What to wear to a yoga class

What to wear to a yoga class is a smaller question than the internet makes it. Wear clothes that stretch in every direction, that stay where you put them when you bend forward or lie on your back, and that you would not mind sweating slightly in. Nothing else matters. A cotton t shirt and track pants clear the bar. So does a salwar kameez with a comfortable salwar. So does an old kurta over leggings.

Bare feet, always. No shoes, no socks, no chappals on the mat.

If you want one test before you leave the house, do it standing in front of a mirror at home: bend forward and let your hands hang towards the floor, then lie down and lift both legs. If the top rides up over your stomach and the waistband slides, you will spend the class adjusting instead of practising. That is the only test there is.

Most women who walk into a class in Bangalore are wearing one of four things, and three of them work.

Leggings or track pants with a longer top. The most common choice and the most reliable one. The single thing that matters is the length of the top: it should be long enough to stay put in a forward bend and in the shoulder work, which usually means it reaches mid hip or lower. A short, loose top rides up the moment you go upside down even slightly, and then you are practising with one hand.

A kurti over leggings. Works well and is what a lot of women over forty are most comfortable in. Choose a kurti with side slits or a soft, unstructured cut. A tight, fitted, non stretch kurti is the one that will stop you halfway into a twist.

Salwar kameez. Perfectly good if the salwar is soft cotton and gathered rather than fitted, and if the dupatta stays in your bag. There is no version of a yoga class in which a dupatta is not in the way. Take it off at the door and pick it up on the way out.

A saree. The one that does not work. Many students have asked, usually because they came straight from somewhere else, and the honest answer is that you can do the breathing and the seated work in a saree and very little else. If a saree is what you own for coming to a hall, keep one set of cotton salwar in your bag and change here.

On the top half: wear a supportive bra you already own and have already tested. A yoga class involves lying face down in bhujangasana, standing still in tadasana and being seated for a long time, and none of that demands special sports gear. Something with wide straps that does not dig in is worth more than anything marketed as a yoga bra.

Hair up, off the neck, in something that survives lying on your back. A large clip on the back of the head is uncomfortable the first time you lie down in savasana and you will not be able to concentrate on anything else. A plait or a low bun solves it.

A cotton t shirt and track pants, or shorts that reach the knee. That is the whole answer, and men generally get it right on the first day.

The one mistake is the shorts that are too short and too loose. In a class you will lie on your back, take the knees to the chest and eventually take the legs overhead. Loose gym shorts open up in every one of those positions. Either wear shorts that reach the knee and are cut close, or wear track pants. Cycling shorts under loose shorts is what many men settle on and it works.

The second thing is the t shirt. A loose t shirt slides over your head in any inverted or half inverted posture. If you have a slightly fitted cotton t shirt, that is the one to bring. It does not need to be a technical fabric. A plain, well worn cotton tee is better than a new polyester one, because it breathes and it does not slide.

Older men often arrive in a lungi or a dhoti out of habit, and again, the breathing practices are fine and almost nothing else is. Track pants are inexpensive and solve the whole problem.

This is the list that saves the most trouble, and every item on it comes from a class where it went wrong.

• Jeans. No stretch, a rigid waistband and a seam exactly where your hip needs to fold. Nothing else disables a practice as thoroughly.
• Anything with a belt, a buckle or a zip at the waist. You lie face down. It presses into the abdomen and it scratches the mat.
• A dupatta, a stole or a long scarf. Always in the way, always being stepped on.
• Socks. The single most common cause of a slip in a standing posture. Feet must grip.
• Jewellery. Bangles clatter and cut into the wrist in cat and cow. A long chain swings into your face. Watches leave a mark and stop the wrist from bending. Rings are usually fine. Keep small mangalsutras and studs, remove the rest.
• Strong perfume, deodorant or attar. A yoga hall is a shared, breathing room, and someone two mats away is doing anulom vilom in your scent. Come clean, not fragrant.
• Brand new clothes bought for the class. Not a rule, just an observation: the people who buy an outfit first tend to stop by week three. Come in what you own, and buy something once you know you are staying.

Standing postures are built from the ground up. In tadasana you are asked to spread the toes, press the base of the big toe down and lift the inner arch, and none of that is available through a sock or a shoe. In balance work the toes make hundreds of small corrections a minute and a sock removes the information they need. And in a twist or a lunge the sole has to hold against the mat, or the foot slides and the knee takes the load.

There is also a plain hygiene reason for the hall: shoes come off at the door so that the floor stays clean for everyone who is about to lie their face on it.

If you genuinely cannot go barefoot, and there are real reasons for that including diabetic foot care, a fungal infection or a healing wound, the answer is not a shoe. Practise on your own mat with grip socks that have rubber dots on the sole, tell the teacher before class, and expect to hold the wall in the balances until the feet are available again. And bring a towel to lay over a shared mat.

Long toenails are worth mentioning because nobody else will. Cut them the night before. In any kneeling or toe tucked posture, a long nail is the thing that hurts.

Bangalore is kind about this. Cotton works ten months of the year, and in December and January you want one extra layer for the last ten minutes rather than for the whole class. That is the thing nobody tells a first timer: you get warm in the middle of a class and cold at the end of it. Savasana is stillness on the floor for eight or ten minutes and your body temperature drops. Bring a light shawl or a full sleeved top to put on for that, and you will get far more out of the rest.

If you are practising a warmer style, or in an unairconditioned hall in April, cotton will soak and hang heavy. That is the one situation where a synthetic blend earns its keep. In an ordinary class of slowly held postures you will be warm, not drenched, and cotton is more comfortable. The one garment that matters for the quiet end of a class is whatever you can sit upright in without fidgeting, because that is when bhramari and the sitting work happen.

