Veronica - a mirror is a fantastic tool in yoga. But for me personally, I need to feel what's the right position - and I know that I would never have been able to do the 26 postures in Bikram without help from a pro. And a lot of these 26 positions are deceptively simple looking (not all) but still very easy to get wrong. We always do the same 26 postures in the same order every single time and I'm still learning. In most cases the wrongness just means that I'm not getting the benefit. I'm extremely inflexible so I'm unlikely to do myself a yoga injury with the Bikram series of postures (excepting 1, possibly 2) But if you are flexible - and almost everyone is more flexible than I am - it is possible to overextend and do yourself some damage. For me, after a year of yoga including a period of daily practice there are still some postures I cannot do. Teachers have helped me find adaptations to these postures which give me the benefits and help me work toward the full expression of the posture. I'd never have been able to do that at home. However, now I feel confident to run through the 26 postures at home, because I kinda know what I'm doing (just kinda though... I still learn something new about the practice and myself at every class).
Yoga is an art and practice that's been developed over thousands of years. You CAN do it at home, but why not learn from someone before you start doing it at home? I really don't want to put anyone off from yoga, because it's a wonderful thing that has changed my life for the better - but at the same time it's a practice that must be developed. If you find a local yoga class you can start incorporating easier postures (easier conceptually not necessarily physically) into your routine at home from Day 2. But if you're brand new to yoga, why not take the opportunity to learn from someone who knows what they're doing?
Last edited by AlmostMe; 04-04-2013 at 02:32 AM.
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