I recently finished Adriene MIshler’s Move - 30 Day Yoga Journey and here are my thoughts about the experience. First off, a big thank you to Adriene for all she does for the yoga community. Thank you!
A few years ago, I hurt my back pretty badly while trying to run really fast on my treadmill. I mentioned this to a coworker, and she told me to look up Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. I found a lower back practice and loved it. Over the years, when I would feel a twinge in my back, I’d work in the back stretches that I learned from Adriene and all would be right with the world.
A year passed, and I saw Adriene on the Today show and saw that she had more than 10 million subscribers. I knew that things had come full circle when my friend (also a runner) swore that Adriene’s 30 day practices were worth checking out.
So at the end of December 2021, I received an invitation from Adriene to participate in Move - A 30 Day Yoga Journey starting out in January and figured that I’d give it a try. I figured that it would be a good birthday gift to myself as I had just turned 51.
I didn’t have any more yoga experience than those few times I tried Adriene’s lower back YouTube videos and figured that I owed it to myself to see what the fuss was all about. Would I like it? How easy (or difficult) would it be? And how much time would it take?
So what did I think and how did it go? Let’s find out together.
The Basics
A few tips if you’re looking to join Adriene’s next 30 day yoga journey. I would recommend the following items. You don’t need any of the items below, but I found that it made my daily practices a lot more comfortable:
Wear comfortable clothes. Since I’m often doing my practice after my morning run, I also bring a towel so I can dry myself (and the mat). I’d also recommend wearing a tightly fit shirt or to tuck in your shirt. I often became distracted when my t-shirt would fall into my eyes.
Purchase a yoga mat. Back in 2017, I purchased the HemingWeigh yoga mat. It’s a bit thicker than other mats (I liked that for my knees) and came with a carrying strap.
Pick up two yoga blocks. The two blocks are high density and non-slip. I’ve had them for 5 years and they’ve held up perfectly.
Have a light blanket nearby. There are a few days when Adriene will use a blanket. Have one at the ready, just in case.
Purchase adjustable eyewear retainers (if you wear glasses). About a week into the 30 day yoga journey, I purchased a pair because I quickly tired of having my glasses fall off my head (or nearly fall off) as I went through each day’s practice.
Each morning, I’d go down to the basement and watch the day’s session by Chromecasting YouTube to my TV. (I have the Google TV Chromecast and it’s made life that much easier for watching YouTube on my TV as well as all my other streaming services.) I had quiet in the basement and wouldn’t wake up the rest of my family as I took part in each day’s practice. One tip if you’re tall like me: Be mindful that you’ll need to stretch your arms up high as I need to modify those poses because I easily touch the basement’s ceiling.
On day zero I received an email from Adriene that contained a link to a PDF calendar of the name of all the sessions and the duration of each day’s practice. I had forgotten that I had received this, so I recommend printing it out and leaving it near where you practice yoga. It’s great to see what each day’s yoga will entail.
Since I’m trying to squeeze in a run or a writing session each day and then yoga, I need to be mindful of time because I don’t wish to be late for work. The practices were as short as 17 minutes and as long as 29 minutes.
On work days where a practice stretched to 29 minutes, I found it challenging to put all my yoga gear away, eat breakfast cleanup, get ready for work, and get to work.
I would have preferred if the sessions would have been all within 20-25 minutes, but I can understand that building out a 30 day practice takes lots of work and isn’t an exact science.
What Was It Like?
Now that the 30 days are over and I’ve had some time to look back, I can say this: It was a lot of work. If you’re like me and have zero to little exposure to yoga, I found the daily practices difficult. There was more use of building up arm and leg strength than I had expected. Planks, downward dogs, balancing on one leg, core muscle build up, and lots of stretching.
Because I didn’t know what I was doing, I needed to look at my TV and follow along with Adriene. She is a great teacher. She’s patient, funny, and helps to center you. There are times when she also encourages you to stick with it (as best you can) and helps to build up your self-esteem.
My biggest bit of constructive feedback is the lack of a disclaimer at the beginning of each session. Adriene has been doing yoga for a long time (her videos go back 8+ years on YouTube). She has amazing flexibility and strength. When she went through a practice, I tried to keep up with her and couldn’t.
I found that she moved way too fast. If I would have known from the start that the 30 days practices were more of the moderate to expert level, I would have adjusted my expectations accordingly.
Around day 12, I tried to sweep my leg up like Adriene did from a downward dog position and pulled a muscle. That injury stayed with me throughout the rest of the 30 days. When I had mentioned that I had injured myself in the video’s comments, a woman chimed in to say that she had pulled a shoulder muscle.
