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Tips to Keep Up Your New Yoga Routine

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Started a New Yoga Routine? These Tips Will Help You Maintain Your Commitment Throughout The Year

Have you ever begun an exercise routine only to lose enthusiasm for your new workout just weeks or months later? Sticking to a new activity is a problem for many people, despite the initial excitement involved in learning new exercises and embracing a healthier lifestyle.

When life gets busy, it's easy to find plenty of reasons to skip yoga. Unfortunately, that two-day break can quickly extend to weeks or months. These tips will help you boost your motivation and carve out enough time for yoga sessions.

Use Yoga Apps

It's true that there's an app for practically everything, including yoga. Smartphone apps like Daily Yoga, Simply Yoga, and 5-Minute Yoga offer step-by-step video instructions, workout plans, community forums, and helpful tips. The apps are free but offer additional content for a fee. Apps can be very helpful during at-home practice sessions and offer an easy way to reinforce the information you learned during yoga classes.

Set Goals

Do you thrive on challenges? Setting goals, whether they involve mastering more complex yoga poses or practicing your asanas five times a week, can help you stay motivated. As soon as you complete one goal, immediately replace it with a slightly more difficult one.

Reward Yourself

Meeting goals is much more fun if you reward yourself for your accomplishments. Celebrate your achievement with a new yoga bag or workout gear, a trip to the movie theater or a stop at your favorite juice bar after yoga class. Rewards don't have to be elaborate, as long as you pick a prize or activity that motivates you.

Practice with a Friend or Relative

It's much harder to give up on yoga when you're going to classes with a friend or family member. After all, your friend may be awfully disappointed if you decide that you want to quit yoga after just a few weeks. Performing yoga with a friend or family member is about more than just exercise. While you work together to accomplish your yoga goals, you'll enjoy a sense of camaraderie that extends beyond your class or home-based practice sessions.

Yoga isn't just for adults. In fact, it's the perfect family activity. Yoga not only strengthens your children's muscles and joints and improves flexibility and balance but also reduces stress and induces a sense of calm.

Enroll In Yoga Classes

You certainly can perform yoga at home, but it makes more sense to enroll in yoga classes if you're truly committed to the practice. You may be less inclined to skip yoga when you add the classes to your calendar.

It's not always easy to determine if your form is correct when you perform yoga poses on your own. Poor form can lead to injuries and may make it more difficult to accomplish your goals. During yoga classes, your instructor will offer tips and advice that will help you perfect poses and improve in your yoga practice.

Embrace Flexibility

When full-length yoga sessions don't fit into your schedule, consider opting for several 10- or 15-minute sessions throughout the day. Despite your busy schedule, you can probably find time for yoga by getting up a little early a few days a week, practicing yoga during your lunch hour, or trying chair yoga.

Performing yoga may be out of the question if you're waiting for a plane or in back-to-back meetings all day, but you can probably spare a few minutes to practice deep breathing and meditation no matter where you are.

Start a Yoga Journal

A yoga journal is an important, but often overlooked, tool in your yoga journey. Thanks to your journal, you'll see just how much you've progressed in the weeks or months since you began yoga. Reading previous entries, you may be surprised by how much more calm you feel now or marvel at the improvement in your range of motion in a short time. Your journal entries might include the poses you performed, any difficulties you encountered, your successes and any insights that occurred to you while practicing your asanas.

Are you ready to make yoga part of your life? We can help you enjoy the benefits of the versatile mind-body practice with classes geared to all levels. Contact us for information on our classes and schedule.

Sources:

Yoga Journal: Discover Why Kids Need Yoga As Much As We DO, 4/15/17

Healthline: The Best Yoga Apps of 2019

Yoga International: 5 Journaling Tips for Yogis