A beginner’s guide on how to improve yoga skills with Zenia

The benefits of practicing yoga at home are clear for everyone: it’s less expensive, way more flexible, and doesn’t require long hours of commuting. But how do we evaluate our progress, maintain quality, and get the results we want? Zenia takes care of all of this — and takes home practice to the next level.

• Think about why you want to start practicing yoga. This goal might become your guide. Many teachers refer to this as setting the intention, and that can change each day from “I want to feel fit, to centering and even relaxing.”
• 15 minutes of yoga a day keeps a doctor away! Make it into a habit.
• Don’t be afraid to use the technology to help you track progress. It does help on the way and shows what needs to be improved.

1. Set a goal

Yoga is a journey, not a destination. Never push yourself too hard if you truly want to enjoy the process. Reaching a goal is way easier if you know exactly what you’re looking for. Think about why you got into yoga in the first place. Maybe you started practicing to relieve stress and relax your mind. Perhaps you just want to get in shape and strengthen your body. There are many asanas, and all of them have benefits. If you’re a beginner, you might have difficulty trying to figure out what you really want from yoga practice.

Zenia allows you to choose one of seven goals, then builds a personalized plan with classes and courses designed to help achieve the result you’re looking for. If you feel like changing your goal, that’s totally fine, too. With just one tap, you can easily switch plans and see what works best for you. Be flexible with your goals. And just as Bruce Lee said, “Be water, my friend.”

2. Make yoga a healthy habit

Practicing regularly is the key to success. Even fifteen minutes of training a day are better than nothing, but we all know how hard it is to keep the motivation flying high. Like all good things in life, yoga requires dedication and discipline — and that’s precisely when Zenia comes into play.

With Zenia, you can set a goal and practice three times a week, every week. After completing each practice, Zenia will share a checkmark in your profile highlighting your success. Don’t forget to set a reminder and push notifications about your next practice (the exact time is up to you). It might seem like a small step for a man… But you know the ending, right?

3. Track the progress

Tracking progress in yoga might seem challenging. After all, you can’t just get on the scales and see the result. Have you ever practiced in front of a mirror? Continually checking your reflection while desperately trying to ‘stay in the moment’ is neither relaxing nor enjoyable.

Zenia uses motion tracking and data from thousands of yoga lessons to analyze movements and let you stay present. After completing a practice, Zenia will show all the necessary stats to help you see the asanas already mastered and the ones that need improvement. Zenia will also send a couple of photos made by the app during the class (don’t worry, they will be automatically deleted right after you see them. We don’t store your data). This will allow you to examine your posture, send the photos to your yoga-teacher, or just share it on social media.

4. Learn the poses

It takes time to master even the most basic asanas. Still struggling to nail some of them? Don’t worry — just go to the asanas section in the app, read the step-by-step instructions, or watch the tutorial. All the asanas are sorted in alphabetical order, so it’s effortless to find exactly what you need. We also mention the level of each asana as well as its benefits.

5. Analyze your performance

Good things take time. Even if you practice regularly, you might not see instant results — and that’s totally OK. To stay motivated while still trying to make yoga a habit, base your decisions on your performance data.

Creating a profile on Zenia allows you to access all the advanced stats to evaluate your progress. You can easily see the longest practice streak and compare it to your current streak, check how many classes and courses are already completed, analyze the results, and even see the time spent practicing yoga.

6. Participate in challenges

Yoga challenges are a great way to master asanas, get that extra motivation, and have lots of fun in the process. Most of the challenges tend to last for a whole month. If you prefer shorter challenges, feel free to join Zenia’s Boat Challenge. Hold the Boat Pose for one minute and let our world-class AI technology do its magic and evaluate how good you are at doing one of the most popular asanas in yoga. Didn’t go as planned? No worries, you can take part in the challenge as many times as you like. It’s also a fun way to share your yoga practice with other friends who also practice, even if you are far away. Make yoga your distance bonding activity.