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Things to remember before you start a Yoga Class
Bare Feet and Your Own Mat
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Your practice will be far safer with bare feet – you will be less likely to slip, and more agile and comfortable when you’re able to stretch your toes out.
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Energy moves through the body like electricity – it starts at the head and flows downward – seeking to ground itself out through the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Your connection with the earth is vital for this energy circuit to complete, and bare feet are an essential ingredient.
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Numerous studies show that sharing yoga mats is not sanitary. Bringing your own mat, or a yoga towel to lay over a borrowed mat are the best options. Also, your energy collects on your mat, and over time, your own mat will hold a special sense of peace and comfort that a borrowed mat cannot contain for you.
Practice Safely
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Remember, the very first of the Yamas of yoga is non-violence. This includes the practice of not harming yourself!
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Listen carefully to the instructions you’re given. The teacher tells you the best ways to perform poses not only to get the most out of the stretch, but also for your own safety.
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Especially pay attention to the guidance from your own body. Yoga class is not a competition. You may know enough not to compete with the gymnast on the mat beside you, but keep in mind that you are also working against your own expectations. You may be able to glide into a pose one class and struggle a few days later. This is normal. Don’t push yourself beyond the limits of where you are in each individual class.
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Adversely, don’t be afraid to try something new! Have fun with it, experiment and discover what it means to be you inside your body.
Listen to your Teacher and don’t be competitive
Yoga, like any other sport, can cause serious injury. In some ways, yoga is more likely to cause injury than other sports because of its unique nature. The number one reason that yoga students end up getting injured during practice is because they push themselves. Yoga is supposed to be about the self and improving an individual's mind-body relationship. But as the popularity of yoga seems to be ever increasing, so do the number of yoga students who do it for the wrong reasons. These students, instead of looking inward, look at the other students and try to compete. If they see someone doing a deeper stretch in a particular pose or a more difficult pose that they have not yet tried out, they will push themselves to do better than that person next to them.
It seems that no matter how many times the yoga teacher tries to impress upon students that the practice is their practice, students still seem to want to complete. When they compete, they end up pushing themselves too hard and their body's revolt. The results are pulled muscles, torn hamstrings, busted knees or even broken necks. The best thing to keep in mind when it comes to avoiding yoga injuries is to never push yourself and make the practice about you and no one else.
Article written by : Cris C. - Managing Director |
