How to set up an at-home yoga studio
Our # ReNewYoga Challenge doesn’t require a gym or gear
Plenty of ink has been spilled about the benefits of yoga. It increases flexibility, can help you maintain a healthy weight and, honestly, it just makes your mind feel free and clear.
That’s why the Houston Chronicle is hosting a monthlong yoga challenge, offering up a pose a day for y’all to tackle alongside us this July.
We know that stepping into a yoga studio for the first time — or the first time in a while — can be intimidating. But you don’t need an expensive studio or high-end gear to reap the benefits of yoga.
“Anything you do in a class, you can do at home,” says Amanda Field, owner of Republic Aerial Yoga in Houston’s First Ward.
Even if you live in a small Inner Loop apartment.
“Really, all you need is … something about this size,” Field says as she rolls out a standard yoga mat, which measures a little less than 6 feet by 2 feet. Stand in the center of your mat and swing your arms around to make sure you don’t hit anything. Once you’ve created that amount of clearance, you’re good to go.
For the most part, the only gear you’ll need for doing yoga is a mat — or a beach towel repurposed as a mat, if you’d rather. But Field has some suggestions for other hacks that will help you use household items to deepen your experience.
A large towel can be used either as a blanket or mat, or as something to place beneath your knees in poses that can leave your joints feeling vulnerable, such as Pigeon. By folding up the towel to whatever height you desire before placing it under your leg, you can “alleviate pressure under the knee so you can actually get a deeper stretch in the pose without experiencing as much discomfort,” Field says.
Similarly, she uses small towels — such as a kitchen towel or tea towel — for instances in which you have smaller spaces between your body and the mat but would still like a little added comfort.
Blocks are a common prop in yoga. But if you’re not yet convinced it’s worth investing in gear for your new practice, you can hack blocks as well. Field suggests taking a stack of books and wrapping them in that small towel to bind them together. Then you can use them the same way many use blocks, in positions including Fish, where they help you reach a deeper stretch. And the best thing about this hack is that if the block feels to high or too low, you can always add or remove books until you get the exact feel you want.
The final household item Field advocates using is a belt for a yoga strap. Think about some of our stretchier poses this month, such as Day 7’s Gorilla, in which you bend over completely and grab your toes. If you’re just starting, this may be hard to pull off. But if you simply loop the belt around your feet, then grab it with your hands, you’ll have an opportunity to dive deeper into the pose. As Field says, this “supported stretching device … allows you to stretch the hamstring without straining other parts of your body.”
Now that you’ve got a head start on how to create a safe space to practice yoga at home, we hope to see you participate in this month’s challenge. It’s easy. All you have to do is find the pose of the day, either in our features section or online at ReNewHouston.com. In each daily post, you’ll find the video for your warmup and detailed instructions to get into the pose of the day.
Then, snap a picture of yourself in the day’s pose and share it on social media with the hashtag #ReNewYogaChallenge for the chance to see it online and in print.