Quick take
- Week 1: three sessions of 10 to 15 minutes. Week 4: four or five sessions, two of them 25 to 30 minutes.
- Each week adds a little time or one session. Never both at once.
- Move up only when the current week felt manageable. Repeating a week is part of the plan.
This plan suits anyone who has done a few sessions, including people who finished Your First Week, and wants a clear structure for the next month. It assumes no flexibility and no fitness base. If you have never practiced at all, read Start Here first so you know how to judge effort and breathing.
How the plan builds
The plan grows along two dials: how often you practice and how long each session lasts. Each week turns one dial a small amount. Changing both at once is how most beginner plans fall apart, because the jump feels bigger than it looks on paper.
Longer sessions come from stacking short routines back to back, while hold times stay the same. For example, the Morning Routine followed by the Tight Hips Routine gives you a full warm-up and then deeper work. When you stack two routines, skip the final rest of the first one and keep only the final rest at the end.
The routines rotate so you work the whole body across each week: spine and hips, upper back and shoulders, legs, core strength, and at least one slow, calming session.
The four weeks at a glance
| Week | Sessions | Typical length | Focus | New this week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 10 to 15 min | Learn the basic poses, find your effort level | The routine itself |
| 2 | 4 | 8 to 12 min | Consistency; one problem-area routine | A fourth session |
| 3 | 4 | 15 to 25 min | Two stacked sessions; first strength work | Longer sessions |
| 4 | 4 or 5 | 10 to 30 min | A steady weekly rhythm you can keep | An optional fifth session |
Spread sessions out where you can, for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday in week 1. Practicing two days in a row is fine, especially when the second day is a gentle routine.
Week by week
Week 1: three short sessions
Session 1
Morning Routine
Your reference point for the month. Note which poses feel stiff. 10-Minute Morning Routine
Session 2
Lower Back Relief
Floor-based and slow. Good on a day you feel stiff or tired. Lower Back Relief
Session 3
Morning Routine
Repeat it and compare. The cues should already feel more familiar. 10-Minute Morning Routine
Goal for the week: finish all three sessions at a 4 to 6 out of 10 effort, without holding your breath.
Week 2: add a fourth session
Session 2
Neck & Shoulder Release
For the upper back and neck that sitting tightens. Neck & Shoulder Release
Goal for the week: four sessions, same anchor time for most of them. The desk session counts as a full session even though it is short.
Week 3: make two sessions longer
Session 1
Morning + Tight Hips
Stack them: the morning routine warms you up, the hips routine goes deeper. About 25 minutes. Morning, then Tight Hips
Session 2
Core & Strength Flow
Your first strength session. Use the easier versions of Plank and Boat Pose the first time. Core & Strength Flow
Session 4
Morning + Neck & Shoulders
The second stacked session, around 20 minutes. Morning, then Neck & Shoulders
Goal for the week: two longer sessions without feeling drained afterwards. If 20 to 25 minutes is too much, stop after the first routine and do a 2-minute rest.
Week 4: settle into a rhythm
Session 1
Morning + Core
Warm up, then strength. Try one or two harder variations if week 3 felt fine. Morning, then Core & Strength
Session 3
Morning + Tight Hips
Repeat week 3's stacked session and notice what has changed in Low Lunge and Figure Four. Tight Hips Routine
Session 4
Your choice
Pick the routine that best fits what your body needs that day. Runners can try Yoga for Runners.
Session 5 (optional)
Bedtime Wind-Down
Add it only if the first four sessions felt easy to fit in. Bedtime Wind-Down
Goal for the week: a pattern that feels like part of your week instead of a project. Write down which days and times worked; that becomes your ongoing schedule.
How to tell you're ready to progress
Move to the next week when most of these are true about the current one:
- You finished all the sessions, or all but one.
- You could breathe slowly through your nose in most poses.
- Soreness the next day was mild or absent.
- You did not dread the sessions. Some reluctance to start is normal; dread is a sign the plan is too big.
- You know the main poses by name and rarely need to look at the screen.
If two or more are false, repeat the week. Repeating is not falling behind. Many people take six or eight weeks to get through this plan, and they tend to keep practicing afterwards because they never overreached.
If you miss days
You will miss some. Illness, travel, a bad week at work: the plan has to survive all of that. Use these rules:
- Missed one session: skip it and carry on with the next one. Do not double up.
- Missed half a week: finish the week's remaining sessions, then repeat that week before moving on.
- Missed a whole week or more: restart at the last week you completed fully. Your body keeps most of what it gained over a week or two away, but your habit slips faster, and an easier restart rebuilds it.
- Sick or injured: rest, then come back with gentle routines like Lower Back Relief or Bedtime Wind-Down for a few sessions before returning to the plan.
On a day you cannot do the full session, do two minutes: three rounds of Cat-Cow, a minute in Child's Pose and five slow breaths. It keeps the streak alive and counts as a session for the purpose of the habit.
What comes after
After four weeks you have a habit and a working knowledge of the basic poses. From here, the aim is to keep it going and make it fit your life. A few options:
Keep week 4 as your standard week
Four sessions, one or two stacked, rotating the routines. Many people practice this way for years. It is enough for steady gains in mobility and comfort.
Build around a goal
Pick the area you care about most and do its routine twice a week: back, hips, running recovery or strength. Fill the other sessions with general routines.
Go longer once a week
Stack three routines for one session of about 35 minutes, for example Morning, Hips and Bedtime on a weekend. Keep the other sessions short.
Refine the poses
Read the Pose Guide entries for the poses you do most, and Common Mistakes for the small setup errors that make poses harder than they need to be.