I wonder how many other people injured themselves.
Now that I’ve been through the 30 days, I have a better understanding of what my body can and cannot do at this stage of my yoga journey. Being new to yoga, I didn’t think that I would hurt myself from sweeping up my leg from a downward dog position. Now I know.
I would have liked for Adriene to help set the expectations of her speed and the range of activities that she was going to bring us through.
For example, during the “Flight” practice, Adriene went into a crow pose (pictured below). She mentioned that no prior experience was needed. I tried to “take flight” but was only able to lift off the ground for a fraction of a second. Thankfully, when I fell, I didn’t hurt myself.
Don’t get me wrong, there are other times through the course of the 30 day practices where Adriene would offer options: You can do the difficult pose or do a simpler one.
I just would have liked Adriene to talk a bit more on day 1 about the importance of not injuring yourself and to go at your own speed.
If you’re new to yoga, please be mindful of what your body can and cannot do. The challenge that I found is that since I didn’t have much yoga experience, I didn’t know what my limits were and didn’t think that something simple could injure me.
The Mindset
Before I started the 30 day practice, I had been working in 20 minutes of a Deepak Chopra meditation each morning. When I started Adriene’s yoga practices, I put that on hold and I missed meditating each day.
Some of the yoga practices helped me to focus on relaxing (the Rest and TLC videos), but I found the rest to be hard work. They’re a workout. Sure, I didn’t break a sweat, but my arms and legs (and core!) got some great exercises to build up my strength.
What the yoga practices did for me mostly helped my physical body. Whereas the Chopra meditations helped me more with stress and anxiety. I had hoped that yoga would help me with the same positivity that I received from meditating, but that wasn’t the case for me (outside of those two sessions I mentioned above).
In comparing the yoga, running, rowing machine, walking, and meditating (the main activities I try to squeeze in throughout the week), I enjoy running and meditating the most. If I’m honest, yoga is my least favorite of the list. I will need some time to decide on whether I will get back into yoga, but first I want to rest and heal from my yoga injury.
Then I’ll see if I want to focus on working yoga into my routine several times a week. At this point, I don’t believe I’ll be doing yoga daily. With working and running, rowing machine, walking, and meditation taking up my free time, I would need to give one of them up (or make time some other way), and I’m not sure that I want to do that.
Yes, I did become frustrated with many of the daily practices because I couldn’t bend or flex as I would have liked. When I first started running, I ran a quarter of a mile and that’s it. Over time, with patient and practice, I eventually ran a marathon. I expect that yoga also would take me years to become better at. I would like to continue it, but at this stage of my life, I’m not sure I want to do it every day. I prefer other physical activities (and definitely want to work back in a daily meditation).
Where Do I Go from Here?
I’m not sure. I need some time to process how I feel. Do I feel more flexible than when I started out? No. Do I feel stronger? Yes, a bit. I think I’m became turned off because I injured myself and it was doing something “easy” and I didn’t think I would get hurt. I can’t take that back, but I do want to make certain that I give my body the time I need to heal. The injury threw off not only my yoga practices but also my running and walking.
Would I watch other videos by Adriene? Yes, I intend to do that. Do I want to join her Find What Feels Good website and get unlimited yoga videos? No, not at this time.
One of things that I liked the most from the 30 days is the YouTube comment section. Each day, I would write a short comment about what I like (or didn’t) about that particular daily practice. Hundreds of people chimed in and liked my comment and dozens of people provided their own replies to me, inviting me to not give up or thanking me for putting into words their own feelings about the session.
Adriene is positive, compassionate, and thoughtful. She has built a vibrant community that consists of millions of subscribers from all around the world. I felt included in the practice and received the most encouraging replies. I am so thankful for that.
My overall take is: Yes, I would recommend that you try a 30 day yoga journey with Adriene. If I could pass on any recommendation, it would simply be this: Be mindful of your body. Go at your own pace and be careful so that you don’t injury yourself.
I hope that you found this blog post helpful and wish you the best on your yoga journey. Namaste.
A little bit about me: I’m the author of 15 fantasy and science fiction books as well as the author of the Let Go and Be Free books and creater of the Let Go and Be Free: 100 Daily Reflections for Adult Children of Alcoholics podcast. I believe that, no matter how difficult our childhood, we can use imaginative stories to heal ourselves and lead lives filled with love and hope. Thank you for stopping by!
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