The Best Yoga Challenges To Become a Pro

If you’ve been keeping up with social media these days, you know how prevalent “challenges” are right now. Yoga challenges happen to make the list of popular challenges on social media networks. The best yoga challenge is one that you can meet but does challenge you every day. If you want a good yoga challenge, the following guide has several yoga workout options for you to consider. 

There’s no doubt that a daily yoga practice is good for you. Yoga isn’t just one of the fastest-growing movements on the planet. It’s also a great way to bring your body, mind, and spirit together in balance and in tune with each other. Plus, you get bonuses such as better and stronger toned muscles, better flexibility, more mobility, improved circulation, and it promotes effective deep breathing habits. 

One of the challenges of a yoga challenge is the ability to get to your local yoga studio. So, you are likely using a home workout program or an online yoga class to enjoy your part of the mindful movement. Practicing yoga isn’t just an exercise or workout routine. Yoga is a strict, yet relaxing way to achieve more balance in your life. Can’t we all use more of that nowadays?

The next several paragraphs will cover several 30-day yoga (more or less) challenges that you can do in the comfort of your own home. Please remember not to overdo your stretches. If you have physical challenges, are pregnant, or have health issues, please consult your doctor before jumping into any physical challenge, much less a yoga challenge. 

What Is a Yoga Challenge?

What is a yoga challenge? Since you are probably familiar with yoga, the description of a yoga challenge is simply an online trend where you are invited, usually via social media, to take pictures or videos of yourself practicing various yoga asanas, yoga poses, or short yoga vinyasa sequences. 

Many yoga challenges will have a specific set of asanas for each day of the challenge for you to discover, explore, and reflect upon. Yoga challenges can last from a week up to 365 days, depending on your level of commitment, and what you want to achieve with your yoga journey. 

If you’re a beginner yogi, 7 to 21 days is plenty of challenge for you. If you’re ready to take on more than a couple of weeks, feel free to get involved in a 6-month to a full year of yoga through a challenge. Challenges include an online venue where you will meet for your daily yoga practice during the challenge. 

Most people join 30-day yoga challenges to try out programs before they pay for them. Not all yoga challenges are free, so make sure you are getting what you want from yours before you choose one. 

Is a Yoga Challenge Really Yoga-Centric?

Since yoga is about balance and focus, how is a yoga challenge yoga-friendly? Some people may even consider it un-yogic. That’s because yoga is more focused on your inner self. Yoga classes are focused on the physical part of the practice that involves asana and vinyasa. 

There are those who will debate that taking video footage or pictures of yourself when practicing yoga in a yoga challenge is an egocentric ideal, which breaks the “yoga code”. However, most people view it as taking accountability for your own yoga practice, therefore making it yoga-centric. 

Yoga is a life-long practice, while a yoga challenge is only for a few days, weeks, months, or up to a year. Once you reach the end of your challenge, you are ready to keep moving forward with whatever class you have chosen for your yoga practice. You won’t be taking videos and pictures forever. It’s not that you can’t occasionally share your yoga with others, but you don’t want to make a habit of that instead of practicing yoga. 

Essentially, yoga challenges can help you on your yoga journey. If you feel that it’s not suitable to share your journey, no one can tell you that you have to share it. Your intentions for joining a yoga challenge are yours, and no one else’s. You do you.

What You Need to Get Started

Before you get into the yoga challenge poses, you need to have a few things to get started. You will need a yoga mat, which is something you can get online, or at any department or sporting goods store. For more challenging yoga asanas, it’s recommended that you have yoga blocks, and a yoga strap handy. Also, you need to have plenty of space within which to work your yoga magic. 

You may also want to dress the part by wearing yoga-friendly leggings and tops as you can get from Alo Yoga, Sweaty Better, Lululemon, Fabletics, or whatever your favorite brand of yoga apparel is right now. You have plenty of options. Some of these yoga apparel companies also offer yoga equipment and online classes. 

If you aren’t a member of any online yoga communities, that also might help keep you encouraged and motivated through a yoga challenge. A few ideas for you include Ekhart Yoga, Tim Senesi, Apple Fitness, Lesley Fightmaster, Tara Stiles, or your own preferred yoga workout teacher or training via an app, video streaming, or through your television. 

