As someone who started out on their yoga journey at home through books and DVDs, I can empathise completely with anyone out there who might be a little terrified at the idea of actually going to a yoga class. In person. Surrounded by strangers. It took me several years to build up the courage to do it, and of course as soon as I left my first class I felt elated and, frankly, very silly that it took me so long. But I definitely know how hard it can be to take that first step.
I was fortunate that my first in-person class was wonderful, but since then I’ve been in plenty of classes where I thought the teacher was varying states of misguided or just downright bad. If I’d ended up in one of those classes early on, I might have been put off or scared out of going back. So I’ve put together some tips on how to approach finding your first yoga class, particularly if you’re looking for something gentle, accessible, and/or suitable for beginners.
So where do you start?
Searching For Beginners’ Yoga
This might seem obvious, but Google is your friend. You could start with a general search for “yoga classes in [your town here]”, but if you live in a big city you’ll likely see a huge and overwhelming number of responses, so it’s good to narrow it down a bit. Try “gentle yoga in [your town]”, “beginner yoga in '[your town]” and see what comes up. Secondly, when you skim the the results, look at the kind of places the classes are held. Is it a yoga studio or a gym? There’s nothing immediately wrong with yoga classes in gyms, and it’s always worth considering all your options, but consider what kind of place you’d feel comfortable in for your first class. There is a chance a gym-based location might have more emphasis on athletic yoga or weight loss, which might not be conducive to approaching yoga with a sense of wellness or self-love.
When you’re searching, you’re likely to see the words ‘vinyasa’ and ‘hatha’. These can both be great for beginners. Vinyasa is more of a flow-based practice, and hatha tends to be longer-held postures. If vinyasa appeals to you more, look for something that says “slow flow” as opposed to anything that uses words like “power” or “challenge” or “advanced”.
Are ‘All Levels’ Yoga Classes Suitable For Beginners?
You’ll see that some classes say they’re for “all levels”. This can sometimes be a great option, because it means you’re not expected to already have any yoga background. But from personal experience, some All Levels classes just aren’t good for complete beginners, or for anyone with a chronic illness or injury. If you do have an injury or illness, do not assume that a yoga teacher has experience with any particular health condition. Yoga teacher trainings can vary wildly from one to the next, so while one could have an emphasis on anatomy, another might not, and most yoga teacher trainings do not contain any medical training at all. For this reason, if you do have a specific ailment, it’s probably a good idea to look around for a teacher who might be more suited to your needs. If a quick google search doesn’t come up with anything obvious, you could try contacting local physiotherapists, for example, and asking if they could recommend any nearby yoga therapists.
If you don’t have any particular ailment but you’re nervous about not being able to keep up in a yoga class, you could look into more of an ‘orientation’ style yoga course. These seem to be more common in the UK than the USA, but typically you sign up for 5 or 6 weeks, and then you attend one class per week where you’ll be guided through the basic types of postures and you’ll explore an overall understanding of what yoga is. This could be a great way to become more familiar with yoga while being in a class with other people who are new to it.
So what about if you’re not nervous at all and you’re just ready to dive right in? What if you’ve been walking past your local yoga studio and their first-timers’ discount is just calling your name? Well, if you want to just go for it - go for it!
For those of you who just can’t resist Yelp-ing and over-researching every little thing you do, check out the studio on Yelp. Search the reviews for “beginner”, and see if other people in your situation have any comments. You might be surprised how specific people get in their reviews, and that can be very helpful!
See if the studio has a website. They often list all the different teachers they have, with information about what kind of things each person likes to teach. As I mentioned earlier, yoga teacher trainings are so different and this is reflected in every teacher’s individual style, so one might appeal to you (or not appeal to you) in particular. If you’re interested in learning a more traditional yoga, you might gravitate toward a teacher who has spent time in India studying in a specific lineage. Or if you’re looking for a more secular yoga, one teacher might note that they prefer to teach without using traditional Sanskrit, choosing instead to teach the English language names of postures. If you’re a woman, you might prefer to choose a female teacher. Or you might not have any criteria and you’ll just be looking at the teachers’ biographies and think “that person sounds nice!”. That might seem like a really arbitrary way of choosing, but yoga teaching is very personal, and teachers’ personalities come across in their teaching style, so sometimes just getting a good vibe from someone might be all you need.
Feel free to call the studio and ask questions! You can ask about which classes they offer that are geared toward beginners. You could ask if they’re experienced with Accessible Yoga. If you have reduced mobility, maybe ask if they utilise props or if they have a chair-based class. Ask if the room is heated: hot yoga is very popular, and while some people do love it, it might be a strange and intense situation for a beginner if you didn’t know to expect a room heated to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Ask if the classes are fast-paced or gentle. Ask if they play music or not - some teachers like to use a modern soundtrack, others use traditional instrumental music, and some prefer silence. One of those options might appeal to you moreso than the others. Ask if there’s chanting - if you’re not prepared for Sanskrit chanting it can be confusing or even uncomfortable, so it’s good to know if that’s something you might encounter.
Remember who is in charge.
The yoga teacher might be the one all the students are watching, but remember this: you are in charge of your body. Yoga is a personal discovery of your own body, breath and movement. No teacher has any right to tell you to do something if it makes you feel uncomfortable or if it hurts. If you know you have an old knee injury and the teacher says to come to your knees, you do not have to do it. Feel free to put your hand up and ask if there’s something you could do instead, or if you could use a blanket as padding, for example. A yoga class might feel too quiet or meditative or, well, too yogic to ask for help, but that’s what the teacher is for, and you should always feel empowered to ask for ways to personalise your practice. After all, yoga is personal. It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. I’ve definitely been in classes that claimed to be “All Levels” but were definitely only appropriate for very advanced practitioners. And in those moments, I convinced myself that I could force myself to keep up. And guess what - I got hurt. I strongly encourage you not to physically push yourself in a yoga class, especially when it comes to inversions. Sometimes a teacher might advise that you “push past your edge”, and this is a concept I strongly disagree with and have made a point in my work as a teacher and practitioner of gentle yoga to distance myself from. Ultimately, use your best judgment. If you feel like it’s too much for you, trust that feeling.
A note on inversions:
If you’re in a class as a beginner and the teacher says to come into a headstand or shoulder stand, I would personally advise against doing it, especially if you have any known problems with your neck, heart or blood pressure. Again, if you want to explore inversions in a way more suited to a beginner, please feel free to ask the teacher if there is a variation you could take that is less physically demanding (I really like ‘legs up the wall’ pose as a beginner-friendly alternative to these). If you feel uncomfortable attempting a difficult posture, and you ask for assistance and the teacher tells you to just try it anyway, take this as a warning. The yoga teacher is there to listen to you, not bully you into doing something you don’t feel comfortable doing.
In the most extreme circumstances, you might be in a situation where you’re just not comfortable in the class. Please note - I’ve never experienced this myself, and I think it is a very rare occurrence, but I still think it’s worth talking about. Remember, you can always leave. Yoga teachers are still just regular people, so there’s always a chance that you could come across one who is offensive or sexist, or just a bad teacher. Whatever the case, you do not have to stay in a class where you don’t feel welcome. You should always feel empowered to speak up, or to simply walk away.
If you don’t love your first yoga class, that’s ok! Don’t be put off or disappointed. Take some time to think about what it was specifically that didn’t work for you, and use that to find something different. I do believe that there’s a yoga for everyone, and hopefully this article helped you learn a little about what type of yoga is right for you.