New to Yoga? Start with Erin's Intro to Yoga Series

If you’re brand new to yoga, a regular class can feel like walking into the middle of a conversation. The teacher says “chaturanga” like you know what it means. Everyone else seems to know where their back foot goes. You’re looking around the room (or at the screen) trying to copy, and it’s hard to breathe and copy at the same time.

That’s exactly why I made the Intro to Yoga Series. It slows everything down and takes the poses apart one at a time, so that when you do take a full class, you already know the language.

Erin Sampson teaching in a warrior pose in the studio, camera monitor in foreground

What the series is

I filmed most of these tutorials back in 2015, in Costa Rica and Colorado. The basics haven’t changed since then, and neither has my advice. In several of them my friend Carrie joins me as a model. I can’t be in your living room to give you physical adjustments, so I show them on her instead, and you get to see the alignment from the side while I explain it from the front.

Each video is short, most of them 10 to 30 minutes, and each one focuses on one or two poses or one piece of a class. You can watch them in order or pick the one you need.

Start here: what actually happens in a yoga class

My first recommendation is the Yoga Warmups tutorial, because it explains the whole shape of a class before you have to do one. In every yoga class, no matter where you go, you’ll have a warm-up section and a work section. Then there’s a restorative, cool-down section at the end. The lengths change from class to class, but that’s the structure.

A lot of classes start with pranayama, which is simply a breathing exercise. The one you’ll hear cued most often is ujjayi, the victorious breath. It’s audible, and you breathe in and out through your nose. That sound helps warm the breath, and it’s also a reminder to stay present with your breathing.

Then comes the warm-up, and its goal is to open up the spine in all directions. We go slowly so we don’t jar our bodies into anything vigorous. After that come the standing poses and the floor work. Shavasana closes it out. I call shavasana the most important pose, and I’ll keep saying it.

I also mention inversions in that video, almost as an afterthought (I forgot them on my first pass, and you can hear me catch it). An inversion is any time your head is below your heart. It doesn’t have to mean a fancy handstand.

Erin Sampson teaching on a mat in a studio with a camera and monitor in the foreground

Then: the foundations

Once you know the shape of a class, these four tutorials cover the poses you’ll see in almost every flow.

Mountain pose and the warriors. In Warrior and Sun Salute we start with mountain pose. It seems simple, but it’s a really important pose, and getting the alignment right there makes everything else easier. Bring your feet hip distance apart and spread your toes wide. Then rock around a little until you can feel your whole foot. Then we build the warrior poses, which are the foundation of so many standing postures, and put it all together in a basic sun salutation.

The standing poses. Standing Postures covers low lunge and crescent lunge, then triangle and extended side angle. The first thing I want you to find in low lunge is a 90 degree angle in your front leg, with your ankle stacked right over your knee. If you’re tight in the hips, prop yourself up. Blocks are great, and soup cans or a pile of books work too.

Chair and eagle. In Chair and Eagle, the cue that changes everything is this: shift your weight back into your heels, so much that you can wiggle your toes. When you look down, you should be able to see your toes, which means your knees aren’t jutting forward.

Plank, then chaturanga. Plank and Side Plank builds the strength and alignment you need for the Chaturanga tutorial. Learn these two before you do a lot of vinyasa. Chaturanga shows up in a flow over and over, and doing it with good alignment from the start protects your wrists and shoulders.

Put it together

When you’re ready to practice a full class, take my Yoga Class for Complete Beginners. It’s about 50 minutes and moves real slow, with a lot of information and alignment cues along the way. It’s also full of permission. If your legs stay bent in downward dog, that’s absolutely fine. If your twist only goes a little way, that’s fine too. Stay tall and keep breathing. Don’t round your back just to twist further.

Later: when you’re curious

The series keeps going past the basics, so it can grow with you. There are tutorials for crow and side crow, plus the crow jump back and a tripod headstand press-up. You’ll also find inversion tutorials, like shoulderstand and forearm balance. For backbends there’s the Camel and Rabbit tutorial. Save these for when the foundations feel steady. And in every one of them, the same rule applies: if you feel anything uncomfortable, back out of it. There should be no pain.

A few things I tell every beginner

You don’t need fancy props. A block helps, but books work. A strap helps, but a belt or a towel works.

Your pose doesn’t have to look like mine. I’ve been practicing for a long time. Work in the direction of the pose, not toward a picture.

Go slowly. Rushing is how people get hurt. Every one of these tutorials takes its time on purpose.

Every body is different, and every day is different. What’s available to you on Monday might not be there on Thursday. That’s normal.

If you want a gentle structure once you’ve finished the series, A Year of Yoga sends you one class a week for 52 weeks. And if one day you find yourself wanting to understand all of this from the inside out, that’s what our yoga teacher training in Costa Rica is for. A lot of teachers started exactly where you are now.