Practicing yoga in the park can be a very refreshing moment with thrilling environmental views and a peaceful experience. However, you should also be concerned about your privacy and safety. Park areas with green grasses can provide a better setting for adventurous yoga including hand balances, arm balances, standing poses, etc.
But, a sudden thunderstorm may put an end to your yoga session before completing the exercises like Shavasana, or noise from the surrounding in the park may disturb you in practicing yoga.
Although, the above statement doesn’t encourage you to practice yoga in the park. You can follow these simple tips to avoid disturbance, privacy, and safety.
Why Practice Yoga in the Park?
Practicing yoga indoors has been a recent scenario as per the international yoga instructors. They believe that yogis do yoga in outdoor places like parks, beautiful landscapes, and open areas.
Rather than practicing yoga in a confined room, yoga in the park can be very revitalizing and energizing while enjoying nature’s beauty, interconnecting with other lives, and enjoying refreshing air.
There is no cost to practice yoga outdoors, no studio or gym membership fees. If you think you can practice easily, find your favorite park, put down the mat, and take some time to enjoy wonderful yoga exercises.
7 Tips while practicing yoga in the park
Practically, there could be numerous tips you can follow while practicing yoga in the park. But, the following ones are our recommended tips and guides. Here is the list of tips:
- Your privacy concern
- Yoga mat or not
- Dress for dirt
- Safety should be your priority
- Check weather conditions
- Look for a shade with a good view
- Use earphone and listen to music
1. Your privacy concern
Practicing yoga in the park can be an intimate experience putting yourself in vulnerable positions. Even though you are enjoying the natural beauty of the yoga sessions, spectators roaming around can compromise your privacy and safety aspects.
Keeping this in mind, we would recommend practicing yoga in places within the park where you will not have regular spectators and you can fully concentrate on your yoga exercises. However, you should be focusing more on yoga rather than how people around you judge.
2. Yoga mat or Not
Depending on your personal choice, you can opt for a thick and soft yoga mat or opt for nature’s yoga mat: Grass
While you are practicing yoga in the park, it is not necessary to use a yoga mat. Take advantage of nature’s yoga mat that helps indirectly transferring electrical currents from the soil to your body. It is believed that electrical current from the soil can normalize the body’s circuitry system.
Direct contact with soft grass by your hands and feet can be forgiving and playful with additional health benefits like pain relief or optimizing vital energies.
Moreover, as discussed in my earlier article (How can a food handler identify pathogens), not all microbes and bacterias are bad. Many bacteria living in the soil are also helpful for soil nutrients as well as the human body.
On the other hand, a yoga mat is made of rubber that is a bad conductor of electrical current. However, we would recommend carrying one yoga mat for emergency purposes if you notice obstacles like sharp stones, prickly plants, or splinters.
3. Dress for dirt
First, you should decide whether you love getting dirty. If not, you should not practice yoga in the park or outdoors. It is obvious that while doing yoga outdoors, your yoga pants, hands, knees, feet, and mat will get dirty.
We would recommend you take wear old yoga pants and use an old yoga mat while practicing yoga in the park. You can also follow few simple tips to avoid getting dirty as far as possible including:
- check surroundings before placing a mat on it, choose a clean debris-free area
- Look out for remnants of animal, broken glasses, and cigarette butts
- Check whether the grass is wet or dry before putting down a mat on it
4. Safety should be your priority
Before practicing yoga in the park, you need to solve some safety issues. Carefully place your mat on the grass and test your balance through a few warm-up positions. Make sure there are no rocks, sticks, or any other obstacles on the ground below you.
5. Check weather conditions
Before practicing yoga in the park bravely, pay close attention to the weather forecast. If severe or unfavorable weather such as rain, thunderstorms, or low temperatures is approaching, plan accordingly and consider indoor alternatives.
In addition to extreme weather, strong winds can also have a major impact on your balance and alignment. Strong gusts of wind blow grass and dirt off the ground, which may obstruct your vision.
