New to Yoga? Start Here

At its simplest, yoga is a practical way of working with your body and mind to feel steadier, more mobile, and more at ease in everyday life.

Through my own practice and teaching, I've come to understand yoga as a whole system or framework for understanding the human experience, because it offers tools that act not just on the body, but also on breath, mind, and how we relate to ourselves and the world around us.

Original yogic practices are thought to date back several thousand years, but the yoga most of us encounter today is largely the result of rapid evolution and cross-pollination over the past century. This is one reason yoga can look very different depending on where and with whom you practice.

Because of its accessible benefits — including improved flexibility, strength, balance, stress management, and overall wellbeing — yoga has grown rapidly in popularity. You’ll now find it taught in many settings, including gyms, community centres, schools, workplaces, prisons, and healthcare environments.

A yoga class or practice may include one or more of the following, usually in combination:

• Physical movement and postures

• Breath practices

• Meditation or mindfulness

• Rest and relaxation

• Chanting or use of sound

• Philosophy

• Lifestyle observances

For many people, yoga begins as a practical and enjoyable way to feel better in their body or cope more effectively with daily pressures. For others, an opening to deeper questions about meaning and connection.

There's no requirement to think about yoga in spiritual terms for it to be useful or meaningful. In practice, it tends to meet you where you are and evolve with you.

Yes, postural yoga can absolutely function as exercise, and often works well alongside other movement practices.

You may be wondering: Will yoga actually improve my fitness, or do I need to be doing something else as well?

Physical yoga develops strength, mobility, balance, coordination, and flexibility. Depending on how it’s taught, it can be dynamic and physically demanding, or slow, steady, and restorative. There’s a wide spectrum — from practices that are deeply supportive and calming, to those that significantly challenge strength and stamina.

From a physiological perspective, yoga often uses bodyweight resistance, sustained holds, and controlled transitions. Maintaining muscle quality is increasingly recognised as essential for healthy ageing, metabolic health, bone density, and independence — and yoga can meaningfully contribute to this.

A question that often follows is: is yoga enough?

Many styles of yoga are primarily strength- and mobility-based, while others are more dynamic and cardiovascular — so how much aerobic benefit you get depends on the style and how you practice.

For many people, yoga alone is absolutely fine. Equally, yoga can sit very naturally alongside other forms of movement that raise the heart rate — such as walking, swimming, cycling, or rowing — creating a balanced and sustainable way of moving the body over time.

The most important thing is this: doing a form of movement you genuinely enjoy and keep coming back to is far more valuable than chasing an “ideal” exercise formula. If yoga is the practice that keeps you moving, grounded, and connected to your body, that’s a strong foundation to build from.

No — flexibility is not a requirement for yoga.

This is one of the most common misconceptions about yoga, and it’s often linked to worries about whether you’ll be able to do the poses or feel like you belong.

It’s important to know that flexibility varies hugely between people. Genetics, age, injury history, occupation, and past activity all play a role. Someone might never have practised yoga and still be very flexible; that doesn’t mean they’re “good at yoga.”

Yoga isn’t about how far you can stretch. But more about how you meet your body when you move — your relationship with sensation, effort, breath, and awareness.  That relationship is the practice, regardless of how flexible you are.

Over time, many people do notice changes in mobility and ease of movement, and improvement in flexibility can be very satisfying.  But those changes come from how you practise, not how flexible you are when you start.

It’s also worth saying that bodies change. Many long-term practitioners are less flexible than they once were, yet find their practice richer, wiser, and more supportive than ever. In yoga, flexibility is neither a goal nor a measure of success; flexibility is just one small and variable part of a much bigger picture.

You don’t need to be fit to start yoga — and many people begin precisely because they don’t feel fit.

This concern is very common. You might be worried about being slow, feeling discouraged or self-conscious, or even getting hurt.

Yoga exists on a wide spectrum. Some classes are fast-paced and physically demanding; others are slow, steady, and designed specifically for beginners or for people returning to movement after a break.

If you’ve done very little exercise, yoga can be a forgiving way to begin moving again, because it allows for gradual progression and adaptation rather than pushing you to perform.

A well-taught class should make it possible to pause, modify, and go at your own pace. If that doesn’t feel available, it’s not a personal failure — it’s a sign that the class or setting may not be the right fit for you.

You don’t need to be a certain “type” of person to do yoga.

