How Often Should You Practice Yoga

Now, the truth is that quite a lot of new yogis would usually wonder how many times a week they should practice. Unfortunately, there is no one-off answer to the question and even though it would be great if you could do it each day, that’s not realistic for a lot of people. With this in mind, it’s also worth taking into account that there are a lot of additional factors which will affect the regularity of your practice sessions. These are strongly individual and would differ from one practitioner to the next.

However, there are also a few common things that you might want to sort out. So, with this in mind, let’s go right ahead and take a look.

What Are Your Goals?

This is something which is different for every single person but it’s also common in its essence – everyone should determine their goals. They could include anything from weight loss to relieving chronic pain and improving your overall flexibility and health. Of course, you need to understand that the more you put into your practice session, the faster you are going to reach your goals. Of course, this isn’t always realistic and possible for certain individuals as home life as well as work commonly gets in the way.

What Type Of Yoga Do You Practice?

There are different types of yoga which are designated to have completely different effects on your body. For instance, certain styles such as restorative yoga and Hatha are designated to increase your overall flexibility and also to calm your mind and connect your soul, mind and body. On the other hand, Iyengar yoga is designed to focus on proper body alignment while Bikram Yoga is specially intended to help you reduce your weight. Different styles will require different intensity of your yoga sessions.

Your Schedule Is Important

This is one of the most critical things that you would have to account for. Your schedule is going to play a significant role on how often you will practice yoga. Now, the best thing to do is to get up earlier and commence your day with a yoga session on an empty stomach. This would mean that you can hit the session before you go to work. However, this isn’t always possible, especially if you are having night shifts. By doing this regularly, though, your body is going to get accustomed to waking up early in order to handle your morning yoga session.

Of course, you might not be able to do so because you have different morning chores at home related to your house and kids. Then, you should try to set up a convenient time of the day when you could easily spend 30 minutes on your yoga session.

Have You Been Previously Injured?

Serious injuries to your spinal cord or to any other body part might require you to hold up on your yoga sessions. This is something which you need to be aware of on your own. If you have an injury which is still resonating or has long-term effects on your body, make sure to accustom the intensity and regularity of your yoga sessions accordingly – this is very important and you need to account for it. Typically yoga could be used to alleviate chronic pain but in a lot of situations you need to account for other injuries as well.

Are You Doing Other Exercises?

This is, once again, related to your main goals. For example, if your main goal is to lose weight, then yoga alone isn’t going to cut it. You need to add other types of exercises in your daily routines, mainly focused towards your cardiovascular system. Yoga isn’t technically exercises so you shouldn’t really expect to lose any weight form it alone.

What is more, if that’s the case, you would need to combine your yoga training sessions with your other ones. As a matter of fact, yoga isn’t only good for losing weight – it could be a great addition to your bodybuilding routines. In fact, if you take a look at a bodybuilding competition you will see how flexible the competitors are. This is due to the fact that yoga is likely incorporated in their routines – it allows their muscles to stretch further and to shape up a lot better.

In conclusion, the regularity of your yoga sessions is dependent on a range of different factors. Yet, if you are truly serious about your training, you should definitely allocate a few hours every now and then throughout the week and maintain a proper routine. This is going to ensure that the effects and results that you want to achieve are accomplished in the shortest amount of time. This is very important and you need to take it into proper consideration.