Questions to ask your Yoga Teacher

As a beginner to Yoga, you would have a lot of questions that you would like to ask your yoga teacher but sometimes you might be too shy or don’t know how to ask the question.

When I first started practicing yoga, I was very lucky that the teachers who taught me were happy and ever ready to answer my questions and from them I learned so much which really helped my practice.

So, what are questions you should ask your yoga teacher?

If you are having trouble going into the poses during the class, stay back after the class and let the teacher know your problem. This way, you do not disturb the other students during the class and the teacher is able to show you how to go into the poses and correct any alignment problems that you might be having.

When you feel pain doing a certain pose, you should inform your teacher so as to avoid further injury as you may be doing the pose wrongly. I was feeling pain in my middle back when I did the half bow pose and after telling Azmi about it, he told me to make sure that I keep my hips in alignment as I lift my legs off the floor as I could be crushing the nerves at my back when my hips are not in alignment.

If you are having tight shoulders, hamstrings or hips, check with your teacher what poses you can do at home to help open those body parts. Doing those poses will help to improve your flexibility and help you progress in your practice.

The breath plays an important role in our practice and if you are not sure whether you are breathing correctly, you can ask your teacher. We breathe through our nose and not our mouth in yoga and learning the proper way to breathe will help us to ease into the asanas. Using proper breathing techniques such as the Ujjayi breath helps us to concentrate and direct the breath and gives us energy which will enhance our practice.

Yoga is a continuous journey of learning and you will discover new things about yourself from the practice, having a teacher to guide you along will help tremendously in adapting yourself to these changes.