Gentle Yoga Doesn’t Mean Easy

When people hear the words gentle yoga, I think it creates a picture in their mind – lots of stretching, moving slowly, maybe a bit of breathing, and the ‘sleepy’ bit at the end. Nothing too demanding.

And while there will absolutely be stretching and breathing in my classes, and we will never skip Savasana (the ‘sleepy’ bit and the best bit), gentle doesn’t necessarily mean easy.

It also doesn’t mean you won’t build strength, challenge your balance, work muscles you had forgotten existed or occasionally find yourself wondering why holding a pose for another three breaths suddenly feels quite so long – ‘did she forget about us, or just simply forget how to count?’

For me, gentle describes the way we approach yoga, and the way I choose to teach it.

There is time to move. Time to breathe. Time to listen to your body and notice what it is telling you. And, importantly, space to choose what feels right for you on that day, and in that moment.

You can challenge yourself without pushing yourself

I don’t really believe that movement has to leave us exhausted to have been worthwhile.

There is a big difference between challenging your body and fighting against it.

You might feel your legs working in Warrior II. Your arms and core might have quite a lot to say about a supported Side Plank. Tree Pose may have you wobbling all over the place one week and feeling wonderfully steady the next.

Sometimes the challenge comes from strength. Sometimes it comes from balance or coordination. And sometimes you just need to smile, have a giggle, and try again.

None of that needs to involve forcing yourself further into a pose or trying to keep up with the person on the mat next to you.

In fact, I would much rather you pause, use a block, bend your knees or choose a different version of something than push your body somewhere it doesn’t want to go.

That isn’t taking the easy option. That is practising with awareness.

Slowing down allows us to notice

Moving slowly can make you realise just how much your body is actually doing. It is relatively easy to use momentum to get from one place to another. Moving with control is different.

Slowly rising from a forward fold. Stepping carefully into a lunge. Holding yourself steady while transitioning between poses. Lowering your arms rather than simply letting them drop.

These small things ask our muscles to work. They also give us a chance to notice how we move.

Are we holding our breath?
Are our shoulders creeping up towards our ears?
Are we tensing the jaw, or gripping through our toes without even realising it?
Are we rushing because being still feels harder?
Are we putting more weight through one side of the body than the other?

We don’t always notice those things when we are moving quickly.

A gentler pace gives us a little more space to pay attention.

There is no prize for the deepest pose

One of the things I hope people learn quite quickly in my classes is that yoga is not about creating the most impressive shape.

You don’t get extra yoga (brownie) points for touching your toes.

You are not failing at Tree Pose because your foot is closer to your ankle than your thigh. You are not taking the easy way out because you are using a block to bring the floor closer.

And if everyone else is holding something while your body is telling you it has had enough, you are completely allowed to come out of the pose.

The aim isn’t for everybody in the room to look the same. Bodies are different. Proportions are different. Mobility is different. What feels perfectly comfortable for one person might feel completely wrong for someone else.

That is why I offer choices rather than one single “correct” version of a pose. The version that works best for your body is not a lesser version. It is simply your version, today.

Gentle yoga can still build strength

I often find that when I offer choices in a class, people are naturally drawn towards whichever one they think is the hardest or most advanced. As though choosing the gentler version somehow means they aren’t doing quite as much.

Gentle and accessible don’t mean ineffective. You don’t have to choose the most advanced version of a pose for your body to be working.

Holding yourself steady in a standing pose takes strength. Balancing asks the smaller stabilising muscles to get involved. Moving from standing towards the floor and back again requires control through the legs and core. Supporting your own body weight through your hands and knees or in a modified plank is still strength work.

And doing these things gradually can be particularly useful if you are new to yoga, returning after some time away or simply want to move your body without feeling as though every session has to be an all-out workout.

You may well feel muscles working. You may even discover some new ones. But we can build that strength without the sense that we need to push through everything.

And some days, the gentlest option might be exactly what you need

Not every class, or every day needs the same amount of effort.

Sometimes you arrive feeling energetic and ready to move.

Sometimes you arrive tired, stiff or with a head full of everything that happened before you walked through the door and all you want to do is lie down and shut the world out.

Yoga gives us an opportunity to notice and respond to that rather than ignore it.

There are days when a stronger version of a pose feels wonderful. There are other days when Child's Pose feels like the best decision you have made all week. And both of these are perfectly okay.

For me, that ability to notice what you need and respond accordingly is a really important part of yoga.

There is absolutely nothing you need to prove – not to me, not to anyone else in the room, and definitely not to yourself.

How I want you to feel when you leave

I don’t measure a successful yoga class by how sweaty everyone is at the end of it. I am much more interested in how people feel when they sit up after Savasana.

That little breath out.
The shoulders dropping.
Sometimes a smile.
That “Oh… I needed that” look.

I want you to feel as though you have moved your body, challenged it where it felt right, given it some space where it needed it and perhaps switched the noise down for a little while.

Ideally, you leave feeling a little lighter.
A little brighter.
And just… good.

So yes, my classes are gentle.
But gentle doesn’t mean doing nothing.
And it certainly doesn’t mean easy.

It means we can move, strengthen, wobble, breathe, rest and challenge ourselves without feeling that we have to fight our bodies to do it.

And hopefully, we can have a little giggle while we’re there too.