I’ve mentioned a few times now that I use Jessica Olie’s “Lets Start Yoga” E-book. For those of you who follow Jess on Instagram (@JessicaOlie) You’d know her e-book was released not too long ago and since I was already so inspired by her practice I knew I had to get it for myself. Even though I had already been doing for about 6 months and I was progressing well, there was no doubt that an e-book like this would be beneficial for my practice. I’ll admit, I learn best through videos, I prefer watching someone do something and following them rather than looking at pictures and words describing what to do. If her e-book was released a year ago, maybe I wouldn’t have bought it. But after I had started Kayla Itsines’s BBG (also an e-book) I thought If I can work it out for BBG and I’m doing better than with any workout plan before, surely I can with Lets Start Yoga too. Jess doesn’t lie about her e-book helping you no matter where you are in your practice. There are many asanas I already know how to do, i have my own routine and I know how i like to practice, but after going through her e-book I realised what changes I needed to make to improve many aspects of my yoga practice. Being Self-taught always has it's downsides. There were things I had no idea was doing wrongly and sometimes no matter how much you look online, most websites just tell you the same thing over and over. As great at this e-book is, I’ll say right now, it is not a miracle worker! I’ve seen comments on Instagram about how some people expect this e-book to teach you every complex asana that Jess can do. There is no short cut to learning yoga, it will take work and you need to start with learning the basics first. Lets Start Yoga will teach you the fundamentals you need to either start your practice or improve what you're doing now. As I said earlier, I wasn't exactly a complete beginner when I bought her e-book but using it has already increased my flexibility drastically! I know the one thing many yogis want to achieve is the splits. I did too (since i was like 6) and though I was pretty close to it on my right side (right leg forward) before, her splits flow has really transformed my practice and progress. I do her splits flow every second day and though I do get lazy to work my weaker side some days, I love seeing the progress I've made on my stronger side. The bottom photo was from January, and believe me, back then I thought this was as good as it would get for me! i kept pushing myself but my improvent was slow. I did get myself into a straighter split by the time Jess's e-book was released but most of this progress was made from Lets Start Yoga alone! I'll include a second progress photo at the end of this post of my 3 week splits difference on the guide. My flexibility has definitely seen progress aside from the splits as well. And recently I've started working on my headstands again. Since I've started my daily handstand practice my other inversions have really suffered. I've never had a proper method to learning headstands beside "finding my own balance" after kicking up to a wall. Now that I've lost touch of it, I'm relearning headstand with Jess's e-book. I find myself getting closer to that amazing headstand lotus I always see Jess doing! Again, the e-book won't specifically teach you how to get into a headstand with lotus legs, but it would teach you the headstand foundation you'd need to be able to achieve this variation and many others. It still baffles me, but Jess's methods are much better than most videos I've used before. It's funny how sometimes we think we know what methods work best for us, then you're introduced to something new and it works like magic! There's really so much you can learn from Lets Start Yoga and I feel like I could write about all i've learned from it for ages but it's better to just try it out for yourself. Now for my 3 week splits progress, I know feeling like you're already at a certain point so there's no need to get help to progress, it'll just happen right?
I wasn't expecting much in 3 weeks, and i know many people will think this looks very similar. Look at the tiny differences, in the bottom photo my hips are more squared and my back straighter. Twisting so that my chest could face forward, instead of to the side, in the splits actually hurt me before! I know it would take ages to really get changes i could see, but that little bit of improvement (big improvement to me!) between these photos really surprised me. I've been wanting to square my hips for the longest time and I could finally do it a little this week without hurting myself. It was confusing and irritating trying to adjust my body to square my hips before; but now I know this helps. Knowing that I can do a flow which truly helps me improve motivates me. It makes me stronger and I love feeling that way! Even small progress is progress! And It's something I sure am proud of! I can't say it was anything else but Lets Start Yoga and some determination that got me here! And maybe a little help is all you need to push you to further your practice! After all, no matter how long you've practiced, you will always be learning new things about yoga, your practice and your body. Get Jessica Olie's e-book "Lets Start Yoga" Here
9 Comments
Ange
26/6/2015 05:11:01 am
Wow I must try this someday may I ask what kind of videos do you do or did when you first started yoga? Your blogs are amazing so inspirational !! Thanks again love and light 😁🙏🏻✨
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Aly R
26/6/2015 05:13:40 am
Hi! 😊 you definitely need to try it! This e-book has helped me so much!
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Jacelyn
27/6/2015 05:52:40 pm
Hello Aly, your blog is amazing! I was wondering if you could perhaps do a vid on some exercises you did to achieve splits? I would like to get this ebook, but I'm still schooling so it's a bit pricy for me!
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Aly R
29/6/2015 03:28:00 am
Thank you!!
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Jacelyn
1/7/2015 09:23:01 am
Hi Aly, I don't have an instagram account currently, I just chanced upon your blog! Do you only upload videos there? :O
Aly R
1/7/2015 09:32:08 am
Yeah i do 😊 if you do make an account you could look for it there! Not sure if i'm putting up videos on my blog yet
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Marie
16/4/2016 12:02:53 am
Hi !
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Sara
29/6/2016 03:25:31 am
Hi! I'm amazed with all I read about Jessica Olie's guide... But unfortunatelly I also can't aford the ebook, and even if I did I don't have a paypal acount... :/ So sad...
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Karen
27/12/2016 01:13:51 am
I can't afford them either ☹ .. If you find them could you please share it ? Much love. Thanks. Leave a Reply. |
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