When you first decide to take a yoga class, you may find that you make quick progress in terms of improved fitness and endurance levels, enhanced flexibility and better posture and so on. I also find the same when I teach a yoga class; that many of my students make steady and visible progress: becoming stronger, leaner and fitter. However, it is also true that after a certain amount of time one’s yoga practice reaches a plateau and one may be unable to make progress beyond a point. If you take a yoga class you may also experience this after some months.
Hitting a plateau is natural
Athletes and sports persons of all types experience this dreaded plateau. This is because the body is designed to get used to and adjust to what it undergoes on a regular basis; in other words we adapt to our environment. People undergoing a weight loss regimen will also find that after losing a certain amount of weight, their weight plateaus and the body stubbornly refuses to lose any more weight!
The body adapts its processes to align with increased caloric expenditure (exercise) or caloric restriction (reduced or modified intake) over time. This is the reason that elite athletes involve themselves in cross training or why they tweak and change their diet, training regimens, schedules and so on. It could be that the body’s metabolism changes to accommodate the changes that it experiences. It could be that the body’s cells simply ‘get used to’ their new reality.
How to get over that plateau
So if you find that you’ve hit a plateau as you do yoga, the advice that I give to my students may be useful to you as well:
- Try something different. You could change your routine completely or tweak it substantially so that the body is ‘surprised’ by something new. Increase the intensity or duration of your class. If the body has grown used to your regular routine and has stopped responding to it, it will react to new aasans that it has not experienced before.
- Challenge yourself. If there are aasans or positions that you have not tried so far because they seemed too difficult or because you were unable to do them earlier, retry these. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that regular yoga classes have improved your fitness and flexibility; that you are actually able to do things that you could not earlier. Doing something challenging and difficult could also help you emerge from that rut where you stopped making progress.
- Examine other areas of your life. If you’ve stopped making progress with your yoga or if you find that you have regressed in some way, examine other areas of your life. Are you under more stress than usual? Have your sleep and work patterns changed? Have you changed the way you eat? Maybe you have reverted to some of your previous bad habits or have been skipping yoga classes recently? Remember consistency is important. While you may change or tweak your routine, consistency and application are vital!
- Compare notes with a friend, fellow yoga buff or your teacher. You may find the tips you need from someone else; insight that you may not have been able to gain on your own.
- Take a break. Travel or do something that if not your usual routine. Sometimes this helps because the body will adjust to the break as well! Then when you restart, you may find that you are able to make fresh gains!
- Accept. Acceptance is important in yoga. It is of course important to strive to improve and progress. However each of us has a biological limitation that is important to discover and accept.