Expert Advice for Beginners

By Erin Hobday

Eight tips from master teacher Baron Baptiste

Before you set foot inside a yoga class, you should be able to wrap your legs around your head, keeping a beatific smile on your face while choking on incense and simultaneously engaging your bhandas (yes, that’s legal).

Just kidding! None of this needs apply—provided you act on our advice. Here’s how to avoid common pitfalls and surprises—and how to look like anything but a beginner. Baron Baptiste, a tough-love yoga teacher who specializes in boot camps for the uninitiated, is here to guide you. His need-to-know info:

Yoga is not a cult.
Closer to physiology class than a Trekkie convention, yoga is a bona fide science. Yes, some instructors talk of prana (the life force), display Hindu or Buddhist deities, or lead classes in brief chanting. Don’t let this stuff spook you; just consider it something to focus on, rather than, say, the sirens outside or your neighbor’s cute toe ring. Concentrate on the techniques you’re learning, especially matching your movements to your breathing. “Focusing on the physical aspects of yoga is where you start,’’ Baptiste says. “The rest is yours for the taking but entirely optional.”

Give your Visa card a breather.
Your “new” yoga clothes are already in your chest of drawers. Forget baggy sweats and tees, though; form-fitting pieces help you get more out of class. “Tight clothes make it easier for teachers to see how your body is set from the feet to the shoulder blades, so they can adjust your pose,” Baptiste says. A tank top with a built-in bra and capris or boot-cut leggings with Lycra will do the job. (Don’t waste cash on yoga shoes, either.) Do buy a new mat. Germs thrive on studio-owned mats, and yours will probably pack more cushion and stickiness than the studio’s tired stock.

Your yoga’s only as good as your teacher.
Teachers registered with the Yoga Alliance have had 200 to 500-plus hours of training at an approved studio. (Go to yogaalliance.org and click on “Registered Teachers” to plug in a name.) In class you should feel a personal connection to your teacher and enjoy his or her style of teaching. An experienced instructor recognizes when a student is struggling and “allows the individuals to adapt each posture to themselves,” Baptiste says. Another clue you’re in good hands: The teacher asks new faces in the room to describe their experience levels and injuries.

---