Yoga

[OctopusArmEnvy]

I’ve been practising yoga for years on and off at home but I feel I lack direction and am not any more flexible/able than when I started. Has anyone come across a progressive program ie complete level 1 asanas and move on to level 2. Or a series of progressively more difficult salutations or something? Or a year of yoga practises getting more difficult??
Any help much appreciated

I've not come across a programme like that, but understand how you can feel a bit directionless. Yoga can be modified to different levels which will be about the strength, flexibility and speed between the poses. Getting a well illustrated book is interesting for understanding poses and ways of developing them. Progression is quite personal though and improving at yoga isn't necessarily what looks obvious such as getting more flexible, but more subtle such as holding poses with good posture. Sometimes progress can look backwards as people often "cheat" on posture in the early days and as the posture improves, apparent flexibility will decline. This is problably why there is a gap in the world of fitness orientated yoga. Different styles will have different layers of challenge so ashtanga is quite dynamic and more challenging than hatha.

For me, being "good" is accepting that I have the flexibility of a plank, but holding poses well within my body's limitations and developing stability and strength. Sadly after years, I still can't touch my toes, nowhere near 😂

I did ashtanga yoga which seemed to have a kind of progression...primary series, intermediate etc. If you google David Swenson you can get bits of his DVDs on YouTube to get a sort of idea.

However, I think that the simplest poses are challenging when you really concentrate on trying to get it completely right.

If you’re only practicing at home I’d suggest going to some classes, as it’s impossible to know if you’re doing poses correctly without teacher feedback. The fact that you say you are no more flexible/able than when you started suggests you would really benefit from it.

I stopped doing ashtanga and started vinyasa flow instead as my life got too busy for ashtanga. Vinyasa flow is still quite challenging though!