How Much Yoga Is Too Much? — Yoga Kali

✅ Fact Checked

1/4 Four Signs Your Body Needs A Break

Constant soreness

Muscle soreness occurs a day or two after an unusually intense physical activity and can last for a few days. Feeling slightly sore after a physical yoga class is totally fine. After all, yoga can be quite an intense full-body workout, especially if you take a fast Vinyasa or Power yoga class.

You can still do yoga with some slight soreness. However, the higher the soreness intensity, the higher the risk of injury.

Of course, it’s normal when you just fall out of the pose because your sore muscles just stop producing force. The worst scenario is when your body compensates for the strength in one muscle by recruiting another muscle that shouldn’t be doing that action.

A simple example is Chaturanga or Yogi Push Up. Ideally, we should engage muscles around our shoulders to perform the push-up correctly. These include scapulae muscles, pectorals, triceps among the others. If your scapulae (the muscles behind the shoulder blades) are sore from the last day’s workout, you’ll find it hard to keep your shoulder blades down and away from the ears while lowering down into Chaturanga. Instead, your shoulders will round, making the pectorals do the extra work. This overcompensation can potentially lead to strain and injury, especially if you’re performing multiple Chaturangas during your class.

Achy joints

Yoga is notorious for repetitive stress injuries and joint overuse. Doing multiple Vinyasa and hip openers during a yoga class means your wrists, shoulders, lower back and hips are going through the same movements over and over again, which may eventually lead to strain and pain.

Just like muscle soreness, joint pain may last for a few days and is a clear sign that your body requires a rest day.

You feel exhausted

Physical exercise, including yoga, can be a great way to energize your body. But if you’ve started your practice and you see that it’s just not working out and the fatigue grows exponentially, it’s better to cut your yoga session short. Take a long Savasana, relax in Legs Up The Wall, or meditate instead.

You can’t control your breath

Breath control takes practice and patience. If you’re new to yoga, it’s perfectly fine to feel your breath is slightly off. However, if you’re a seasoned yogi and you feel you can’t focus on your breath throughout your practice while normally you have it under control, this might be a sign that it’s time to take a rest day.

2/4 Is Doing Yoga Every Day Too Much?

There is no clear answer. Too much of the same type of yoga probably isn’t too good for your joints and muscles. Practicing intense Vinyasa every day might eventually lead to muscle fatigue and exhaustion.

Your body needs time to repair itself. It is likely more beneficial and balanced to do different types of yoga and alternate between strength-building, relaxing, and flexibility-focused practice.

For example, you can do a strength with flexibility session on Monday, a fast cardio yoga flow on Tuesday, and mobility-focused yoga on Wednesday. Check out this 4-week daily yoga calendar for a whole month of curated yoga practices.

3/4 Can You Do Too Much Yoga In A Day?

You can certainly do too much yoga in one day, especially with no prior experience.

So if you suddenly decided to do 108 Sun Salutations, think if you would run a marathon without prepping your body. You might succeed and be proud of yourself (I am proud of you too!), but unless you are a very athletic person, your body and joints won’t thank you the next day.

You know your body best and what it can handle. My personal rule of thumb is that if at the end of my yoga session I feel sore and extremely exhausted, it means this amount of yoga was too much.

4/4 Is 2 Hours Of Daily Yoga Too Much?

Practicing yoga for 2 hours daily isn’t necessarily too much. It depends on your current fitness level, your yoga experience, and the intensity of yoga you’re doing.

• If you’re practicing two hours of Vinyasa daily with no pain or soreness, and you feel healthy and happy – great!
• If you’re practicing Restorative yoga for two hours every day and it helps you wind down and relax – good for you!

However, if you at some point feel pain, joint discomfort, or exhaustion, you might be overdoing it. Despite what many people think, there is such thing as excessive yoga. Moreover, practicing just one type of yoga too much can worsen existing injuries or even cause new ones.

Always err on the side of caution when you feel any discomfort during your long yoga sessions. Don’t hesitate to take a rest day or two to give your muscles time to regenerate. You might also consider shortening the length as well as decreasing the intensity of your yoga classes.