Where to start if you have never practised

The biggest obstacle before a first class is neither flexibility nor time. It is the belief that yoga starts at the pose you saw on Instagram, and that you are supposed to reach it on your own.

What you actually need

• A mat, or simply a floor that does not slide.
• Twenty minutes when nobody needs you.
• Clothes you can stop thinking about.

That is the list. A towel does the work of a strap, a stack of books the work of a block. Buying equipment before you know whether this suits you is money spent on a guess.

The first week

Pick a beginner class under 25 minutes and return to it three times. Do not hunt for a new one each day: the body learns by repetition, not by variety.

Twenty minutes three times a week does more than an hour once a month.

If a movement will not come, skip it. Nobody is offended by that in a recording, and the body learns that the mat is not a place where it is forced.