YouAlberta
My yoga journey started a while ago. I don't remember exactly when; it was so long ago that I used to do yoga on VHS tapes with my mom…. I started because it helped with flexibility, strength, and relaxation for anxiety but I didn't quite get into it until the first year of my undergrad. I started taking yoga classes at the university through campus recreation and I found that it really helped keep me healthy during my crazy first year. I've continued it (with a brief hiatus for a year because I was so busy I literally forgot to take breaks and do something other than write my thesis), and I have compiled a list of tips for beginners, uni students who are incredibly busy, or anyone who is interested!
A small side note: as someone studying classics, I was given the opportunity to join a graduate sanskrit class that was reading the original yoga sutras in the final year of my undergrad! It was an absolutely incredible experience. When doing yoga, you often don't learn the history behind it. The departments of History and Classics and Religious Studies occasionally offer courses on the history of yoga and I highly recommend checking them out if you are interested. It really taught me a lot about the history and traditions of yoga and helped me understand the significance of yoga and its practices!
Advice for beginners:
Where to do yoga/take classes
With physical distancing restrictions because of COVID-19 in place, the only place to practice yoga at the moment is virtually. My cousin, an Olympic athlete, and I have both approved the Yoga with Adrienne videos. I swear, they are absolutely amazing. I have done many of them, from the work-out yoga videos to the ones meant for relaxing, and I love them all.
There are also yoga apps like Glo Yoga that are subscription based but offer wonderful yoga videos. Hatha yoga is the type of yoga I started out with. If you are just starting yoga, I recommend trying it out and searching for videos/resources for this style!
University of Alberta's Campus & Community Recreation department offers many different kinds of yoga classes (I've done some of them, they're awesome!) They're in the process of creating videos and virtual fitness classes - hopefully this will soon include yoga!
When the physical distancing restrictions are lifted and you're interested in taking in-person yoga classes, there are many options! There are tons of studios in Edmonton (and some of them offer student prices!)
Counselling and Clinical Services at the university often offers free drop-in yoga classes throughout the semester. Due to the pandemic, they have been cancelled for now, but hopefully they will be back in the fall.
The Setup
You don't need a fancy set up to do yoga. I know that Instagram is full of people with super expensive yoga clothes and very fancy mats, but you really don't need that. I do recommend a mat because I've tried doing yoga on a blanket before and it didn't go well (I was very close to sliding into a complete face-plant on the floor during a downward-dog), but it doesn't need to be anything fancy. I started out with a yoga mat my mom gave me and which she had used for years. I had that mat for a long time before getting a new one! They last quite a while if you take care of them and wipe them down with warm, soapy water after using them. SUBmart on campus often carries yoga mats for $10 if you're interested in buying one.
Clothing-wise, anything comfortable works. When I'm doing super intense yoga, I like to wear workout shorts and a tank top to help keep me cool (especially if it's hot yoga because holy crap do you sweat a lot when you do that), but if I'm just doing yoga to relax I'm usually in leggings and a comfy top or sweatshirt.
When getting ready to do yoga at home, I always make sure my floor is clean. I find it very distracting if my mat is all of a sudden covered in dust or if there are too many things around me (I get distracted easily). I usually set up my laptop at the end of my mat unless the majority of the session is on my back, in which case I put it beside my head so I can easily turn and see what the instructor is doing. Sometimes I light my favourite candle and take a bath first to make sure I'm super relaxed, then do a bit of yoga.
Advice for busy uni students:
- I get it. I forgot to do yoga for a year. It's hard to make the time sometimes, but do it. I promise that the 15 minutes it takes to do one session of relaxing yoga is totally worth it.
- In my second year I was living on campus and discovered that Campus Recreation offered a yoga class at 7 am. Honestly, it was super hard to drag myself out of bed. But getting to Van Vilet when the building was super quiet and the campus wasn't quite awake yet then joining a very calming, relaxing yoga class before classes was honestly incredible. If you're a morning person, I highly recommend trying it out.
- It's fantastic exercise. If you're like me and don't exactly live close to a gym or hate running when it's -15 degrees outside but still want to get a bit of exercise in, yoga is a great way to do that! There are a lot of yoga videos on YouTube (like the one by Adrienne I recommended above) that have more intense yoga sessions for exercise, ranging anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour! They're perfect for fitting into a busy student schedule and doing at home while we're social distancing.