Find a cool place to protect yourself from direct sunlight. Use sunscreen and sunglasses in case if you get exposed to the sun. If you happen to look up at the sun, soften your gaze or close your eyes.
Pay attention to the constantly changing weather. If the weather becomes dangerous, please pack your belongings and take refuge at any time.
6. Look for a shade with a good view
When you reach a park, assess what is your direct line of sight like buildings, playgrounds, or roads. Places with a clear and astonishing view of mountains, cities, or roads will create a positive vibe and you will enjoy practicing yoga in the park.
Finn, a popular yoga instructor recommends making the most of your outdoor environment and truly connect with them, direct your exercises to the natural landscape as much as possible, even if your only choice is a group of trees or an artificial garden.
In theory, stretching your body in a sunny place is exhilarating. But in reality, you may sweat and be uncomfortable.
He recommends looking for a place that is completely or partially shaded, or just to go out at the mildest time of the day like before 10 am or after 4 pm.
7. Use earphone to listen to music
Practicing yoga in the park may seem quiet, but the truth is that you may hear traffic noises, children playing, or the sounds of passersby.
If you are in a park, wearing headphones can help you find your little private world. It makes you less worried about what people think of you. You can put on any music that can help you focus on yoga exercise.
6 Perfect places for outdoor yoga
Regardless of your skill level, practicing yoga outdoors is an incredible experience. Now is the best time to go out and try. Here is the list of six beautiful outdoor places to practice yoga.
- Near the beach
- On the Balcony
- On your Backyard
- Yoga in the park
- Along the trail
- Near the lake
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Perfect pose for yoga in the park
Practicing yoga in the park will be refreshing with the connection to nature. To amplify these connections, let’s discuss 5 grounding yoga poses to help create extra space within your body.
1. Vrksasana or tree pose
Stand up straight, sink your left foot, and stretch your left thigh muscles upward. Bend your right knee and place your high on your left thigh. Press the right foot firmly on the left thigh, and at the same time press the left thigh on the right foot to form an energy balance.
Put your hands together in prayer and find balance when you put your eyes in front of you. Take a deep breath and lift your arms above your head gracefully. Breathe deeply for 5 times, then place your hands gently on the heart. Lower your right leg to meet your left leg, and place your arms at your sides, facing the mountain pose.
2. High Crescent lunge
Take a step back with your left foot in High Lunge, keeping your heel raised. Land on the ground with the front and back feet. Mobilize your thigh muscles and hug them at your midline. Interlock your thumbs and raise your arms from the bottom up.
3. Virabhadrasana or airplane pose
Starting from a high lunge, drag down with all four corners of the forefoot, extend your arms back, place your chest on your right thigh, and fly in an airplane pose. By activating your left leg and foot, press back while straightening your hips to create more stability. The more you press your support, the higher your heart will rise.
4. Padasana or standing split
Put your hands on your heart, lean forward, bend your torso onto your right leg, and do the standing splits. Place your hands on both sides of your right foot and press down with your standing foot.
Raise the kneecap while drawing energy from the ground through the right leg to make the supporting leg firm and extend to the front crease. Lift your left leg with your breath, then spread it along with the toes of your left foot.
5. Ardha Chandrasana or half moon pose
Starting from the standing splits, place your hands on your heart, place your right hand directly under your right shoulder, and then place your left hand on your left hip. Fold your left hip directly above your right hip and align your left shoulder directly above your right side.
When lifting and stretching to raise legs and arms, use the supporting legs to root yourself in the ground and expand in all directions.
Take a deep breath 5 times, then release the position by bending your knees and bringing both of your feet into contact. When standing up, move your feet down and place your arms at your sides. Repeat poses 2 to 5 times on the other side.
What are the benefits of outdoor yoga?
