Best yoga poses for beginners

As a yoga teacher, one of the things I hear most often is: “Oh I’d like to try yoga, but I’m so bad, I’m not at all flexible!”

I always respond that there’s no such thing as being bad at yoga, and that flexibility is not important — yoga asana (only one of the discipline’s so-called ‘eight limbs’) is a practice of linking breath and movement with the intention of calming the mind. Difficulty of postures, intensity of the practice and ability of the practitioner are not important — and indeed, if we could do everything perfectly right away and had unlimited strength and flexibility, it wouldn’t be yoga.

But despite my reassurances to nervous yogis, I remember that feeling of stepping into my first class as if it were yesterday. I had no idea what was happening, I’d never