How to start a realistic home practice as a beginner

I'm Michael Joel Hall. I've been practicing and teaching yoga for over twenty years. I've been the director of operations for a multistudio chain and have incubated my self practice yoga club for over a decade. I'm the founder of Ashtanga Tech — a yoga education platform for people who want to create a practice that serves them, not just the other way around. This is Ashtanga Tech Support. Every episode, I pull a few questions from the yoga and Ashtanga corners of Reddit, and I answer them. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff, but also kind of just answering off the cuff. Don't get it twisted, its serious business but we don't have to be. Ok, lets get into it.

Our Response

You're going to led class twice a week and you want to build a home practice. Good. This is exactly how it should work.

Here's what I'd do. Pick two or three mornings a week — doesn't matter which ones, just be roughly consistent. Set a timer for twenty minutes. Do sun salutations and the standing poses. That's it. That's your home practice for now.

I know that sounds underwhelming. It's not. The standing sequence in Ashtanga is a complete practice on its own. Forward folds, twists, balances, hip openers — it's all there. Twenty minutes of standing poses done with attention to breath and gaze will change your body and your mind faster than an hour of unfocused movement.

You mentioned not wanting to be dogmatic. I respect that. But I'd push back slightly — structure isn't dogmatism. Structure is what lets you stop thinking about what to do and start paying attention to what you're doing. The Ashtanga sequence exists so your brain can get out of the way.

That said, keep exploring other styles. Seriously. The more you understand about movement, the richer your Ashtanga practice becomes. Just give the home practice its own space. Don't try to hybrid it. When you're on the mat doing Ashtanga, do Ashtanga. When you're in a vinyasa class, be in that class fully.

The study guide at ashtanga.tech/study-guide/systems-diagnostics/ breaks down why the system works the way it does. And ashtanga.tech/study-guide/adaptation-customization-principles/ covers how to scale things to where you actually are — not where you think you should be.

Long-term vision is just short-term consistency repeated. Twenty minutes. Standing poses. Breathe. That's the whole secret.