Yoga in the evening or yoga in the morning? What’s the best time to do your yoga routine? Well, I’m already going to spoil the answer as the best time to do yoga is whenever you’d like! There are a couple of things though that you need to be aware of when you are practicing yoga at a certain time, let’s dive a bit deeper into the times of days and which yoga might be best to do.

Yoga In The Morning

It’s a shame that a lot of yoga studios aren’t marketing yoga in the morning more often. It’s a great way to wake up and release the tension from sleeping in the night. Stretching your body in the morning is a great way to start your day and will make that you feel energized.

However, it also must be said that if you are doing yoga in the morning, you should be aware of a couple of things. Not all types of yoga might be suitable to practice in the morning as they might put you back to sleep again. And that’s not something you’d want just in the early morning.

For example, if you start your day by doing yin or restorative yoga, you might as well just take the whole day off. While you are doing these styles of yoga, you’ll be working more on relaxation than that you’ll be working on actually energizing yourself. And in the morning you don’t need a lot of relaxation as you just had a lot of that while you were sleeping.

Well, it depends, of course, if you didn’t have a good night then it might be best to start the day with some relaxing exercises.

Which Yoga To Do In The Morning?

Originally and historically, the best thing to do in the morning is to start with the Sun Salutations. Throughout the yogic philosophy, it’s been said that it’s best to start your day by saluting the sun. And in my scriptures, you’ll even find that it’s best to do when the sun is rising. And on top of that, you also have to face the sun as well. But in this way, it’s more of a prayer.

A lot of styles of yoga are good for you to do in the morning. As long as there is a flow of course. And you’ll also have to do it before breakfast. In the morning your body is waking up and after breakfast, your stomach is just settling in and waking up after a whole night of doing nothing (normally). So make sure you don’t make it too hard on yourself as doing yoga after breakfast might give you some unwanted results.

And besides that, yoga actually will help your body get a kickstart. If you do yoga before breakfast, your food will be processed faster and better as yoga will make sure that your stomach and intestines wake up!

And as I mentioned before, try not to do a lot of Yin Yoga in the morning as that will put everything back to sleep again. Especially if you are one of those snoozers. Just like you keep on hitting the snooze button, you’ll fall asleep in whatever pose you are doing. So make sure that you keep it vivid.

Yoga During The Day

This might be a bit harder to do as you’ll probably be at work. And also, yoga during the day isn’t that well-written about as you’ll be moving and having your daily chores to do. Even in Yogic philosophy they also didn’t mention a lot about doing yoga during the day. Which doesn’t mean it’s not good for you of course.

If you do want to do a bit of yoga during the day it might be a good idea to incorporate some yoga poses into your daily structure.

If you have a desk job, for example, it might be a good idea to do some back and wrist exercises as chairs aren’t made to be used all day for your back. I will do a video about it shortly, so keep this page bookmarked if you’d like to know which yoga poses might be good to do while you are sitting at your desk!

Yoga In The Evening

And of course, after everyone is finishing up their work, evening falls again. And probably for the majority of the people, this is the time that they are going to yoga classes. Meaning that there is also a very large range of yoga classes to be found during evening time. However, you probably need to be aware of a couple of things when you are going to your even class.

No biggie, just a couple of tips and tricks on how to get the best physical and mental benefits from your yoga class.

Which Yoga To Do In The Evening?

Well, to be honest, the best type of yoga to do in the evening is a soft and very relaxed class. You know, the opposite of what you are doing in the morning.

Evening time should be reserved as a moment of reflection and meditation before you are going to bed, so it should be better not to do a lot of heavy activity during evening hours. Your metabolism needs to slow down instead of creating more endorphins before you are going to bed.

Yin and Restorative Yoga, for example, are the ideal way to slow down in the evening and to relax your whole nervous system. Therefore, it might be the ideal type of yoga to practice in the evening. If you do find a class near you around 9 PM or something, that would be ideal. After your class, you probably won’t have a lot of things to do anymore anyway besides getting ready for bed.

How About An Active Type Of Yoga In The Evening?

For those who’d like to have a more active style of yoga in the evening, of course, it’s possible. You’ve just got to be aware of a couple of things and there are also a couple of tips and tricks to deal better with evening classes.

An active style of yoga can aid you with losing weight and might be a great way to substitute for a regular workout in the evening. This is why these days it’s getting more popular to practice styles like vinyasa or ashtanga. They are very dynamic and energetic, so they are ideal to get a bit of a workout. Of course, when you are looking for some intensive training, yoga won’t do the trick.

But back on topic, you can do vigorous styles of yoga in the evening too, as long as you make sure that you don’t go to bed right after you finished your practice. This is especially important for those who are doing an at-home practice. For those who are going to the studio, you probably take up about half an hour to get home anyway.

Of course, if you have done your evening exercise/yoga, it might be good to stay up for about an hour to make sure that you give your body the time to relax and unwind from the workout that you just had. Drink a cup of tea, do a little meditation, it all will help you go into a deeper sleep than you normally would. Which makes all the above a great way of improving your sleep hygiene.

So yes, you can keep on practicing your ashtanga yoga in the evening, just make sure that you also have a proper cool-down.

Conclusion

That’s about it for this article. If you’ve got experiences if your own by doing some high activity yoga at night, please let me know how it was for you when you were going to bed. Or if you have an amazing night-time ritual, feel free to share it with us!

Nama-stay wonderful!