Why Are You So Bad At Yoga? 8 Common Reasons
If you are a newbie at yoga, you may come across a time when you feel you are absolutely terrible at yoga. However, don’t feel alone. Everyone who starts yoga experiences the same feelings and has encountered the exact same reasons why you think you are so bad at yoga.
Here are eight common reasons why you may feel you are bad at yoga
1. You Don’t Have Strength
2. You Don’t Have Flexibility
3. Your Core Muscles Are Weak
4. You Don’t Know The Poses Yet
5. You Are Not Using A Proper Mat
6. You’re Trying Too Hard
7. You Haven’t Learned To Control Your Breathing
8. Your Mind Is Not Focused
Yoga may seem impossible at the beginning, with more than enough reasons for you to make excuses to quit. However, you are not alone in this feeling, even people that have done yoga before struggle with new poses. Even yogis that are getting back into yoga may struggle in the beginning before their bodies become accustomed to yoga again.
Common Reasons Why You Could Be Bad At Yoga
Everyone starting yoga feels that they are terrible at it. You may feel like this for several reasons, and It’s not because you can’t do yoga. Instead, it’s just a matter of allowing your body to adjust to bending and stretching into poses you are not used to.
Here are some common reasons why you feel bad at yoga and why it’s only temporary. Remember that everyone had to start yoga at the beginning and had the same feelings you currently have.
1.You Don’t Have Strength
Unless you already train and add yoga to your routine to reduce stress, get more energy, or promote better sleep. You will quickly realize that you need more strength, even though you thought you were pretty strong before coming to class.
Like any sport or exercise, you need to start at the beginning, working your way up as your body improves and strengthens.
You won’t jump straight into a plank formation or headstand and expect to hold that pose without falling flat on your face. So, it’s best to build up your strength to master poses.
2. You Don’t Have Flexibility
This is a common reason why you feel you are bad at yoga. Everyone has a different level of flexibility that allows them to fold themselves into knots when you can even touch your toes.
The thing about yoga is that it allows you to work within your limitations. So even though you are in a beginner class with other yoga practitioners (yogis), each one of you will have a different flexibility reach.
The aim is to increase your flexibility as you progress while breathing through the stretches and poses and pushing your limits further. Remember that yoga should not be painful, so listen to your body.
3. Your Core Muscles Are Weak
Core muscles help with movement and stabilizing poses. Most of us will start with weak core muscles. That’s why we have sore backs, shoulders, or necks. However, core muscles help maintain and better posture, and that’s one of the reasons why people start doing yoga.
If your core is weak, holding poses or balancing will definitely prove challenging.
4. You Don’t Know The Poses Yet
Even though some poses look simple enough, once you attempt to execute them, you realize that it’s more challenging than it seems and takes more work.
Even though beginner classes are slow-paced, which helps teach you the different poses, there is still a flow of poses that start in one pose and finish in a different one.
When you don’t know the names of the poses or how to flow into the movement, you may feel like you can’t grasp the concept and look like the odd one out. That’s why it’s always best to join a yoga class at the beginning, where instructors can explain and guide you into the right pose.
5. You Are Not Using A Proper Mat
Using the popper equipment is essential. With all the stretches and poses you perform, you need a mat that provides adequate grip.
You don’t want to be in a downward dog position, and your sweaty palms and feet start to slip, collapsing your pose and leaving your face flat on the floor.
Get a popper mat that allows you to push your stretch limits with confidence that you won’t land up doing the splits.
6. You’re Trying Too Hard
Stop trying so hard to be like the person next to you. No one compares or judges you if you’re bad at yoga. They have all started where you are now.
Good or bad, yoga is there to help you relax and build core strength. It also provides your body with energy and stress relief. Yoga is not there to impress the people around you. But, in your own time, you will master the poses.
7. You Haven’t Learned To Control Your Breathing
Breathing is essential. You must understand how to breathe and control your breathing during your poses.
Breathing in yoga is done by inhaling through the nose for a few counts and then exhaling through your nose. It helps to focus your energy and creates a feeling of relaxation to help relax your body and mind.
Specific movements require that you exhale while doing them, while others require you to inhale as you execute the action. Therefore, if you don’t get the right combination, you will find it hard to perform some movements.
8. Your Mind Is Not Focused On The Right Things
Yoga is a form of meditation and a way to clear your mind of the daily stresses and worries that we focus on. As much as yoga helps you physically strengthen your body and increases your flexibility. It can be a powerful exercise to help you relax and create a feeling of inner peace.
If you focus on thinking about your day ahead or what happened during the day, you will find that you don’t concentrate on how you breathe and move through your pose.
How Can You Get Better At Yoga?
The key to getting better at yoga is to accept that you will never be perfect at it. You could be doing the same pose for a year and still fall over or think you look silly. That said, you can improve at yoga by doing some basic things.
Learn to accept your limitations and work within them. Not everyone can nail the pretzel poses that you see. Yoga is not about contorting yourself into a knot. It’s about connecting the body, heart, breath, and mind.
And like anything we do, practice will help you improve those poses. The more you do it, the less foreign it will feel. It will start to feel your strength and flexibility improve, which will help you hold your poses and push your limits further.
To improve your yoga, you can try some of the following things:
- Include it as part of your daily routine, and incorporate yoga at least three times a week.
- Forgive yourself and accept that everyone feels the same way you do.
- Strengthen your wrists to make poses easier to do.
- Get to learn the pose names and how to do them.
- Don’t start yoga by yourself. Instead, join a class and get help from an instructor.
- Learn to listen to what your body is telling you.
- Be consistent. Even 15 minutes daily can make a difference if you stick to it.
Conclusion
Please don’t feel alone when you join a yoga class for the first time and feel you are bad at it. Everyone that starts has the same thoughts. You are asking your body to do things you don’t naturally do. While strength and flexibility play a big part in being able to perform some of the poses. You need to stop trying so hard and instead enjoy the benefits you get from yoga, and you will see how things start to get easier the longer you practice.
