At my first Ashtanga yoga workshop in February 1999 the workshop leader, Beryl Bender Birch, was asked this question and she would not answer it directly. The best answer she said is that it depends on what you want to get out of yoga and how much time you have available to dedicate to your yoga practice.
If you are practicing once a week and this frequency is meeting your needs and you are happy with it then that is right for you right now. At some point in the future you may want to increase the frequency. The danger is that if the teacher says you should do yoga everyday you will become discouraged and say to yourself that you cannot afford that amount of time and give up.
This was a wise but frustrating answer to the question. I thought that I would provide a little guidance to help people answer the question for themselves.
The answer is that it depends. It depends on your current relationship with yoga, the time and income you have available to dedicate to your practice of yoga.
- If you are just starting a yoga practice and wondering if yoga is something you want to do then once a week is frequent enough.
- After a while (a varying amount of time) you will finish checking out yoga and think that yoga is something that you want to continue do. At this stage a more frequent practice will be beneficial. Twice a week or three times a week is a good frequency at this stage in your relationship with yoga.
- If you have been doing yoga for a while and you want to become more serious with your yoga practice then you may want to consider a daily or five to six days a week practice. At this stage you may add a home practice as well as led classes at the studio.
The other factors that contribute to you determining how frequently you should do your yoga practice are:
- How much time do you have available for your yoga practice.
- How much can you afford to spend on your yoga practice.
- What priority will your yoga practice have compared to your other activities.
The answer is it depends.
October 2007 Newsletter
