Morning or evening? Choosing your batch

Four times a day, five days a week. Which one suits you has less to do with yoga than with your commute, your sleep and who else is in the room.

There is no better time, only a better fit

People expect this answer to be morning, and plenty of traditions say so. In practice the batch that works is the one you can reach without rearranging your life, and the difference between a 5:30 am practice and a 5:00 pm practice matters far less than the difference between practising and not.

So the useful question is not when yoga works best. It is when you work best, and what your week actually allows.

The early batch, 5:30 am

Forty-five minutes, and mostly people who want it finished before the day starts. It is the quietest hour in the hall and the coolest part of the day, which in Chennai is not a small thing.

It suits you if you already wake early, or if your day becomes unpredictable after eight. It does not suit you if you are regularly getting five hours of sleep — borrowing from sleep to practise is a poor trade.

The busiest hour, 6:15 am

An hour, and our most mixed batch: school children, people fitting a session in before the commute, homemakers, retired members. If you are nervous about being the least flexible person in the room, this is the batch where that stops mattering fastest, because everyone is visibly doing a different version of the same pose.

It is the one most beginners choose, and the one we suggest if you have no particular constraint.

Mid-morning, 10:00 am, women only

An hour, and the one exception to our mixed batches. It is popular with homemakers and with anyone on a shift pattern, and for a number of our students the fact that it is women only is the difference between attending and not.

Practice here is adapted around PCOD, thyroid and hormonal health the same way it is in every other batch — the difference is the room, not the syllabus.

Evening, 5:00 pm

An hour, and the batch a lot of school and college students come to, along with people whose mornings are simply not negotiable. The room is warmer and bodies are looser than at 5:30 am, which makes some postures easier.

If you sleep badly, this is often the batch worth trying: the closing relaxation lands a few hours before bed rather than at the start of the day.

A practical way to decide

• Which time could you reach on a bad week? Start there.
• Do you need the practice to be done before work, or to unwind after it?
• Are you sleeping enough to get up for 5:30 am without cutting sleep short?
• Would a women-only room make you more likely to come?

The 3-day trial exists for exactly this. Come three times, at whichever hour you could keep to, and see how the fourth morning feels before deciding.

Common questions

Can I switch batches later?

Yes. Students move between them as work and school terms change. Tell us and we will make sure there is room.

Is it bad to practise on a full stomach?

Come on a reasonably empty stomach, ideally two hours after a meal. This is the main practical argument for a morning batch.

Which batch is best for beginners?

Any of them — every batch is mixed ability. Most beginners pick the 6:15 am or the 5:00 pm.

Do you teach at weekends?

No. Batches run Monday to Friday, and the centre is closed Saturday, Sunday and public holidays.

All of Yogi’s Upadesha