Blog
Home Yoga Practice vs Shared Group Yoga: 5 Benefits of Doing Yoga as a Group
In this day and age most people are so busy they don’t feel like there’s enough time in the day to do everything they want to achieve. For many people, 24 hours just doesn’t seem long enough to complete all of their daily tasks, let alone find time to head to a yoga studio for an hour-long session.
During the COVID-19 pandemic many people started exercising at home and watched Youtube videos to guide them through their workouts. Gyms began offering online zoom classes so people could continue their fitness journey from the comfort of their own homes. Many yoga instructors posted regular content on their social media platforms, especially Youtube, so people could carry on practising yoga on their own. Channels such as ‘Yoga with Adrienne’, ‘Yoga by Candace’, and ‘Bright & Salted Yoga’ gained thousands of followers during the pandemic as people subscribed to their online classes.
As the pandemic seems to finally be coming to an end and gyms and yoga studios have opened back up, more and more people are weighing up home yoga practice vs shared group yoga. In this article I will share the benefits of doing yoga as a group so that you might think twice next time you feel like you’re too busy or too tired to head to class.
-
Community
The first benefit of group yoga practice is that you become part of a community of like-minded people. Even if you don’t know anyone in your class when you first start, which is normally the case for most people, it is a great place to get to know people and make new friends. The type of people who practise yoga tend to be very like-minded people with similar values, so it is inevitable that you will meet people who you get along with and who will make you feel like you’re part of a community.
-
Group Energy
There is something so special about practising yoga within a group setting. There is this indescribable force of energy that is shared between everyone in the class. Whether that’s during Shavasana at the end of the practise or working towards a new pose together. The energy that comes from sharing a yoga practise with other people is a feeling like no other.
-
Improving Consistency
Signing yourself up to a group yoga class is a great way to improve your consistency when it comes to your yoga practise. If other people are expecting you to be there, you are less likely to come up with excuses for not showing up. Furthermore, the more you turn up to class the more you’ll notice improvements in your practise. This in itself is highly motivating and will make you want to continue practising.
-
Increasing Motivation
This ties into the last point but practising yoga in a group is an excellent way to increase motivation. When you’re at home, on your own, it can be too easy to convince yourself that you’re too tired or too busy to practice yoga for an hour. Watching a yoga session on YouTube can sometimes feel like hard work and it can be difficult to stay focused especially after a long day. Doing yoga in a group is a lot more motivating than doing it alone at home.
-
Learning From and Helping Others
Practising yoga in a group setting can be really beneficial in terms of pushing yourself and helping others to do the same. There may be a certain pose that you have been struggling to do on your own for a while, such as a headstand, which other people in your class can help you with. Someone who might be very good at headstands could offer you some advice and guidance on how to improve. Similarly, there may be a part of the practice that you can do better than others and so you are able to share tips in order to help them. A group yoga class provides the perfect opportunity to work together towards a common goal.