Now that you know what you need to get your yoga challenges started, the rest of this guide will address yoga challenges at various levels, from beginners to advanced.

How to Get Started in a Yoga Challenge

Instagram is one of the most-used social media sites where you can find Instagram yoga challenges of all kinds hiding in plain sight. Just go check out your Instagram and search for the hashtag, yoga challenge. Facebook and YouTube also have several yoga challenges you can uncover. You can also do a web search on Google, Yahoo, or Bing if you like. 

Something you need to know is that yoga instructors or companies on Instagram sometimes sponsor yoga challenges where they give away prizes for joining the challenge if you stay with it for the duration. You also have to be consistent in showing up and meeting each daily challenge to get the prizes.

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The following list will give you some ideas of who offers yoga challenges, and how to get started.

1. 30/30 Yoga Challenge with Ekhart Yoga

This 30-day challenge is entitled the 30/30 Yoga Challenge because each session is 30 minutes for a full 30 days. The focus of the Ekhart Yoga 30/30 Yoga Challenge is on core and balance in a general and mixed yoga class. You will enjoy instructions from several of Ekhart’s professional yoga instructors in this challenge.

The website says this yoga challenge is suitable for all levels, but since it’s a dynamic challenge, you may want to look into it more before joining as a beginner. It says that it’s not meant for complete beginners or for anyone who is pregnant or recovering from an accident or injury.

You can expect a mix of styles like Yin, Restorative classes, and active Vinyasa Flow. The idea is to progress a bit further each week as the class progresses into levels two and three in the final two weeks.

1. Alo Yoga’s 30 Days of Mindful Movement 

Alo Yoga has an ongoing 30-day yoga challenge called 30 Days of Mindful Movement. Several qualified yoga instructors share in the challenge with their members. It’s a well-known and established community of online yoga classes. Alo Yoga also has physical studios and yoga apparel. 

The focus of 30 Days of Mindful Movement is to create better awareness and alertness through consistency in your yoga practice. You need to be dedicated to this, whether you are a beginner or an advanced yoga pro. Each week offers a new topic for you to work on. 

For instance, in Week 1, you will focus on setting your intentions and finding new ways of living. Week 2, the concentration is on energy. Week 3 is all about mindful movement and living in the here and now (the present), and the final week is all about power. You can see why you must be dedicated to this yoga challenge.

1. Tim Senesi’s Yoga With Time 30-Day Challenge

Tim Senesi offers a 30-Day Challenge for all fitness levels, so there’s no guessing about whether you can meet the challenges. It’s free to get started with Tim’s 30-day yoga challenge. Tim also offers retreats, the Conscious Movement Community, and a Morning Yoga Challenge, all from his website. 

Each yoga challenge video is 30 minutes long. Once you signup, you will get a daily email complete with the daily challenge video and some nice words of wisdom he will share with you. 

Tim recommends that you subscribe to his YouTube channel, Yoga With Tim, to get the most out of your 30-day challenge with him and your yoga practice in general. 

1. Lesley Fightmaster’s Yoga for Beginners 30-Day Challenge

Lesley Fightmaster Yoga has its own website where Lesley offers a 30-day yoga challenge for beginners. If you’re a beginner yogi, Lesley says this challenge is just right for you. You will start by learning the proper alignment and how to safely practice yoga. The initial days are easy enough for you to meet the challenges. 

As with most yoga challenges, the classes will progress into more challenging poses, but nothing that a beginner who has been working on the challenge daily can’t handle. The first class focuses on ujjayi breathing, also called pranayama. Also, the focus will be on your spine’s natural curves and how to support them during yoga. 

The first class will include some simple and easy yoga poses for the beginner. Lesley uses daily reviews of the previous day’s class before moving on to more challenging things. Lesley is a certified yoga instructor with the Yoga Alliance. 

1. The 30 Days of Yoga Series with Adriene 

Yoga with Adriene offers several programs for beginners to yoga schools and teachers. If you’re a beginner, Adriene recommends her 30 Days of Yoga series, which can be downloaded for offline use for a donation or watched on YouTube streaming. 

Adriene also has a free yoga camp option for those who want to enjoy more challenges. Again, you can also download these for offline use with her “Pay What Feels Good” donation option. The website shows a full lineup of yoga programs and challenges from which to choose. 

