These past few months have been a stressful time for students – between keeping up with college, trying to maintain some semblance of social life (within two meters of each other), and staying healthy with the gym closed – everything we’re used to has changed drastically. Lockdown has changed our habits dramatically and for the gym addict, staying at home became a bit hard. It also became hard for the yogis, the pilates lovers, the sucker for a good group pranayama.
Being part of this yoga community, I spent the first couple of months of the lockdown trying to find a good home practice that motivated and relaxed me. I came across a couple of good youtube channels, teachers who share their classes with the rest of the world for free and keep on spreading the yoga love across the world. The first one I’d like to talk about is probably the most famous one – Yoga With Adrienne.
Adrienne’s a yoga teacher whose energy is highly communicative. Aware of her huge audience, she keeps her lessons easy and entertaining, while also challenging. From beginner to experienced yogis, there is enough material for everyone. The little plus, she kicks off every year with a one-month yoga program with one practice a day. Don’t worry if you missed the first couple of weeks, just start from the day she posts or, even better, start from day one and make your way through your yoga journey – only a bit late. Those classes are short, easy to follow and made for everyone!
The second YouTube channel I really enjoy is Carling and Patrick. The channel is run by the two of them but I highly recommend Patrick’s lessons. They’re way more challenging than Adrienne’s and they’re great if you wanna do some muscle reinforcement, power yoga, and more complex vinyasa. Patrick also has enough videos to accommodate every yogi, from every level and background, plus he has the smoothest accent you’ve ever heard. Get ready to sweat, but most importantly, to feel awesome after your practice. Good for the mind and the body, Patrick’s classes are a must yoga-at-home.
Finally, I’d like to introduce Selena Garefino. Selena is a teacher before being a youtuber, and she’s been sharing some of her classes for over a year now. Her youtube channel has about fifty videos, but they have the advantages of being the same length of a “real” face-to-face yoga class. For those who have the patience to sit for an hour in front of their computer to do yoga, I highly recommend Selena, she is intuitive and proposes a lot of different exercises. She also has an online program which you can pay for, but in my opinion, starting with her youtube channel is already a great step toward an at-home practice.
Don’t forget also that most universities have a yoga society now and they often have free events which you can attend without being a member. Taking the example of TCD, you can follow DU yoga soc on Facebook and you’ll be updated with all of their free events. It’s really easy and it’s on zoom, so instead of being alone in front of your computer, you’re alone in front of strangers who motivate you to keep going! I hope these yoga channels help you relax and face those upcoming exams, and that