If you’re a new yogi, you might be excited to attend your yoga class and even push yourself to do it every day to reap the maximum benefits.
However, you might also be wondering if doing this is actually “safe.”
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question, “how often should you do yoga?” The answer depends on what your goals are. To help you figure out the attainable frequency of yoga practice tailored to your lifestyle, check out this guide we’ve prepared for you.
Here are some tips you can follow for a more effective yoga practice:
The first thing you need to do is set clear goals. Determine exactly what you want to attain, and build your practice from there.
We’ve outlined the suggested frequency of attending yoga classes based on common goals like increasing strength, improving flexibility, reducing stress, improving sleep, losing weight, and improving your balance.
Increased strength
Since you’ll be using your body weight to perform the poses and movements, practicing yoga can help you increase your strength. If this is your goal, you can practice yoga at least three times a week.
This would give you time to build your endurance and rest your muscles so they can have time to rebuild and recover.
Just like lifting weights for strength training, your muscles need time for recovery as well if this is your main goal for practicing yoga.
Improved flexibility
It goes without saying that constant yoga practice can help improve your flexibility. If you are one of the people who are naturally flexible, you can opt for one to two classes a week and scale up as needed.
If you belong to the other group (a.k.a. the not-so-flexible ones), you can practice at least three to four times a week, then slowly increase your frequency of doing yoga every day to keep your joints and muscles limber.
Reduced stress
That’s right—yoga benefits not only your physical well-being but also your mental health. If your goal is to get stress relief from your yoga practice, then do yoga as often as possible.
Doing yoga every day to reduce stress and improve your mental health is alright as long as your body is already well-adjusted to doing yoga.
Note that doing yoga to improve mental health doesn’t mean that you should spend hours daily (but if you can, why not?). A couple of minutes would suffice as long as you can achieve a state of complete peace and calmness.
Improved balance
Another great benefit of constant yoga practice is that it can help you improve your balance, especially as you age, to help prevent falls. Practicing yoga daily would help if you want to enjoy this benefit.
Weight loss
While many people practice yoga for many reasons, not everybody knows this can help you lose weight.
You are creating a connection between your mind and body during your yoga classes, and this can help you be more mindful in making food choices and consuming calories.
In turn, this can help you build a better body image and lead to taking good care of yourself overall. To incorporate yoga practice in your weight loss journey, aim to do it three to six times every week.
Improve sleep
If you’ve already tried out every blue-light-blocking lens and sleeping medication, but none of them seems to work on you, try practicing yoga to help improve your sleep quality. You can practice yoga daily and schedule each session closer to bedtime for better results.
How often you should practice yoga also depends on your schedule and familiarity with it. If you are a newbie in the practice, you can set once to twice per week as your starting goal.
You might be tempted just to jump it and do it daily, but note that your body is undergoing a “clearing” process during this period, and you might need more time to adjust and recover.
On the other hand, if you are a seasoned yogi, then you are definitely one of those people who understand that yoga practice is not just a “workout”—it’s a personal journey to embark on. With this said, you can do yoga daily or even increase your sessions to twice daily as you see fit.
Simply remember not to overdo it; otherwise, what should be a peaceful and calm journey might start to feel like a burdensome chore to you. It also helps to set a definite time so that you can build your yoga practice into a habit. Put it on your calendar so that it forms part of your weekly schedule.
We know you’d love to get the most out of your yoga practice, but pushing yourself beyond your capacity will only do you more harm than good.
Always respect your body’s limits, and understand that yoga is a personal journey that you should embark on on your own terms. Just because someone you know is doing it daily doesn’t mean you automatically should, too.
Assess your body, and if you feel that your muscles are strained or that you might need a couple of days to recover, make sure to give your body some time to rest before attending your classes again.
Then, as weeks go by and you notice that your body is already used to doing yoga a couple of times a week, you can increase the frequency and duration of your practice until you meet your desired goal.
Once you feel like your body still isn’t ready to perform stretches or new poses, or if your muscles are still sore, it is best to take the day to rest instead of risking injuries like muscle tears or joint strains.
These injuries are certainly avoidable—you just have to listen to what your body is feeling and take it at your own pace.
Enrolling in yoga classes is one of the best ways to ensure you will get the most out of your yoga practice. By doing so, you will be under the supervision of a hands-on teacher who can help you make the necessary poses properly.
This means you’ll have fewer injuries since you will be assured that your body is making the proper alignments, and you can be at peace knowing you are practicing safely.
After all, what better way to learn new poses than with the help of seasoned yogis?
Aside from that, it would be great to be surrounded by like-minded individuals with whom you can make genuine friendships and connections. They can also serve as your accountability partner, motivating and inspiring you to make your yoga practice a lifetime journey.
Who knows? The relationships you form may even extend outside the studio!
One way for you to really get into the yoga practice is by investing in proper clothes and equipment. Think of doing yoga as baking a cake.
While it is possible to bake cake from whatever ingredients you have at home, the results would be more excellent if you’d actually go out and buy the complete list of ingredients.
Invest in a good quality yoga mat, as you will be using this for the entire duration of your yoga practice.
Also, you’ll be sweating a lot in this, so choosing a high-quality mat, even though it is a little bit expensive, would be more beneficial for you in the long run.
Aside from yoga equipment, the kind of clothes you will be wearing should also be accounted for. Opt for stretchy and lightweight fabric to perform the poses more effectively.
Never skimp on buying quality clothes. Just like your yoga equipment, proper yoga clothing is also an essential investment, as this will be one of the determining factors of whether you’ll be able to perform the stretches and poses appropriately or not.
It would also help you focus solely on the class instead of pulling your clothes down every time because parts of your body that should be well hidden are showing.
Lastly, just as much as you would love to do yoga daily, the amount of rest you’re getting should also be more than enough to help your joints and muscles recover.
If you are into yoga for strength building, then your muscles would need more time to rebuild and recover. Otherwise, you might end up being injured if you keep pushing yourself without incorporating sufficient rest into your yoga practice.
Ensure you’re getting enough sleep at night, especially if you’ll attend your classes the next day. Take note that “naps” aren’t included. When we say get enough rest, we’re talking about that deep sleep that can only be achieved at night.
There is no wrong answer on how often you should do yoga.
As mentioned, the frequency of your yoga classes should depend on the goals you have set, your schedule, and how your body is currently feeling. It would also help to make your yoga practice more effective if you invest in the proper clothing and equipment, enroll in yoga classes, and get sufficient rest at night.
Practicing yoga is a journey to be enjoyed. The moment it starts feeling like a chore for you, start realigning your goals and understand how you can make it into something you can look forward to rather than something you despise.
If you are in perfect health, then it is safe for you to perform a moderate amount of yoga daily.
The frequency of your yoga practice depends on factors like your health, level of familiarization with the practice, and your day-to-day schedule, so ensure you set clear goals before getting started.
If you are a beginner, you can start doing yoga twice or thrice a week and work your way up to 5 times (or even daily) depending on your goals and body’s needs.
Some seasoned yogis have increased the frequency of their practice daily, with others even doing it twice a day.
Practicing yoga 3 to 5 times weekly is recommended to help you gain steady progress and enjoy the maximum benefits.
Doing so can increase your overall health, promote better sleep, reduce stress levels and anxiety, and enhance your physical and mental well-being.