For a long time, yoga has been a sport that encourages you to communicate with yourself, relax, relieve stress, and most importantly, reconnect with nature.
Many of us take our mats to classes and studios, but how about practicing yoga in the park or outdoors? The benefits of outdoor yoga are endless, and you are encouraged to take your mat outdoors.
The benefits are endless, but here are some of our choice.
Provides better room to breathe
In the busy indoor classes that most of us are used to, practicing yoga outdoors is a relief. The busy room and finger taps with strangers are not what we are meant for! Therefore, instead of going to the confined yoga rooms, it is better to pick up the mattress and go out.
There is room to breathe in the afternoon sun. Practicing yoga in the park provides you with the space you need and you can move your body as needed.
Reconnect with nature
Yoga is an exercise designed to be more in harmony and in contact with the nature around us. Many poses in practice are named after animals and their movements.
Outdoor yoga is good for your body and mind, making you more in harmony with yourself and the world around you. Doing yoga in the park will open up your heart to your surroundings.
Instead of listening to music through the speaker, it is better to enjoy a simple bird song. Instead of seeing your mentor on the screen, why not write down your process. Spend as much time as possible in the practice and reconnect with the world around you.
Benefits mental health
Going out, returning to nature, and exercising is good for our mental health. This is not new to us. Outdoor yoga practice combines exercise to release natural emotional stimulants (endorphins) and the natural world. These two work very well together and enhance your self-awareness.
From feeling more confident and happy to carefree and open, outdoor yoga is good for your mental health. Maybe you just need to spend 30 minutes for yourself during the day! Yoga is such a wonderful practice, it can be done at any time with the least equipment and the least time.
Now, more than ever, we need time to control ourselves, move our bodies, and enjoy outdoor activities as much as possible. For many of us, this means the balcony of an apartment, the backyard of a house, or opening all the windows and practicing under the sun on the floor. If possible, practice yoga in the park, outdoors, enjoy nature, and benefit from it.
Absorb an adequate amount of vitamin D
Starting or ending the day with outdoor yoga also means taking extra vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential and it is a good mood booster, it can keep our bones strong and muscles healthy.
Therefore, when you practice yoga outdoors, you are not just for exercise. You are using vitamin D from the sun to heal, maintain and improve your body.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Is it weird to do yoga in a park?
Parks will be filled with spectators and passersby who will be roaming. But it is yet another good place to practice yoga. They can be filled with various structures to balance or test your yoga aerial movements, or just have large green spaces to stretch out.
Q2. Can we do yoga in the open air?
Practicing yoga in the park in open air will ensure that you inhale better quality air, thereby breaking down pollutants and toxins that may accumulate in the alveoli. With better oxygen, you will inhale and exhale more air, thereby improving heart function and improve overall body health.
Q3. What are the principles of yoga?
There are 5 principles attached to yoga. These include;
1. Beneficial exercise
2. Correct breathing
3. Complete relaxation
4. Balanced diet
5. Positive thinking
Q4. Can I do yoga in my room?
It is safe to do yoga in your room as long as your room has enough space and you follow the safety tips and avoid bumping into the tables, chairs, and other furniture.
Q5. Which yoga poses are dangerous?
Standing on the shoulders and then performing a plow pose is one of the most common sequences in general yoga classes. However, many yoga practitioners suggest that these two positions have an excessively high risk of neck injury. These yoga postures put people at risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.
Conclusion
The purpose of yoga is to create harmony in the human body, psychology, and spirit. In the article, I discussed on few tips and techniques in different postures along with perfect poses.
Yoga is not just one or two hours a day of practice, it is the most scientific way of life, twenty-four hours a day. You can be in one of these five positions throughout the day, so clever adjustments to them will produce the desired harmony.
Turn life into yoga to ensure success in all areas of activity. Through regular practice, using your calmness, skills, and wisdom, you can become a yogi and enjoy happiness and peace, no matter what environment and conditions you are in.
