How often you can and should practice yoga

To find out how many times a week you should do yoga, decide what you want to do it for.

Yoga can help you:

• Become flexible and slim;
• Improve your health;
• Find peace of mind;
• Learn to live in harmony with yourself and the world around you;
• Become the best version of yourself;

To become flexible and slim, you need to consider the following factors:

1. Initial physical fitness;
2. Physical constitution;
3. Age;
4. The figure parameters you are aiming for;

If you are a slim young man or woman, you can do yoga 3 times a week in a yoga studio to keep fit.

If you are prone to obesity, you should either go to the yoga studio more often or do a series of specific exercises at home between classes.

If you're over 40 and you don't have the same flexibility in your joints, have chronic illnesses and weakened muscles, you should start gradually - 10-20 minutes once or twice a day.

As your flexibility and stamina improve, you can move on to the next level where you'll quickly see the benefits, which is to start doing a full hour of yoga 3-4 times a week. Once your body has adapted, you can move on to a daily hour-long practice at home or in a yoga studio and continue for life, feeling flexible, alert and at peace each time you step off the mat.

Yoga practices can be used to treat some health problems (not acute or infectious diseases), such as:

• Increase metabolism;
• Improve digestion;
• Improve joint health;
• Improve visual acuity;
• Strengthen the nervous system;

How much yoga you need to do to see results is an individual question.

Dr Pfulgenda Sinha, director and founder of the Yoga Institute in Patna and Washington DC, recommends: Yoga should be practised 5-6 times a week for 2-6 months. A vegetarian diet and maintenance of impeccable body cleanliness is recommended.

The morning hours before breakfast are considered the best time to practice Yoga for Wellness, but variations are possible. The key is to practice at least 3-4 hours after eating and 30 minutes after drinking water.

In order to balance the nervous system and find peace of mind, you need to do yoga regularly, at least 3-4 times a week when it comes to physical exercises, i.e. asanas. Experienced practitioners believe that after the first class, people come off the mat with a completely different mindset - a calmer one.

It is recommended to end each session with Shavasana for 10-15 minutes, and in the case of arterial hypertension and heart disease, Shavasana should be practiced for half an hour. To achieve tranquillity, it is worth practising pranayama and meditation on a daily basis. Scientific studies confirm the benefits of yoga and meditation for the nervous system.

To become more ethical and environmentally friendly, to get rid of bad habits and to gain a healthy view of yourself, life, nature and society, you need to practice yoga as many times a week as you can afford, in fact daily. By 'practising yoga' we do not mean just doing asanas on a mat.

Hatha yoga can be practised 3 times a week in a studio or at home to make the body healthy and strong, and it does not interfere with spiritual work. It is necessary to do pranayama at least 10 minutes a day to bring the nervous system into a state of balance and replenish energy. One should practice meditation for at least 30 minutes daily. It is obligatory to study the classical literature on yoga and to listen to the lectures of yoga teachers on the basics of ethics and philosophy. Read, listen and reflect.

Determining how often a beginner can do yoga should be based on physical ability (especially if it's Hatha yoga), mental health, goals, motivation and a few other factors. Some people want to improve their health, some want to gain subtle experience, some want to understand their inner world - all these people need different techniques and different intensities of classes. But in most cases they start with asanas on a mat, so it is worth finding a yoga studio near your home or workplace and practising two or three times a week. Good luck with this ancient science!