How Many Yoga Classes Should I Do a Week?

Yoga is a robust practice that many people pursue with unique goals. Some use yoga to achieve a calmer state of mind and relaxation. Others use yoga for balance, flexibility, weight loss, and increased muscle mass. You can take an online yoga class to start learning and practicing at home. Local yoga centers also offer opportunities for those seeking group sessions.

How to Determine Your Class Frequency

You can learn the basic poses and moves to progress from beginner to advanced and master levels. The frequency depends on what you want to achieve, your starting point, and consistency. Unforeseen factors like injuries and illness can also slow down your progress.

1. What’s Your Starting Point?

You should know your starting point and determine where you want to reach. Some people practice daily yoga and meditation. You’ll need a different approach if you’re aiming to burn calories with hot yoga sessions.

The starting point provides a reference and baseline for monitoring your progress as a yogi or with specific goals. People can join a yoga class at any point, so new students may need more time than someone with a background.

Yoga can help you recover from injury, increase your range of motion, gain strength, lose excess weight, and fight colds. The mental and spiritual merits of yoga are also well-established. Your starting point is tied to your goals and personal efforts.

Some people use yoga to manage a medical condition by staying fit and flexible. Starting conditions may limit your abilities, but effort will help you to achieve your goals. Leading trainers will offer schedules to fit your needs.

Whether you’re a total newbie or an advanced yogi seeking mastery, yoga is learned at a personal pace. Everyone has a different starting point and personal objectives. You should define your goals early to help you find the best class for you.

Determine how much time you need to maximize each session/experience. Understanding your starting point and objectives makes it easier to create reasonable schedules. You can also make adjustments as you progress.

2. How Consistent Are Your Efforts?

Consistency allows your body to adapt to new changes. If you’re new to yoga, consider starting slow with basic moves and poses. You should also read, listen to audio, or watch videos about yoga to get some context.

Everyone is on a unique journey, so you’re free to set an intense or loose schedule. Practicing yoga regularly and safely will result in faster results and benefits. Inconsistency can make it difficult to experience lasting changes.

You should follow a strict yoga schedule to gauge whether the effort spurs significant changes. Make sure you schedule time for yoga around your schedule. Online classes make it easy to practice whenever you want.

You can leverage downloadable resources, live streams, and recorded lessons to learn at your pace. Some people set aside a few minutes every day to practice, while others have intense classes every few days.

Start with a manageable schedule that will help you maintain consistency. Training intensely for a few weeks can leave you exhausted before you’re able to take advantage of the health benefits of yoga.

You should maintain consistency first, then change the schedule or explore advanced moves once you’re comfortable in a given practice. Practice as often as you can and follow the recommendations of your licensed trainer.

3. How Are You Learning?

You can learn yoga online or offline. The best way to maximize your opportunities is through online classes. You can learn and practice yoga from anywhere, anytime.

The online lessons are optimized for mobile, tablet, and desktop access, so you can access documents, topics, courses, and other textual resources. Online classes also feature audio and video content and live sessions with a licensed trainer.

Stick to reputable classes with experienced yogis with legitimate practice. Training with an expert gives you the best chance of learning yoga moves in perfect formation.

You can also get pro hints and insights and learn yoga faster. Find a teacher that specializes in your preferred type of yoga. Leading trainers cover many yoga practices and training but have specific specializations.

Yoga Classes for Different Experience Levels

The four types of yoga class levels are beginner, experienced beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Yoga studios and online yoga instructors will usually offer classes at all levels.

Beginner

Beginner classes assume that attendees have little to no knowledge of the basics of yoga. They will teach terminology, proper positions, and foundational poses. The foundation poses are very important to learn as they are what later classes with more advanced poses are based on. As all other skills, you must learn the basics to move on to more difficult poses.

The instructors of beginner classes will start slow and use both the English and Sanskrit terms for positions. Intro classes are the best time to learn more about body awareness and to begin building muscle memory.

Some common beginner poses are mountain pose, downward facing dog, cobra pose, and child’s pose.

Experienced Beginner

In the second level, the instructor will focus more on the breath and flow. You will build upon the foundation poses to do more complicated poses. If you are doing an in-person class, the instructor may walk around to make sure you are in the proper position and your body is making the right shape.

The experienced beginner class is usually more fast-paced and uses the Sanskrit phrases instead of English. This is a good time to start challenging yourself a bit more. It’s okay to be wobbly, but listen to your body and you will see yourself improve.

A few experienced beginner poses are guided crow pose, half moon, eagle pose, and handstands against a wall.

Intermediate

Once you feel comfortable doing level two poses, move onto level three. At this level, your body should have muscle memory that makes doing more complex poses easier and safer. Still, listen to your body and focus on bending and moving into correct shapes.

The intermediate level is a good time to focus on specific muscle areas and body parts. You can work up a good sweat while also improving flexibility. If you are attending intermediate classes, you might see poses such as crane pose, eight angle pose, peacock pose, and camel pose.

Advanced

Advanced classes are for people who really want to push themselves and their body to the limit. In an advanced yoga session, you will get into poses that require focus and balance. All parts of your body will need to be flexible and strong. Only take these classes and try these poses if you are in great shape and have a lot of experience with yoga.

Some advanced yoga poses you can try are king pigeon pose, firefly pose, scorpion pose, and one hand handstands.

Take a Yoga Class

Watching videos can make it easier to understand and remember the correct yoga posture. You may also find audiobooks about yoga interesting. Practicing consistently can help you reach your goals. Choose a yoga class that offers your preferred way to learn, practice, and master the concepts. You can use live sessions, offline centers, self-learning with video resources, and more.