Flexibility is something that you develop through practicing yoga over time. It is not a prerequisite.

Say, you’re a guy or a girl. You’re not very flexible. You lift weights or do other kinds of exercise workouts. Maybe you’ve tried a yoga class and found that you don’t get deep into the poses like some of other students and found it discouraging that you were all angles and wobbles while others slid smoothly from pose to pose.

Yoga is feeling the poses from the inside out. It is knowing what your body can and cannot do and stopping before you push it too far.

When you go to a yoga class you’re going for yourself so that you can feel and/or look better. So do yourself a service and don’t get into competition by comparing how you look to how other students look to you. Everyone’s body is different!!! And even if they look the same on the outside, they’re going to be feeling something completely different on the inside. There is no comparison.

The best thing you can do for yourself as you begin a yoga practice is to check in with how you feel emotionally, mentally, and physically before a class, make an intention for the class and see how you feel after the class. Check in with where you are during the yoga class. Are you focused on your breath, poses, and the voice of the teacher? Or is your mind chattering incessantly? Continually draw your attention back into your body so you can be present with the effects of each position.

If you’re concerned about not being flexible enough just remember it’s not about how it looks, it’s about how it feels. If you’re bones make it so you’re naturally unflexible, you will never become flexible, but you will work-out and release a lot of tension if you continue your practice unperturbed. If you’re naturally flexible but have a huge amount of tension carried in your body, as you strengthen and stretch you will slowly regain your flexibility.