challenge I am facing, there is always content and reading on the subject that helps. In writing this article, I have come across Anavasthitatva which is a Sanskrit term which relates to the inability to persist in gradual progress. It is mentioned in the Yoga Sutras as one of the nine obstacles to the practice of yoga, described as the mind’s inability to remain in a state of samadhi (deep meditative absorption) that has already been achieved.
I find this reassuring that there is such a vast body of knowledge on the human condition that is available for reference.
6. Practice in the shower
With Yoga, I have been taught and believe it’s all about the feet!
Spreading the feet correctly, which is not the same as flattening the feet incidentally, happens subconsciously when you are in the shower. It’s a natural reaction to the slippery, wet surface of the shower floor. Try a tadasana and perhaps an Utkatasana with just the legs, to begin with. You might feel confident to raise the arms up into an Urdhva Hastasana if the balance is coming well.
Number one caveat obviously is don’t fall over. Be cautious and don’t over do it. Try to use the spreading of the skin on the sole of your feet as a way of connecting to you feet and enhancing your body intelligence and sensitivity to your feet. Pay attention to what’s happening in your ankles, your shins, your knees and your hips. What actions or feelings start to emerge from the spreading of the feet. Can you feel the 3 arches of the foot forming? How do changes in your feet reflect in your spine and the upper body?
Happy observing!
Don't miss out on the gold
In summary, receiving instructions from teachers and attending classes regularly builds the foundation, but self-practice is where one can truly develop and incorporate yoga into one’s life.
Try to make sure your Practice is interesting and enjoyable. Geeta Iyengar gives the following helpful advice in the publication called Yoga in Action – Preliminary Course, “do not burden your mind with the idea of doing too many asanas. Do not feel the pressure on the mind that it is a time consuming practice. Start the practice with the freedom of the mind.”
I hope you have found this article helpful and are encouraged to roll out your yoga mat. If you have enjoyed this post, click here for more tips on developing your home practice and best props to buy to help your home yoga practice.
Further reading and resources:
- Establishing and Structuring Self-Practice – Part I
- You Tube videos from Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher Stephanie Tencer
- Visit the Iyengar Yoga UK website. Annual membership is £24 and there’s lots of resources available in the membership area.
- Developing Your Home Yoga Practice blog article on Iyengar Yoga UK website. Some recommnedations from Certified Iyengar Yoga teachers from acrss the UK. Scroll down to the bottom of this article for several highly recommended links.