Guides
Yoga for beginners: how to start at home, what to wear, how often, and the words you will hear in class. Plain answers, no hedging.
18 pages here so far, with more added as they are taught and photographed.
How to start yoga at home
A first week of yoga at home in fifteen minutes a day: what you need, when to practise, the five mistakes nobody corrects, and when to stop learning alone.
What to wear to a yoga class
What to wear to a yoga class in India: what works for men and women, what quietly ruins a practice, why bare feet matter, and what to carry on day one.
How often should you do yoga
What the trials actually found about once, twice and daily practice, and a frequency a working person can hold for a year.
Yoga vs gym
Without the loyalty: what each is genuinely better at, what the numbers say for weight loss, what women should know, and why both can coexist.
The eight limbs of yoga
The eight limbs of yoga from Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, explained without preaching: what yama, niyama, asana, pranayama and the four inner limbs actually ask.
Yoga glossary of Sanskrit terms
A yoga glossary of over a hundred Sanskrit terms, each in plain English: the words a teacher says in class, posture names, breath work, texts and philosophy.
Choosing a yoga mat
Choosing a yoga mat in India: what thickness, length and material actually change, honest INR price bands, and how to test grip before you spend anything.
Your first yoga class
What actually happens in a first yoga class, minute by minute: what to bring, what to wear, what nobody will ask you to do, and how the hour is built.
Yoga after eating
How long to wait after eating before yoga, by meal size, with the digestion physiology cited: two hours after a normal meal, longer for breathing and inversions.
Morning or evening yoga
Decided on evidence: circadian effects on strength and stiffness, what evening practice does to sleep, and how to choose a time you keep.
Hatha vs vinyasa yoga
Hatha vs vinyasa yoga compared on pace, hold time, props, sweat, who each suits and injury risk, with a plain verdict on which one to start with and why.
Yin vs restorative yoga
Yin vs restorative yoga compared on pace, hold time, props, sensation, who each suits and injury risk, with a verdict on which to choose and when to avoid both.
Ashtanga vs vinyasa yoga
Ashtanga vs vinyasa yoga compared on sequence, pace, teaching format, injury risk and who each suits, with a plain verdict on which one to walk into first.
Hatha vs Iyengar yoga
Hatha vs Iyengar yoga compared on props, precision, hold time, correction, cost and back pain evidence, with a plain verdict on which one to start with.
History of yoga
An accurate history of yoga with its sources named: the Indus seal claim examined, the Vedas, Patanjali, the hatha texts, and the twentieth century revival.
Krishnamacharya and the Mysore lineage
With dates and sources: the palace yogashala, Jois, Iyengar, Indra Devi and Desikachar, and what modern styles owe him.
The four paths of yoga
Karma, bhakti, jnana and raja yoga: the four paths from the Bhagavad Gita and Vivekananda, what each asks of you, and which one suits which temperament.
Yoga therapy
What yoga therapy means in India, how the Ayush certification levels work, what the evidence supports, and the things it is not, including a substitute for care.
How these pages are written
The asana pages tell you how to do a thing. These pages answer the questions that come before and after: whether to buy a mat, what time of day actually works, how long is long enough, what goes wrong when nobody is watching you, and the point at which learning alone stops being sensible.
They are written for the person who has decided to start and does not want to be sold anything first. That means saying that you do not need a mat, that fifteen minutes is enough, and that most people stop in week three for reasons that have nothing to do with motivation and everything to do with having chosen a time of day that was never going to survive a Tuesday.
Seven guides, and they divide into three practical and four that answer a question people ask before they book anything. How to start yoga at home, what to wear to a yoga class and choosing a yoga mat are the practical ones. How often should you do yogaand yoga vs gym are the two comparisons worth settling before you start. And the eight limbs of yoga and the yoga glossary are there for the words your teacher uses without translating them.
The philosophy pages are written slowly and on purpose, because the internet does not need another summary of Patanjali written by somebody who read one summary of Patanjali. There will be more of them, and each one waits until the teacher has something of his own to say about it rather than something to repeat.
Start here
If you are not sure where to begin, these three are the ones the teacher sends new students to first, in this order.
A real first week, the five things that go wrong alone, and how to get past week three.
The first pose to actually learn, rather than the first pose to be impressed by.
The cheapest way to find out whether you need a teacher watching. It costs nothing.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a guide and a pose page?
A pose page teaches one thing well. A guide answers the questions that sit around the practice: what to buy, when to do it, how to keep going, what the words mean. If you are looking for how to do something, start in the asana library. If you are looking for whether and when, start here.
Do I need to buy anything before my first practice?
No. A folded blanket on a hard floor works for the first fortnight, and it is a better test of whether you will keep going than a purchase is. Buy a mat once you have practised ten times, and buy the cheap one first: you will know what you want from the second one only after using the first.
How much should a beginner practise?
About fifteen minutes, most days, is the honest answer. It is short enough that a bad morning does not kill it and long enough that the body registers it. An hour on Sunday and nothing else does very little, however virtuous it feels while you are doing it.
Can I learn entirely from these pages?
You can learn a great deal and you cannot see yourself. The one thing no page or video can do is tell you that your lower back is doing the work your hips should be doing. Get corrected by a person a handful of times, in the hall or over video, and then the reading becomes far more useful.
Are these guides written for Indian readers or Western ones?
Both, in the sense that the practice is the same and the assumptions are not. Where something differs, the page says so: eating before practice, practising in the heat, what the Sanskrit terms actually mean rather than how they are marketed abroad.
How often are these updated?
Each page carries the date it was published and the date it was last changed, and the second one moves only when the content genuinely moves. A date bumped to look fresh with nothing behind it is a signal to a search engine and a small lie to a reader, so it is not done here.
Come to one class before you decide anything
Your first class is free, in any batch, on any day. No card, nothing to cancel. Come once and see whether the teaching suits you before you pay for anything. You will be asked your age and whether anything hurts, and the sequence will be adapted for you on the spot.
You message on WhatsApp, we send the link. No card, and nothing to cancel afterwards.