Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and it bothers the pig.

I remember back when I first decided that I was going to start doing yoga, it took me another 4 months to actually get myself inside a room. And a big part of the reason why was I made up reasons in my head why yoga wasn’t for me. On top of that, I also had a million unanswered questions swirling around in head about a yoga class itself.

Finally, I started practicing, and when I did, sadly I’ll have to admit this, I was that guy, didn’t understand anything, hid in the corner, practiced with socks on (one time!), and was huffing and puffing, grunting and groaning my way through the entire class. I landed myself the nickname, “baby elephant”. Thankfully, I’ve come along way since then.

I was listening to an interview with Brian Smith, the founder of UGGs, and he said, “You can’t give birth to an adult.”

Don’t expect to be the perfect yogi the first time you try it, and remember, I was an elephant. And don’t let that scare you away from trying it all together.

I’ve put together a list of common questions for you that newbies have. Many of these are actually questions I had back when I started. Hopefully my insight helps.

1. Is Yoga for Me?

Yes, yoga is for you and yoga can be for everybody. The two biggest misconceptions I see from people who don’t practice yoga is they think it’s simply sitting and meditating or it’s some new age spiritual awakening. Sure, if you want to find that stuff you definitely can, but the world of yoga is so vast that there is something for everybody and I’m sure you’ll be able to find something you like.

2. Can I Eat Before Yoga?

This is a trick question, well kind of. Here’s the thing, some yoga classes can be strenuous and even the more basic, slower classes can take a lot of energy to get through.

The more appropriate question that you should ask yourself, which hopefully should make the answer more clear, is can I do yoga on a full stomach? I guess if showing up to yoga right after chomping on hamburger and a doughnut is your thing, go right ahead. 🙂

I know history dictates that you fast or you wait 3-4 hours after you eat to practice, don’t buy into that either. Your experience will probably be more enjoyable if you have a couple of calories in you.

Personally, before I practice, I eat some coconut butter (sometimes some walnut butter). It tastes amazing, gives me energy and doesn’t fill up my stomach at all. And sometimes, gasp, I stimulate myself before I practice with a shot or two of espresso. What do the yoga gods say about that? Also, sometimes I eat freshly dehydrated oranges before I practice and they work wonders for me.

Ultimately here, common sense prevails.

3. What do I Wear to Yoga Class?

First, wear something that you feel comfortable in. But also think a little bit strategically here, you don’t want to wear something so loose that it’s practically falling off you in downward dog. Wear something that at least hugs close to your body. You don’t want your shirt going all over the place.

Also, if you’re a girl, you need a hair tie. The one other thing equally as annoying as your shirt lifting up is having your hair in your face and constantly having to brush it off to the side.

Also, don’t be that person that shows up to a yoga class with socks on.

4. How Many times Per Week do I Need to Practice to See any Benefit?

Honestly, just get started. Doing something is better than nothing. And if you are completely new to yoga, you’ll probably notice differences in yourself just doing it once a week.

Now as you get more dedicated you can up that number and you’ll know when. Your body will start craving more and more yoga. But like anything new, start slow and give yourself a chance to adapt. It’s pretty unrealistic to tell yourself right from the get go you’ll practice 7 days a week. Let yourself and your body ease into it.

Short answer, I’ll repeat myself. Take action. Something is better than nothing.

5. What Differentiates Yoga from the Exercise I Already Do?

Well, the best answer I can give you is that yoga is not just about the physical body. There is an emphasis on putting your breathe and your movement together.

Also, due to the nature of a yoga practice and yoga poses in general, it also becomes a cerebral activity. With yoga, there isn’t very much room to just tune out and go on auto-pilot. You always have to be thinking about how your body works and how muscles and bones within the body work together. It will force you to have a deeper connection with your body.

6. Is Yoga Only for Vegans and Vegetarians?

No. You can eat whatever you want to eat. Personally, I follow an evolutionary style of eating and I’ve felt the best I’ve ever felt in my entire life. Meaning a higher fat lower carbohydrate diet and my energy levels are through the roof, I’m never hungry, and can practice for hours no problem.

I don’t know where this myth that you must be a vegan to practice yoga came from. In my experience, vegans and vegetarians that I run into teaching are often unhealthy not because of what they eat, but because of their obsession with minimizing fat and calories in general and their obsession with being skinny.

In my opinion, this is the root of eating disorders and body complexes in the world of yoga and why so many people struggle with it. I’ve spent a period of my life being vegetarian, nearly vegan, and it gets really unpleasant having to eat 3 lbs. of food every meal just to feel halfway satisfied. Now, I’m not in any way bashing being a vegan or vegetarian, if you can do it correctly and healthy, more power to you.

It also doesn’t help that just about every fitness magazine you pick up these days is pitching low calorie low fat meals as if that’s the healthy way to go.

I also understand there is a moral component to this whole thing and I respect that. But, I also believe there is an ethical way to raise and slaughter animals for food.

Again, you can make your own decision on this one, but don’t let something that is supposed to be healthy turn unhealthy.

7. Do I Need to Understand Sanskrit to do Yoga?

No. Don’t think that every class that you’ll ever go to you’ll have a spiritual leader sitting in front of you speaking in Sanskrit. Very little yoga is actually like that. While I think the Sanskrit is cool to learn, you’ll just pick it up as you go and just about every class you’ll primarily hear the poses in English or whatever your primary language is.

8. Will I Lose Weight Practicing Yoga?

Probably, but not in the way that you think. Yoga is not the highest calorie burning activity of all time, if you’re looking for that sort of thing try running or biking. But, that being said, you shouldn’t be doing yoga to simply burn calories, the effects are much farther reaching than that.

Now, as you develop a consistent practice, you’ll start to get in touch with your body more. A byproduct of that is making better decisions about how you treat your body and one area might be what you eat and making better choices about what you eat can lead to weight loss.

However, another side effect of yoga is muscle toning and lengthening. You will no doubt feel like every muscle in your body drapes naturally off the bone. I used to feel like I had short arms when I started doing yoga but now I feel exactly the opposite, I feel like I have long, hanging, monkey arms that can reach for anything.

9. Do I Need to be Flexible to do Yoga?

Not at all and not being flexible doesn’t make you a bad yogi. I have an entire blog post written on it here.

10. Will Everyone Stare at me in Class Because I’m New to Yoga?

Sorry to bust your bubble on this one, but, other students in the room don’t care about you as much as you think. And because they don’t care about you, they won’t be staring at you. You are free to flail, flop, and fall over and no one will ever notice.

In fact, what could happen is you might actually make a friend or two, or even find a date, ha. Contrary to popular belief, a room full of yogis can be quite friendly and would be eager to integrate you into their community, just don’t do yoga with socks on.

What are some other questions or misconceptions you have about yoga? Leave them as a comment below and I’ll get back to you.