Best Guide for Your Yoga Challenge

Have you always been interested in yoga but never knew where to start? Why not try a yoga challenge?

Yoga’s great because it isn’t about being the best, it’s thoroughly about being the best you – after all, yoga started as and often still is a physical connection to the spiritual self.

Yoga has many different poses that will work any number of your muscles independently or in combination with one another.

It’ll help you become stretchy, balanced, aware, relaxed, and more – really, anything you want to get out of it.

Yoga is all about setting intentions. It’s an exercise in focus, in muscle tension, in flexibility, in body positivity, and in bodily awareness. Yoga can give you so much – it’s absolutely worth the challenge.

In yoga, it’s important to breathe and to stay in tune with what your body needs and what it can take. There are always exercise modifications if you need to level down a pose to something easier or level up to something that takes more strength, balance, or flexibility.

Whether you want to practice yoga to become more flexible, to get better balance, to strengthen certain muscles, to relieve body aches and pains, or to connect more deeply with your inner spirituality and sense of self, a yoga challenge might be a great way for you to jump into the practice of yoga as a whole.

What’s the Yoga Challenge?

There isn’t actually just one yoga challenge, there are several different types. The overall gist of this is that you’re working yourself into a steady habit of practicing yoga daily, no matter the form that takes for you in the challenge.

People who choose to take the challenge usually do so out of curiosity or because they’re interested in becoming more involved with the yoga practice either personally or in their community.

Find the Yoga Challenge for You

There are several iterations of the yoga challenge. There are many different poses and flows you can incorporate into a routine to focus on different muscle groups or personal intentions, and the challenges explore these different combinations. Some challenges focus on individual poses or flows, and some give you entire mini-classes each day.

So here are a few of the challenges – see which one works best for you!

The 30 Days of Yoga 

The 30 Days of Yoga Challenge is a set of 30 videos each from about 9 to 14 minutes long going through a series of yoga poses and exercises centering around a particular theme per day. This is a great challenge to take – you get a whole mini yoga lesson every day to help you form your habit of yoga practice.

The videos are easy-to-follow, instructional, and everything is explained along the way. You get to learn the names of different poses and see how the movements flow into each other so you know how to copy. It’s basically a beginner’s seminar into yoga that people of any experience level can watch and follow along with for a good day’s moment of physical awareness.

7 Days of Yoga Habit Challenge 

The 7 Days of Yoga Habit Challenge gives a pose, modifications, intentions, and a mantra to go along with each day. It was originally for a particular yoga studio’s little social media contest challenge, but it’s certainly something anyone could take on for themselves.

Just take some time to exist in the pose, pay attention to your body, and consider the daily mantra and what it means to you in the context of your own life.

If you’re interested in a quick one-week yoga challenge filled with more meaning than you’d originally expect, this is the challenge for you.

Yoga for Couples or Pairs

In this adorable yoga challenge for couples, two friends spend the video attempting the paired yoga poses as best as they can based on the given pictures. It gives a lovely little insight into what a yoga challenge should be – fun and challenging to try and get through.

The ladies are laughing, having a good time, and enjoying trying new things –neither of them is an experienced yogi. They’re just going for it. It can be a great bonding experience and exercise in cooperation for two people.

So grab a friend, check out their reference pictures, and try a couple of these wild poses for yourself. It’s okay to need to depend on someone else for a bit. Share your experience with people you love.

What’s the Verdict?

A yoga challenge is a great way to enter the world of yoga. It can seem like a complex and overwhelming thing to get a start in, but it provides accessibility. Another reason workout challenges like doing yoga are so popular is because they help us set good workout goals that we feel capable of doing and compelled to follow through on.

For example, a challenge can bring regularity and organization to a workout or yoga routine – even just putting a goal down in writing or setting the intention to complete manageable daily tasks helps you with the follow through. One of the best things about this challenge is that it’s on a schedule that sets specific goals.

See, some yoga challenges are designed to bring in interested newcomers to the practice, while others are more focused on challenging those who are already involved and practicing at a higher level. In any case, most all these challenges expose participants to a wide array of familiar or new poses or sets of poses per day to get them more involved in yoga.

It’s also nice that a yoga challenge is usually set for a specific amount of time (like 30 days) and will eventually come to an end. It appears a lot more manageable than the vague New Year’s Resolution goal most carry to just work out more or start practicing yoga. It’s a smaller amount of time that can easily lead to a lifelong habit of exercise.

And honestly, humans are competitive beings – calling it a challenge makes us eager to work hard and succeed. We want to beat the challenge, and we like to win.

So, if you’re up for taking on a yoga challenge, I say go for it! I personally do yoga and I love what it’s done for my body and mind. It’ll help your exercise health and increase your muscle strength, balance, and flexibility while also giving you a chance to challenge yourself and achieve new goals.

Yoga gives you time to focus on yourself and what your body needs in a world that easily distracts us from self-care. And we all need a little more self-care.