The Ultimate Guide to Yoga for the Out of Shape
You don’t need amazing flexibility and a six-pack to reap the benefits of yoga
On the carpeted floor of my bedroom, I’ve arranged my body into the plank position. I’ve only been holding the position for twenty seconds, but my legs and arms have begun to shake like a washing machine during the spin cycle. My black leggings are sticking to my clammy thighs, and I know that it’s going to chafe later. I can’t worry about that now — I’m too busy trying to keep my breathing in sync with my movements. My abdominal muscles have tightly coiled together, but if I relax them for even a moment, I’ll collapse on the floor in a heap of bones.
For the first few weeks of my daily yoga practice, this is what I looked like. I was a far cry from the Instagram yogis who bend themselves into pretzels. I wasn’t flexible, I didn’t have rock hard abs, and I was practicing yoga in the seclusion of my home — not on a beach or sunset-colored patio. Had you snapped a picture of me mid-workout and posted it on Instagram, I’m pretty sure the perpetual painful scowl on my face would’ve actually discouraged people from trying yoga.
For the most part, those exhausting days are behind me. I’ve been practicing yoga for almost a year now. Every evening, I situate myself on the floor, pull up a…
