r/yoga

Hey, I'm looking for something that isn't just some 30 day program that I complete and then am lost on where to go after that. I need something that offers long-term progression and not another 7 day challenge. Any ideas? I really want to progress in strength and mobility. Looking for something in-home where I'm not constantly needing to search the internet for the next video series. Maybe some kind of longer form progressive course?

thank you in advance!

Anyone ever take a kundalini yoga class that is not from yogi bhajan? Ive read and heard about it but never came across an actual class.

Was just wondering what it was like for you if you did? Is it mainly focused on chakras?

My experience ordering directly from Yoga Democracy — the customer service response somehow made it worse
I’m curious whether anyone else has had a similar experience ordering directly from Yoga Democracy, because this has been one of the strangest online purchases I’ve had in a while.
My yoga studio sells Yoga Democracy leggings for around $98. I like them, so when I saw that Yoga Democracy sells directly online for considerably less, I placed an order on August 7.
My credit card was charged immediately.
But I received no order confirmation. No receipt. Nothing.
I contacted them because seeing a charge on my card with absolutely no record of an order was concerning. I was told there had been a “backend system glitch” and assured that my order had been submitted.
But they still didn’t send me a receipt.
I had to follow up again and specifically ask for one. At that point, I was sent a screenshot of what appeared to be their internal invoice.
Okay. At least I now had some evidence the order existed.
Twelve days after placing the order, I still had no shipping notification or tracking information, so I followed up again.
Their response:
“As soon as your order ships, you’ll receive an email with tracking information.”
That didn’t answer the question. So, once again, I had to follow up and ask something more specific: When is it expected to ship?
Only then was I told:
“We changed fulfillment centers across the country and had to have two huge shipments that came in from Kenya relocated to our new fulfillment center.”
I was also told that my order was in the fulfillment queue and that they couldn’t provide an estimated ship date.
At that point, I canceled my $63.75 order and requested a refund. They told me the refund had been issued and that I should see it within 2–3 business days.
As of writing this, the refund has not appeared on my card, so I can only confirm that I’ve been told it was processed. Given that this whole experience began with a charge appearing on my card without an order confirmation or receipt, I’ll consider that piece resolved when the credit actually posts.
But my bigger issue isn’t even the 12-day delay.
It’s that I had to repeatedly contact the company and ask increasingly specific questions to obtain basic information they already had.
I contacted them because I had been charged without receiving a confirmation or receipt. I was told there was a glitch, but I still had to contact them again and specifically request a receipt.
I contacted them about shipping and was told I’d receive tracking “as soon as” it shipped. I then had to ask again when it would actually ship before anyone disclosed the warehouse transition, relocated inventory, fulfillment backlog, and inability to provide a shipping estimate.
Why wasn’t all of that communicated when I first contacted them?
I shouldn’t have to know exactly which follow-up question to ask to figure out what’s happening with an order a company has already charged me for.
I told them that.
And their response somehow made the whole thing more frustrating.
It began:
“The truth is, everything that was communicated to you was accurate.”
But I never accused anyone of lying to me.
Accuracy wasn’t my complaint. The failure to communicate relevant information was my complaint.
The response then shifted almost entirely to what Yoga Democracy was going through:
“We are a very small team and unfortunately, when technical glitches like this happen, there are a surplus of customer inquiries that we are working diligently to get through.”
If a known technical problem was affecting enough customers to create a “surplus of customer inquiries,” that actually makes me wonder why customers weren’t being proactively notified.
Then:
“We also changed fulfillment centers across the country and had to have two huge shipments that came in from Kenya relocated to our new fulfillment center. Our CEO had to personally take the shipments to our new fulfillment center and this has been a difficult process.”
I’m sure it has been a difficult process.
But I genuinely don’t understand why I’m being told that the CEO personally transported shipments.
I was a customer explaining that I had been charged, received no confirmation or receipt, had to chase down proof of my purchase, received no proactive notice of a significant fulfillment delay, and had to repeatedly ask questions before finally being told there wasn’t even an estimated ship date.
And the response was focused on how difficult the situation has been for the company.
They continued:
“We are implementing a new shipping interface as well which is why the automatic confirmation emails have not been sent out.”
Again: why wasn’t I simply told that when I first contacted them specifically because I hadn’t received a confirmation?
That’s the part I can’t get past.
I completely understand that small businesses have operational problems. Systems break. Warehouses move. Shipments get delayed. Employees get overwhelmed.
But if you know these things are happening, communicate them to your customers.
Put a notice on the website. Warn people at checkout. Email customers whose orders are affected. Or, at the absolute minimum, when a customer contacts you because she’s been charged and hasn’t even received confirmation that her order exists, tell her what’s actually going on.
Instead, I had to ask:
Where is my confirmation?
Can I have a receipt?
Has my order shipped?
When will it ship?
Why hasn’t it shipped?
And only through that process did I get the full story.
Then, when I specifically raised the lack of communication as my concern, instead of simply saying:
“You’re right. We should have communicated this to you upfront, and you shouldn’t have had to keep asking.”
…I got an explanation of their small team, technical problems, volume of customer inquiries, warehouse transition, shipments from Kenya, new shipping interface, and the CEO personally transporting inventory.
There was also no attempt at service recovery. No small credit toward a future purchase. No gesture that said, “We’d like another opportunity to earn your business.”
And I don’t consider the promised refund a service-recovery gesture. I canceled an order that hadn’t shipped. Returning my money is simply unwinding the transaction.
I genuinely like their leggings. I wanted to be their customer. A delayed order wouldn’t necessarily have changed that. A warehouse transition wouldn’t necessarily have changed that either.
What changed it was having to repeatedly chase basic information and then, when I raised that concern, receiving a response centered primarily on why I should understand what the company was going through.
Has anyone else ordered directly from Yoga Democracy recently? I’m genuinely curious whether this is an isolated mess during their transition or whether this is typical of their direct-order customer service.