Adriene also has several paid programs for various specific solutions, which include a 7-day Chakra Ride, Prenatal package, and Empower, Rise, or Reboot programs. Adriene offers more than just one yoga challenge. 

1. Jessica Rose’s 30-Day Yoga Challenge

Jessica Rose is a yoga teacher who was once an English teacher in Kansas City. She now lives abroad and travels teaching yoga to others. Her award-winning 30-Day Yoga Challenge is well-known around the world.

Rose focuses on how important biomechanics and proper alignment are to your body, mind, and spirit connection. Her true passion manifests in the exploration of topics, humor, playfulness, and consistency in yoga practice. This 30-day challenge provides you with 10- to 20-minute streaming yoga sessions to get you started with relaxation and yoga. 

Within one month, you will enjoy better flexibility, balance, and strength when you partake consistently and daily. You need no experience with yoga to start. This 30-day challenge is also a gift of a 30-day free trial of Jess Rose’s yoga opportunity. It’s a great way to get started on your yoga journey. 

1. 7-Day Yin Yoga Immersion with Kassandra

Yoga with Kassandra offers a mobile app just like most of the others on this list. The one chosen for this list from Yoga with Kassandra is the 7-Day Yin Yoga Immersion Challenge because it’s different from the rest.

This challenge is ideal for all fitness levels, including beginners, and it’s 100% free to join the challenge. The benefits of a consistent Yin Yoga practice include things like better flexibility, reduced anxiety and stress, higher mental focus and clarity, better sleep quality, and improved joint mobility, which results in an overall better quality of life.

This website also includes some quick navigation links to Free Morning Yoga Movement, Free Beginner Yoga Journey, Free Teach Yin Yoga Webinar, and the focus of this challenge on the list, the Free Yin Yoga Immersion challenge.

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It seems like there’s something for almost everyone.

1. 14 Day Stay Home, Stay Fit Challenge

This one is hosted by DoYou on YouTube as a 14-Day Stay Home, Stay Fit Challenge. No gym equipment is required to use this YouTube playlist of 14 days of getting fit and strong, 20 minutes per day.

The description says this is ideal for all fitness levels and that it helps you with strength-building, fat-fighting, cardio-boosting, and overall yoga wellness. This challenge is free on YouTube, but if you want more from DoYou, then you will need to pay for a subscription to one of their yoga plans.

The 14-Day Challenge videos start with Cardio Crush on day one, Core Power on day two, Total Body, Strength & Balance on day three, Lower Body Sculpt on day four, etc. Day seven is a Rest Day Stretch, and the rest of these videos focus on core, cardio, upper body, lower body, and total body yoga workouts.

The Different Formats of Yoga

There are so many different formats of yoga for different body types, different fitness levels, etc. However, here is a brief list of different types of yoga. 1) Face Yoga, 2) Yin Yoga, 3) Yang Yoga, 4) Power Yoga, 5) Restorative Yoga, and 6) Prenatal Yoga. This is a short list. You can even find yoga that is suitable for people with large breasts, weight loss, balance, mental focus, and more.

Though all yoga comes with benefits such as improved concentration, higher immunity, stress reduction, boosted calm and happiness, better sleep cycles, improved physical stamina, boosted blood circulation and lymph drainage, better digestion, and more. 

There is research that shows the therapeutic benefits of yoga and how it improves your overall quality of life. 

Conclusion

Being a yogi that regularly practices yoga goes beyond any one 7-day, 21-day, or 30-day challenge. It’s a lifelong commitment to a better quality of life, as research has proven. When you are selecting a yoga challenge for yourself, make sure it suits your fitness level, and that you have no health conditions or injuries that might impact or limit the poses you can perform.

Most yoga challenges are suitable for beginners, but you still need to read between the lines, ask questions, and learn more about the challenge before engaging. If you find a yoga challenge on Instagram or other social networks, make sure to reach out to the provider or instructor and ask questions about fitness level suitability, difficulty, and what is covered in the challenge. 

Finally, it’s always smart to consult with your doctor before engaging in any kind of new exercise, stretches, or dietary plan. There are yoga challenges, programs, and poses suitable for almost every fitness level.