Getting Started

Hi guys, this is Surya here and I am a fitness trainer. I do yoga-based fitness and wellness programs, and what I have noticed is that women, when we are in our late 20s and early 30s, our bodies change drastically. I am talking about our skin, our hair, body fat, metabolism, and most importantly, stamina.

So what I have done is, over the past three months, I have completely let myself go. I didn't eat healthy, I didn't eat on time, I didn't sleep on time, I partied a lot, and I pretty much had a very bad lifestyle. So right now I am almost like a beginner when it comes to yoga or fitness.

So the first step towards preparing yourself for yoga is that you need to keep your body and mind clean, you need to start eating and sleeping and waking up on time. Our body follows a certain clock, and we need to take care of a body by doing these things on time. You need to eat healthy and pretty much lead a very healthy lifestyle. You know what I mean by that. It's going to be very hard for the first one week, but trust me, it's worth it.

So flexibility is important, not only for yoga but also personally for you to have your energy levels up. Most of you try to start yoga by going to group classes, and if you are not flexible enough or you haven't prepared yourself for yoga, you'll feel really demotivated that you're not able to do the asanas correctly. Make sure you just follow the upcoming warm-up for your joints, because it's very vital, not only for yoga but any kind of exercise that you do.

You can start with your neck, rotate clockwise and anticlockwise at least five times, and make sure you touch your chin to your chest and look up to the ceiling to stretch your neck muscles out. Then you move on to your shoulders, to the arm rotation at least ten times, and the hip rotation at least five times, and you move on to the knee and then you move on to your feet. Make sure you do this until you feel that your joints are fully warmed up.

Now for the stretches, the forward bend helps you stretch your leg muscles out, and the backward bend helps you stretch your back muscles out. Now continue doing this at least ten times, try to keep your spine as straight as possible, and you can feel the stretch on your thighs and your calf muscles. Now this is going to be difficult at the beginning, but you will get used to it. Now the next thing we do is we stretch our quad muscles out.

Now for the lateral stretch, our lateral muscles are not flexible due to the fact that we have been exercising, so try to do the sideward stretch at least ten times before you begin any sort of workout. Now equally important is the sideward twist, so this twist helps you to strengthen your back muscle, and it will help you further with all the yoga asanas that we will be doing. Try to do this at least ten times.

Try to do your arm rotation as much as possible, because it increases your flexibility and also gives you extra arm strength. Now to do the forward stretching, stretch your legs apart and try to hold your hands behind and bend down. This helps you keep your spine straight, try to do this as often as possible.

So continue doing these stretches on a loop until you feel that you are a little more flexible from where you began, and don't worry about it, it doesn't have to be perfect. Remember to clean your body and mind, stay focused and determined, and work on that flexibility.

In the next video I am going to explain these stretches a little more in detail. Until then, you take care of yourself and I will see you soon.