I’ll update this post if/when the $63.75 refund actually appears on my card.

I'm (36M) very new to yoga. I'm going to a studio for about a month, twice a week: one power flow and one deep stretch class.

I'm having a lot of difficulty with just basic poses/stretches from a seated position, especially anything straight-legged. Just sitting up straight (let alone folding forward) creates so much tension and engagement in my hips and core, like my center of gravity just doesn't agree with that position and my upper body just wants to fall backward. I feel like I get nothing out of these poses because I can't even engage the muscles I'm supposed to be stretching. I can get a good stretch if I place my hands on the mat behind me, but when I reach forward and don't support the weight of my upper body, I have to fight hard just to stay upright.

Is this a problem of core strength? General flexibility? Center of gravity? And...

If I keep working these poses, will this improve? Or would it be more beneficial to take different poses where I can actually stretch the muscles I'm supposed to be stretching?

Edit: Thank you for all the helpful tips, insight, and anecdotes!

I’ve noticed that in table top my inner elbows are facing forward (instead of inside I guess ??), I’ve wondered if it is okay and if it could sever joint pain.
Thank you ~~

Found out I have a few bulging lumbar discs. I have only been doing gentle flows- no deep twisting or backbending at all. No belly down backbending. I started reformer Pilates and started to feel really good after those classes. So I decided to go to an all levels vinyasa class Sunday. Did a few locust poses and minor twisting. 2 days later I am basically incapacitated. My entire low back is locked up and very sore. I’m afraid I will need to avoid yoga altogether for awhile. Has this happened to anyone here?? Just trying to find a bright light that maybe I can go back to it someday without pain after. I am modifying with blocks etc. but I should not have done the locust pose multiple times. And should have e avoided vinyasa/upward face.

It’s frustrating. This is my social community.

Editing to add:

I’ve had this pain off and on for two years. Finally had an MRI in January 2026. Gave me my answers. Suffered with sciatica badly in May 2026. Did PT for about 13 weeks. It was mostly helpful.
Anytime I go back to more than gentle yoga- I feel this pain (muscular) in my
Low back.
Trying to do Pilates and strength training moves at home. Both of these help. Once I do yoga I take a few steps back so time to put it on hold.

I’m a RN with about 25 years experience- I am trying to do all the right things. Just wondering if anyone else has had these issues and what helped you.

I wound absolutely tell any of my students to take some rest- see their doctor and follow their advice. And if they’ve done all that, I’d tell them to take a rest period or modify whatever they can.

Ok random thought I had in the middle of night. We yogi’s usually flow / move from right side to left side. What are the actual “rules” here? I’m aware this is how prana flows within the body but I find it a bit confusing in some scenarios as I’ve noticed over the years teachers are different in how they approach it. For example…moving through a Sun A or B.. “right leg high, step through low lunge, rise up high crescent, root into right foot, left knee to chest one legged mountain..” right leg is clearly the dominant/foundation in this portion of class. Left side is more of the ‘supporting’ side. This idea makes sense in most class scenarios. But what about when in something like childs pose / mountain pose, and we cue side body opening by walking hands to right / left side of mat or a side bend either side. If we cue to walk hands right side of mat first.. the left side is being stretched or at least feels this is the more dominant / benefitting side. I’ve noticed some teachers will in fact cue left side first to target the ride side of our body’s, some cue right. Or a reclined supine twist… if you drop knees right first, it targets or left side more. Am I overthinking this? Did I miss something along the way?!Anyway, curious on your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

Hello yogis. I hade open heart surgery to replace my diseased mitral valve. After 6 weeks, 36 sessions of cardiac rehab I thought I was cleared by my cardiologist to resume all activities. I took two gentle yoga classes and pulled a muscle in my left hip. I know I need to take it slow and easy. Any advice? For background, for 23 years I practiced the ashtanga yoga primary and second series. I know I will not be able to return to that.

