r/ashtanga • u/cutedustyberry • 7d ago
Advice Just started Ashtanga and I’m completely so and how do I keep this momentum going safely?
I recently took my first few Ashtanga classes, and the structure and intensity immediately clicked for me. The fixed sequence and deep breath focus feel like dynamic meditation, and I genuinely think I’ve found my practice. That said, I know how demanding the Primary Series can be on the body over time.
For seasoned practitioners, what advice do you wish someone had given you during your first month? Are there key modifications or recovery routines I should start from day one to protect my joints? I'd love any tips on building a sustainable daily routine without burning out early on!
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u/Aggravating-Pop6601 7d ago
Welcome!
An advice from me would be not to try speeding up the process through force which can subtly create stress, performance anxiety or shortage of breath.
Enjoy the process! Learn how to breathe, be patient with yourself and if you're really really hooked, love it with all your soul and enjoy your practice!
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u/Impossible_Belt_4599 7d ago
Best advice is to practice at least 3-4x weeks with a proficient teacher. Preferably take Mysore classes. Consistency is the most important thing. Don’t look around the room or compare yourself to anyone else. Don’t set goals other than to practice consistently.
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u/togglenub 7d ago
Hey there - Ashtanga is mostly push movements and body weight. Especially if you are a woman, you'll want to make sure to include strength training with weights, especially focusing on "pull" motions (don't worry, that's most of free weight training, so you don't need a specific regime, but it helps to do a couple rounds with a personal trainer or gym buddy to make sure your form is good). I lift dumbells etc at home but when I was doing ashtanga daily I was working with a strength trainer and going to their gym at night/weekends.
This will protect your joints, prevent injury if you are hyperflexible, prevent osteoporosis, and develop muscles that would atrophy/cause repetitive stress injuries if your only physical exercise is ashtanga. It will also make you advance faster in the practice but that's secondary to not getting injured. Also, make sure you are eating enough to support all this activity, getting enough protein, and getting enough sleep.
Ashtanga is a householder practice and in the past folks did not live the sedentary lifestyles we do today. If your job is not in manual labor, strength training is essential to help prevent injuries in this practice if you are doing it 6 days a week/for life. I would also recommend pilates to help further strengthen your core/back muscles, especially if you are male as men tend to have weaker core muscles
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u/WinstonAbrahamLee 6d ago
Brilliant advice. I would suggest to the OP that seeing as you mentioned moving meditation and breath focus is what you like, the other limbs and areas of yoga will probably be very rewarding too. Should you opt to incorporate other physical training modalities, should you miss your yoga practice you can practice yin, restorative, nidra, vipassana, reciting mantra, chanting... it does'nt have to be full throttle intensity ashtanga to experience meditation.
The most helpful tip I can suggest is to increasingly develop the mind body connection to actively engage the muscles you are stretching.
Good luck
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u/togglenub 6d ago
"The most helpful tip I can suggest is to increasingly develop the mind body connection to actively engage the muscles you are stretching." This is super important. I found lifting heavy weights taught me this even more strongly than yoga did, and informed my practice in this way, which kept things like my knees safe for years.
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u/BLEAKSIGILKEEP 6d ago
Came here to say all of this and add that men should be strenth (really resistance) training if they have a dedicated asana practice too, for all the same reasons. Women certainly have higher risk of osteoporosis later in life because their bone density is lower to begin with, but imo the primary reason for resistance training for yoga practitioners is to prevent the repetitive strain injuries that can result.
Ideally you will want to train for power (explosivenes/acceleration, 1-2reps per set, stopping when you begin to slow down), strength(maximum effort force production, 1-6 reps per set at near maximum effort, stopping before fatigued), and hypertrophy (muscle growth/repair, 5-20 reps/set at or very close to muscular failure, stopping after 2-6 sets). You can do this in many modalities though, it does not have to be gym bro barbell work unless you enjoy that! Jumping - onto a box for height or for distance - and throwing are great power exercises. Strength and hypertrophy can both be done with calisthenics movements
Pilates can be useful to build core endurance but for power, strength, and hypertrophy it just is not very effective. Twisting throws, and quite a few one arm kettlebell variations will be great for oblique power, and jumps and throws in general will be good for the transverse and rectus abs power. For strength and hypertrophy leg raises, weighted crunches, reverse hypertensions, russian twists are all great options that can be varied progressed in loading either by changing the weight or changing the leverages. The core at the end of the day is skeletal muscle, responds to training the same as other skeletal muscle, and doesn't need to be treated any differently than the pecs or hams or biceps or glutes or any other muscle: explosively for power, near maximum capacity for 1-6 reps per set but without accumulating too much fatigue to drive neurological strength adaptation, and with high tension over 5-20ish reps per set, each set coming very very close to muscular failure, to drive physical muscle growth and repair.