What to carry on day one, in order of usefulness:

1. A small towel. For the face, and to lay across a hall mat.
2. Water, to drink before and after, not during.
3. One extra layer for savasana.
4. A bag for your chappals and your phone, on silent, face down, out of reach.
5. Your own mat, if you have one. If you do not, halls almost always keep spares, and there is no need to buy one before you have been to a class. Read choosing a yoga mat after your third class, not before your first.

What not to carry: a full water bottle you intend to sip from throughout. Drinking during practice interrupts the breath and unsettles the stomach in twists. Drink before, drink after.

Pregnancy. Nothing tight across the abdomen, at any stage. Soft waistbands that sit under the bump, a top that is long and loose, and a supportive bra, because that changes early. Tell the teacher in the first class rather than the fourth.

Knee or hip replacements, and arthritic knees. Long trousers rather than shorts, because you will be on the floor and a bare knee on a thin mat is unpleasant. Practical rather than modest.

A stiff neck or a bad shoulder. Avoid anything with a high, tight collar or a heavy hood, because both push the head forward in exactly the postures where the neck is already being asked a question. If this is why you are coming, read yoga for neck and shoulder pain before the first class and tell the teacher at the door.

Religious dress. This comes up and it is easily solved. A hijab is not a problem in any posture in a general class. A turban is not a problem. Kara and religious threads stay on. Nobody in a yoga hall needs you to remove anything you wear for your faith; if a posture genuinely conflicts, the teacher gives you a variation, which is what a teacher is for.

Coming from the office. Change here. Ten minutes of shifting out of formal clothes is worth more than an hour of practising in them, and a class that starts with you already uncomfortable is a class you will not return to.

The whole question in one table. Nothing here costs money, and none of it is about looking like anything.

Come as you are for a first class. Nobody in the room is looking at anybody else's clothes, least of all in a room where several people are new.

Clothing questions are easier to answer once you know what the hour asks of the fabric, so here is what a beginners' class will actually put you through.

You will stand still for a while in Tadasana, which asks nothing of anything. You will go upside down at the hips in Uttanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana, which is where a loose top falls over your face and a low waistband stops being a waistband. You will lie face down for Bhujangasana, so anything with a buckle, a zip or a pocketful of keys at the front will make itself known. You will kneel in Balasana and sit back on your heels in Vajrasana, so trousers that are tight across the knee will be the thing you remember about the class.

Then you lie still for Savasana and get cold, which is why a light layer to put on at the end is the most useful thing in the bag. If you are practising at home instead, how to start yoga at home covers the rest of the setup and choosing a yoga mat covers the floor.

One more consideration, which is the floor rather than the clothes. Bare feet are not a rule invented to be awkward: Vrikshasana and Trikonasana both depend on feeling where the weight sits in the foot, and socks remove exactly that information as well as the grip. If a medical reason means socks, the ones with rubber grips on the sole are the answer. What you are standing on matters as much, which is covered in choosing a yoga mat. And if it is a first class you are dressing for, the free first class is the one to come to, because nobody looks at what anybody is wearing in a room where everybody is new. The order of a first session is set out in the ten minute routine and, for a whole week, in the seven day beginner plan.

The same body needs different things in a Bangalore morning, an April hall and a hotel room in Delhi in January. This is the whole question arranged by the two variables that actually decide it.

Two of those rows come up most often. The December one, because people underdress for the last ten minutes rather than the first fifty. And the April one, because heavy cotton is the correct answer ten months a year and the wrong answer for two.

Nobody writes about this and half the people I now teach are on a screen, so here it is. An online class inverts the whole problem. Nobody is looking at you, the floor is your own, and the only two people whose view matters are you and the teacher on a laptop the size of a book.

What that changes: you can practise in whatever is soft, including the clothes you slept in, and it makes no difference to the practice. What it does not change: the top still rides up in a forward bend, the waistband still slides, and bare feet are still bare feet. Practise the same test at home that you would for a hall.

What it adds is one new consideration, which is what the teacher can see. If a teacher is meant to correct you over a video call, wear something that shows where your hips and shoulders actually are. A very loose kurta makes a spine impossible to read, so a fitted top is worth more online than in a hall. Set the camera at hip height, side on, far enough back that your whole mat is in the frame, and put a plain wall behind you if you have one. That single arrangement is the difference between a class where you are corrected and a class where you are watched.

The other thing to sort out is the floor. At home there is no hall mat, so this is where choosing a yoga mat and the blanket advice in how to start yoga at home matter more than any clothing decision. A slipping surface will ruin an online class in a way a slipping top never will.

The clothing question is nearly always standing in for a bigger one, which is what happens when you actually walk in. So here is the bag, and here is what you do not have to carry.

In the bag: a small towel, water to drink before and after rather than during, one layer for the final rest, and something to put your chappals and phone in. That is four things and three of them are already in your house.

Already in the hall: the mats. Spares are kept there, which is the single most useful fact for a first timer and the one nobody puts on a website. You do not need to arrive carrying a purchase to be taken seriously. Blankets for the knees and a wall for the balances are also there, and a wall is the most underrated prop in the room.

Not needed, ever: blocks, straps, a wheel, branded anything, or a decision about which style you are going to be loyal to.

Arrive ten minutes early, leave the shoes at the door, and tell the teacher at the door if anything hurts. Then the clothes stop being a question for the rest of your practising life. If you would like the first one to be a class where nobody is looking at what anybody is wearing, because everybody in the room is new, that is what the beginners' batches are for, and the timetable and the group sizes are on that page.