I've just started practising the baddha konasana pose but am severely limited by my knees - they are currently at 30 degrees. I'm sitting upright and working on tilting my pelvis anteriorly. I have almost zero forward bend.
Can you share how long it took you to be able to get your knees to the ground? Any tips on what and how long I should be stretching for each day?

Another post inspired me to share this story that happened to me a few years ago. A friend convinced me to join a yoga class with her - it was not marketed as a beginners class and I told her there’s no way I was ready for anything except complete beginners classes. She’s also a beginner, had gone a few times, and insisted it’s completely chill and will be no problem whatsoever.

It poured rain that day and a 10 minute drive turned into a 30 minute one. I had never been to this studio and got lost in the hallway, I ended up being probably 3 minutes late. Apparently this studio has a policy of allowing walk-ins into a fully booked class once it begins. When I entered the receptionists welcomed me right into the class and I was startled to see the room was packed with no spots at all. The instructor got up from her spot in the front center of the room and gestured for me to use her space.

I was already anxious to do a yoga class as a beginner in the first place, and terrified to practically walk over people to the front. I was facing up against a wall and couldn’t see the instructor or anyone unless I stared at the people next to me. The instructor called out the poses from around the room and I didn’t recognize any of the names and had no clue what to do. To make it worse I was afraid that by taking up the instructors spot I was taking away from all the other students being able to watch the poses being demonstrated. I started to have an internal panic attack and ended up rolling up the mat and taking off maybe 15 minutes in. In the lobby I cried “I’m just a beginner I don’t know what I’m doing!” And took off to my car.

The owner of the studio actually emailed me the next morning offering a free credit to come to one of the beginner classes she personally teaches but they were in the middle of the day on work weeks. It was so gracious of her to offer that and reflects very highly on the studio, but I was too embarrassed and never responded unfortunately.

So I learned: never ever ever be late to yoga!! Lol scarred for life! I probably should have given up the ghost trying to get to the studio once I had missed the class time. I also feel like I proved that I really need to only be in a truly BEGINNERS yoga class, I’m too scared to join on anything else. Even if I had been able to see the poses I’m sure the routine was too advanced for me anyways. I do think that the receptionists and instructors were being kind to me by letting me in to the fully packed studio with no room but maybe the better thing would have been to say “Sorry but the class has already started, please book another time.”

This has been on my mind since I just started taking beginner classes again at a different studio. What’s sad is if I hadn’t made these mistakes being late for a class that was too advanced I might not have taken as long a break from yoga. I’m sorry I didn’t respond to the owner - but at least now I know yoga is not something you want to be late to and in a rush! If it’s not clear, I understand I’m at fault for this.

I’ve been practicing yoga in a class for about a month and have done Chakrasana before without any issues.

Today, while doing the progression where you walk your hands down a wall into Chakrasana, I suddenly felt a very intense rush of blood/pressure in my head. It was noticeably stronger than anything I’d experienced during the earlier wall exercises.

It went away after coming out of the pose, but it honestly caught me off guard.

Has anyone experienced something similar during Chakrasana or deep backbends? What could cause this to suddenly happen even if I’ve done the pose before without any issue? Curious if it’s related to the inversion/head position, breathing, blood pressure, or something else.

Had a weird experience and just want to see what others opinions are. I am based in the UK.

I attended my first class at this studio, having attended classes previously in other locations. I sat at the front to ensure I could hear and see the teacher, only for her to not demonstrate any of the poses / flows, and only say the pose names in Sanskrit. I’ve never ever experienced that before so I tried my best to follow along, despite clearly finding it challenging to have to look behind me at others to try and guess what to do next. The teacher then began sort of saying the poses in English after she’d said them in Sanskrit, but that meant I was always trailing behind everyone.
At one point I could no longer do this so was taking a short break to stretch a little, and the teacher just turned to me, shrugged and said “yeah I guess just do that,” followed by “oh and it’s going to get harder by the way.” I felt so embarrassed I had to leave not even half way through the class. The teacher clearly realised she’d been rude and tried to then say I had been doing well but the damage had been done.

