Yoga With Pamela McDowell

That’s a question I hear often as a yoga teacher.

To quote my teacher’s often used phrase, “it depends.”

How often you practice yoga depends much on why you’re practicing yoga in the first place.

If you’re doing yoga as therapy to relieve a structural condition (such as hip pain or back pain), you may have good results practicing once or twice a week. And you may get better results by practicing more often as long as you don’t overdue it.

you also may be able to practice less often and get good results. One client came in for hip pain and he practiced the short sequence I gave him daily at first until the pain went away, and now only practices occasionally (typically only when he experiences hip pain).

Now, if you are recovering from an injury, use caution…

Yoga may make an injury worse if the practice is inappropriate for your condition.

And, if you sustained your injury during yoga, it’s a real good idea to rest or change your practice to allow your body to heal.

For example, if you have a hamstring origin injury from some overzealous “downward facing dog,” adopting a bent-knee approach to your practice should help your legs recover.

If you’re practicing to get a little stress relief and move your body occasionally, once a week may suffice.

However, if you’re wanting to learn how to practice yoga on your own, practice at least twice a week.

Now, as far as I know there’s no handbook out there prescribing 2-times a week practice. I base this suggestion on my own experience studying tai chi…

When I went to class once a week and practiced at least once on my own between classes, my progress was very good and measurable.

When I only went to class once a week, my progress was nearly imperceptible.

Now, if you are wanting to make big changes in your life, I recommend doing yoga more often – perhaps every other day or even every day.

Keep in mind, your daily practices don’t have to be as long as your 75-minute group classes. A 10 or 20 minute practice can have a very powerful effect.

Your practice could be a different length each day – 60 minutes on Sunday, 20 minutes on Saturday, 5 minutes on Monday and 15 minutes each of the remaining days. Whatever works for you.

Remember, too, that your practice of yoga can include postures (asana), breathing (pranayama), meditation, ritual, prayer… it all depends on what best serves your purposes.

So what “big changes” call for practicing nearly every day?

Overcoming chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, anxiety and depression will benefit from a daily dose of yoga – much like your teeth benefit from a daily cleaning. As one of my clients with fibromyalgia says “yoga works, but only if I do it nearly every day.”

In my opinion, if you’re teaching others to practice yoga you should be practicing on your own nearly every day.

And if you’re practicing yoga for it’s original purposes – to control your mind activities and realize your true nature – daily yoga is for you.

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Tags: Yoga Motivation, Yoga Practice Tips //