A lot of people hesitate because they imagine yoga is for the bendy, the calm, the spiritual, the already-fit, or for people who somehow know what they’re doing. In reality, people come to yoga from all ages, backgrounds, body types, and walks of life. That includes all genders, people with busy or analytical minds, people managing health conditions, and people who don’t feel at home in fitness spaces at all.

You don’t need a particular look, personality, or belief system. Coming as you are is enough. Like any unfamiliar environment, yoga can feel strange at first but can quickly become familiar. You learn the rhythm, find your pace, and work out what supports you.

If a space doesn’t feel welcoming or relatable, it usually says more about that room, the teaching style, or the culture than it does about you. There are many styles, teachers, and communities where yoga can land very differently.

Most yoga classes follow a simple, supportive structure.

You’ll usually begin by settling into the space, often sitting or lying down, with a few moments to arrive, notice your breathing, and be encouraged to leave behind the distractions of the day. A teacher then guides you through a sequence of movements or postures, offering cues about how to move and breathe, and where to place your attention.

Depending on the class, there may also be stillness, meditation, music, chanting, or short reflections. Styles vary — slow or dynamic, quiet or energetic. Most classes finish with a period of rest and integration, allowing things to settle. Many people leave feeling physically different, perhaps more open or grounded and mentally clearer than when they arrived.

At its heart, a yoga class is intentionally sequenced and offers protected time: a space where you’re guided to move, breathe, and rest without distraction.

You don’t need a calm or quiet mind to do yoga.

Many people worry their mind is too busy, distracted, or restless — especially if they’ve never tried yoga before. That’s completely normal.

Thoughts will wander. You might feel bored, irritated, impatient, or self-critical. That happens to beginners and long-term practitioners alike. Nothing is wrong — this is simply what minds do.

With time, practice tends to change how you relate to what’s happening mentally. Rather than getting rid of thoughts, many people notice they’re less pulled around by them, and that settling happens more easily — often without trying to make it happen.

Many people come to yoga hoping it will offer more than brief relief — that it might actually change how stress and anxiety are experienced day to day.

Yoga works on stress at several levels.

On a physical level, it supports nervous system regulation. Through movement, breath, and rest, the body is guided out of a constant state of activation and into a steadier rhythm. Attention is gently drawn away from repetitive mental looping and back into present-moment sensation. For many people, this produces a noticeable sense of settling, even after a single class.

Over time, the effects are often less about removing stress and more about changing one’s relationship to it. People may notice earlier signs of overload, recover more quickly after difficult moments, and feel less dominated by anxious or ruminative thought patterns. Alongside this, yoga can support qualities such as perspective, self-trust, and a sense of agency — all of which influence how stress is lived with.

For some, this becomes genuinely transformative. For others, yoga is one helpful support among several. It cannot eliminate external pressures or prevent difficult circumstances, but many people find that it offers a reliable way to build steadiness and resilience in the midst of them.

As with many practices, consistency tends to matter more than intensity.

Many people notice an immediate effect after a class. It’s very common to feel clearer, steadier, or calmer afterwards. This tangible shift is often what draws people back.

Other changes unfold more gradually. With regular practice over a few weeks, people may notice improvements in mobility, strength, balance, sleep, or how they respond to stress. These shifts can be subtle at first, but they accumulate over time.

Even one class a week can be enough to notice something. Practising more often usually deepens the effects, but yoga doesn’t only “count” when it looks like a full class. Over time, people tend to pick up small, usable tools — familiar movements, ways of breathing, or moments of mindful attention — that naturally weave into everyday life.

Often, the clearest sign that the practice has been doing its work is noticed in its absence: when people stop practising and realise that something feels missing.

I can’t promise that yoga will change your life — but for many people, it does.

When people speak about yoga in strong terms — “it was transformative,” “it was life-changing” — they’re rarely describing a single dramatic moment. More often, they’re pointing to gradual shifts in awareness and in how life is experienced.

Yoga doesn’t fix circumstances or remove difficulty. What it seems to change, over time, is the way people meet themselves and the world around them. Through regular practice, many notice developments such as:

• Becoming less entangled in thoughts and more able to notice them without being driven by them

• Relating differently to difficulty, uncertainty, and change

• Feeling a greater sense of internal steadiness, agency, confidence and self-trust

• Experiencing more connection between body, mind, and inner life

None of this requires a particular belief system, and it doesn’t happen in a straight line. But taken together, these shifts can be profound.

At some point, many long-term practitioners describe a subtle change: yoga no longer feels like something they do, but something that shapes how they live — influencing how they respond, decide, and relate from the inside out.