Im trying to get more flexible and the ones I'm doing they have a bit of pain and also I feel like I'm not doing it right. Will I improve the more I do it or do I have to change something? Im not in a class, I'm in high school.

May I add I also feel like I'm too chubby to do the poses correctly. It feels like some of my fat gets in the way.

I’ve been doing a work exchange for a local studio for the past 6 months. I did it to get to know the community better so I can teach there one day and to get a free pass.

I’m starting to question if it’s a bit exploitative though. I’ve had an ex teacher tell me the work was way more than normal studios.

It’s a 4-5 hour shift once a week. I have to:
- run the front desk
- greet guests, give tours to newcomers
- open and close the studio
- scrub the shower
- wipe the floor boards, counter, handles, benches, cubbies
- do the laundry at the laundromat down the street
- fold said laundry
- make the spa towels
-wash the windows
- mop
- vacuum
- clean the toilet, mirrors, sink
- take out the trash
- work as the sole worker each shift besides the teacher
- find all shift replacements if I’m going to miss a shift
- run basic IT tasks with the owner cause he doesn’t know how to download a PowerPoint, stuff like that
- I am being watched on the cameras. I haven’t missed a task but have been warned that I will be called out if I do.
- the monthly membership is about $160/month

I want to say this arrangement has worked for me so far because I love working for my community and it’s fulfilling, but the owner has started engaging in some questionable behaviors and an ex teacher told me she believes the owner treats me poorly. I’m wondering if this amount of work is normal or if I am getting taken advantage of, even if it gives me a leg up to work there in the future .

I’m 31 years old and I can’t even do yoga. I have so much pain and muscle tightness throughout my whole body. I can’t afford medical care to see a PT.

I can’t relax.

I can’t get into any of the poses, trust me I’ve tried beginner videos.

All I can feel is my muscles and tissues pulling against each other and it just pisses me off and makes me want to stop.

Fuck I hate feeling like this.

What’s your favourite way to transition?

As the title says, I've meditated for 1 hour+ a day, I've done long sessions of yin yoga, I do all sorts of active things like weightlifting and hiking and whatever, but what is different about hatha yoga compared to these other things where its like my anxiety has nearly been turned off? Since starting this more active yoga style my overall viewpoints on life are way more chilled-out and positive, I'm hornier than I've ever been (lol), my dating life is better, etc... I don't understand what this yoga style could be doing different than these other activities because to me that meditation + some other form of exercise should have the same effect, but it doesn't for me.

I am trying to find the name of a cable yoga program/teacher that aired 15-20 years ago. I watched it as I was recovering from surgery. It came on daily super early —4:30 or 6:30 AM. It was either on Comcast or TiVo. May have been one of those packaged channels that came pre-loaded on cable or TiVo. For some reason Channel 45 rings a bell but am not certain.

It was some type of Hatha /alignment yoga. Set up was simple, mats & foam blocks. (Can’t remember whether or not they used belts)

Teacher was female, dark brown hair in a short bob. Age late 30s - 50s. (She looked a little like Judith Hansen Lassiter)She worn a linen or cotton tunic-like top & cropped pants.
Format was one teacher & 2 students — one student demonstrated more modified asana& the other a more “advanced” version.

Sometimes the classes were on a porch outside. For some reason I think it was filmed in Miami or perhaps Puerto Rico.
I’d love to figure out who the teacher is so that I can find her classes again.

I know this is super vague but am hoping it rings a bell with someone. Thanks

​

Through meditation, I learned to notice and release tension in both my muscles and my mind. I also learned a more sustainable way to become flexible—not the usual 10-second, force-yourself-deeper stretch that many sports teach.

Ironically, I often feel most relaxed and flexible after a 10-day meditation retreat, despite barely moving at all.

That’s what sometimes bothers me about “modern/western” yoga: it can be so movement focused. It seems like people want to do fancy, flowing sequences before really learning to feel themselves in the basics.

If you look at Patanjali’s eight-limbed yoga(Ashtanga), the last three limbs are essentially about meditation. And asana, at its core, is about finding a stable and comfortable seat. Not necessarily mastering complex shapes.

That body–mind symbiosis is what yoga is really about for me, and it has benefited many areas of my life. That’s also why Yin Yoga is my personal favorite: it gives me time to settle into a pose, observe what arises, and let the body soften rather than trying to force it.

Why isn’t there more emphasis on meditation, stillness, or simply giving yourself and students enough time to truly feel a pose?