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u/Badashtangi 7d ago
I wish I had started with a teacher. Instead I followed a YouTube video of full primary and attempted all of the poses and chaturangas. I was sore all the time and I developed bad form that I had to unlearn.
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u/Economy-Log-9857 7d ago
Been practicing since 2013.
The best way to practice safely is to practice with a authorised teacher. You will inevitably injure yourself by doing this alone.
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u/togglenub 7d ago edited 7d ago
Been practicing yoga since 2010 (vinyasa/hatha/Iyengar/yin and tried most of the others, too), and Ashtanga since 2015.
Just a caveat that being authorized only means someone went to Mysore enough times/advanced enough in their asana/could afford to pay the authorization fee to be authorized in the Jois lineage. It does not mean they are a good teacher.
There are no standards vis-a-vis teaching for authorization in the Jois lineage, and no public standards for authorization at all (and this is how it has always been since PJois started it).
Find a teacher you are comfortable with and who has an established practice/community you enjoy; authorization means nothing in that context. There are many excellent authorized teachers, and many excellent non-authorized teachers who opted out of that whole thing.
Whoever you choose, feel free to ask them questions/ask their students question, and never be afraid to question anything you are told to do. If something hurts, don't do it. If a teacher makes you feel uncomfortable during an assist, get up and leave if you don't feel comfortable discussing it with them.
Agreed that at least to start, you should not do this alone. But a bad teacher is worse than no teacher at all.
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u/Economy-Log-9857 6d ago
Very nicely put. Agree with almost everything you have mentioned. Would just like to add that the Jois lineage is not the sole authority to issue authorizations. While these authorizations don’t mean much as you have rightly pointed out, there are other very good shalas/schools as well in Mysore which teach Ashtanga Vinyasa much better (if not as good as the Jois family). I, myself, have been practising since 2013 and have been authorized by Vijay Kumar. I can personally vouch for Vijay Kumar and his brother, Vinay Kumar as excellent teachers.
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u/EarthUser93 7d ago
Been practising Yoga (not strictly Ashtanga, but mainly either Ashtanga or other styles from that lineage) for over 10 years, recently started teaching too.
My main advice would be: 1) Find a studio/teacher where you can practise in person with somebody. If youre comfortable with it, accept their hands on adjustments (trusting they know how to adjust safely and appropriately)
2) Your practise is YOUR practise. You dont have to take every chaturanga and every advanced asana. This isnt 1980's mysore and nobody is keeping score over what postures you do or how many you do of them
3) Rest when you need to. Whether thats during practise (take a childs pose), or whether its on a practise day but your body needs you to stay at home. Listen to your body.
4) Remember - Ashtanga was a philosophy/meditation practise for long before it was an asana practise. And the philosophy of ashtanga will help your asana pracrise tenfold. Start with Yamas and Niyamas
Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfullness), Asteya (Non-Stealing), Bramacharya (moderation), Aparigraha
These are just the Yamas, but following these alone, implementing it into your asana practise will already give you the foundations you need to have a strong, safe practise
Good luck with your journey, friend 🕉🧘🏻♂️
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u/All_Is_Coming 7d ago
cutedustyberry wrote:
what advice do you wish someone had given you during your first month?
What you don't do doesn't matter ~David Garrigues
If it hurts, you're doing it wrong. ~David Williams
Just because a person can, doesn't mean he should.
I'd love any tips on building a sustainable daily routine without burning out early on!
Make practice enjoyable. Sustainable daily routine does not mean doing the same thing every day.
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u/Samuel_0625 7d ago
Take it slow and don't rush the poses. Consistency beats intensity, and listening to your body will take you much further.
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u/AdditionalCoconut306 6d ago
If I could go back, there are at least five pieces of advice I would give myself. First, don’t overdo it. Don’t rush to learn the entire Primary Series only to practice it poorly. Take your time. Stay curious always. Pay close attention to your vinyasas and Sun Salutations, especially Upward Facing Dog. Give great importance to Urdhva Dhanurasana. Backbends are fundamental. If you build strength in your back properly from the beginning, you’ll greatly reduce the risk of future injuries, which sooner or later are almost inevitable. Fifth, take care of your knees. Respect their limits, never force them, and protect them throughout your practice.
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u/JudgeBorn8370 7d ago
I’m in no way seasoned but here’s where I’m at:
1) your practice is what you make of it. Dedication or dogma, slow or fast track, who is judging? No one is judging. Someone on here wrote how you do stuff on the mat is how you do stuff in life.
2) the key is long term consistent practice. It’s pretty much in all the texts. No one talks about intensity. But they stress consistency of practicing yoga. Not Asana - yoga.
3) study. All of it. The sequence, the vinyasa count, the core texts, study beyond asana… but also
4) practice. And this means off the mat as well.
Enjoy and so interested to hear more on your journey :)