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Can You Practice Yoga in a Bigger Body? Absolutely. You Belong Here.
Bigger body. Plus-size body. Larger body. Higher-weight body. Fat body. Curvy body. Large body. Obese body.
There are a lot of words people use to describe larger bodies, and I know that not everyone is comfortable with all of them. Some people have a word they prefer, some people use several depending on the situation, and some people don't want to label their body at all. That's completely okay. You don't have to decide what to call your body before you start practicing yoga.
What I want you to know is much simpler. You can practice yoga in a bigger body, and you belong here.
You don't have to lose weight before you start. You don't have to become flexible. You don't have to buy the right clothes or have the right mat or know what you're doing when you walk into your first class. You don't have to wait until your body looks different or until you feel more comfortable in it.
You can practice yoga in the body you have today. I know this because I've practiced yoga in a smaller body, and I practice yoga now in a body that is more than 100 pounds larger than it once was. I've experienced many of the same postures and movements from both sides of that change. Some things are different. Some things are harder. Some things require a little more thought. But the yoga didn't disappear when my body changed.
What happens when you walk into a yoga studio in a bigger body?
I think this is an important question because sometimes the hardest part of yoga isn't the yoga itself. It's walking through the door.
If you've spent much of your life seeing yoga represented by very thin, very flexible or very athletic people, it makes sense that you might wonder whether you will fit in. You might look at a picture of a yoga class and wonder if anyone will look like you. You might worry about whether you can comfortably get up and down from the floor, whether your body will fit between the mats, or whether the teacher will know how to offer you a variation that actually works for your body.
You might simply be afraid that everyone will notice you. I've talked to people who have avoided yoga altogether because of those fears. They weren't necessarily afraid of movement. They were afraid of being uncomfortable, being judged, not being able to keep up, or feeling like the only person in the room who didn't belong.
I understand that. And I think this is one of the reasons representation matters so much.
When you see someone with a body that looks more like yours practicing yoga, it can make the whole idea seem a little less intimidating. You can see that they don't have to hide their body, apologize for it or somehow make it smaller before they are allowed to participate.
You can see that they are simply practicing.
Your body may change the way you practice
I don't want to pretend that practicing yoga in a bigger body is exactly the same as practicing yoga in a smaller body. That wouldn't be honest, and I don't think dishonesty helps anyone.
Our bodies affect the way we move. The size and distribution of our bodies can change the way we experience certain positions, transitions, balance, weight-bearing and compression. Sometimes a posture that felt one way for me years ago feels different today.
That doesn't mean I can't do the posture. It means I may need to approach it differently.
Sometimes I take my feet wider. Sometimes I use a block or two. Sometimes I put my hands on a chair instead of reaching all the way to the floor. Sometimes I change the angle of my torso or take a little more time getting into a position. Sometimes I don't go as deeply into a pose because that is what makes sense for me that day.
None of those choices mean that I'm doing yoga incorrectly. They mean I'm paying attention to my body. That is actually one of the things I love about yoga. We don't have to force every body into the same shape. We can explore a posture and ask what it feels like in our own body, what needs support, what needs more space and what might need to change.
Two people can be practicing the same yoga posture while looking completely different from the outside. The shape doesn't have to be identical for the practice to be meaningful.
You don't have to be flexible to practice yoga
This is something I wish more people understood before they ever step onto a mat.
You don't have to already be flexible to practice yoga. You practice with the flexibility you have and, over time, you may find that your mobility changes. But flexibility isn't the entrance requirement.
Your forward fold doesn't have to look like mine. Your Warrior II doesn't have to look like the person next to you. Your hands don't have to reach the floor, and your knees don't have to straighten completely. If you need a block, use a block. If you need a chair, use a chair. If you need to make the movement smaller, make it smaller.
The posture is not a test that you pass or fail. I think we sometimes get so focused on what a pose is supposed to look like that we forget why we're practicing it in the first place. Yoga asks us to pay attention. It gives us an opportunity to notice our breath, our muscles, our balance, our sensations and our reactions. It teaches us to work with ourselves instead of constantly trying to become someone else.
That is true whether you can touch your toes or you're nowhere close.
My body changed, but my yoga didn't disappear
This is the part of the conversation that is most personal for me.
I've practiced yoga in a smaller body, and today I practice in a body that is more than 100 pounds larger. That change happened during a relatively short period of my life when a lot was happening all at once.
I experienced multiple deaths in my family. I separated from my husband. I moved across the country. I had a new baby. I started a new job. I was in college. There was grief and stress and parenting and work and school and moving and trying to figure out what my life was going to look like.
During those two years, my body changed dramatically. I gained nearly 100 pounds.
I don't tell you that because I think every larger body needs an explanation. It doesn't. I tell you because I think there is sometimes an assumption that if someone has gained a significant amount of weight, they must have stopped caring about themselves.
That isn't my story. I still care about my body. I still want to be healthy. I still want to feel strong and comfortable moving through my life. And I still practice yoga.
In some ways, practicing yoga in this body has taught me things that I couldn't have learned when my body was smaller.
I know many of these poses from both sides
One of the interesting things about my practice is that I have experienced many of the same postures in a smaller body and in a bigger body. If you watch some of my older yoga videos and compare them with some of my newer classes, you'll see that I'm still doing many of the same things. I still backbend. I still forward fold. I still twist. I still balance. I still work with my hips, shoulders, hamstrings and spine.
The poses may look different. The way I get into them may be different. The amount of space I need may be different. But I'm still practicing.
That distinction is important to me because I don't want people to think that a modification automatically means you're doing a lesser version of yoga. Sometimes a modification is simply the way your body needs to approach the posture.
If my feet need to be wider, I make them wider. If I need a prop, I use it. If I need to change a transition, I change it. I'm not failing at the original version of the pose. I'm figuring out how the practice works in my body.
And isn't that part of what yoga is supposed to teach us?
Breathing matters too
Breathing is another reason I don't believe we should force everybody into exactly the same shape. Depending on the person and the position, a larger body can experience certain postures differently. Folding deeply, lying in certain positions or creating compression around the abdomen can affect how comfortable breathing feels. That doesn't mean that people in bigger bodies can't breathe deeply or practice breathwork. It means we need to pay attention to what our bodies are telling us.
If you can't breathe comfortably in a position, change something. Come up higher. Change the angle. Use a prop. Take a different variation. Come out of the pose altogether if that's what you need.
Your breath is useful information. For me, that is one of the most valuable things about yoga. The practice isn't asking me to ignore what my body is telling me just because someone else can make a particular shape. It is asking me to notice.
What about inflammation and other health concerns?
There is also a health conversation worth having here, but I want to be careful with it because I don't want to turn yoga into another miracle cure.
Researchers have studied yoga in relation to inflammation, pain, physical function, stress, metabolic health and other areas. Some research has found potentially beneficial changes in certain measures, but the evidence is mixed and the quality of the research varies. That means I don't want to tell you that yoga will cure inflammation, fix your joints, or make you lose weight.
It isn't that simple.
What I will say is that movement matters. Mobility matters. Strength matters. Learning to breathe and manage stress matters. Finding physical activity that you can actually continue doing matters. Yoga can be one tool among many that helps us care for ourselves.
And you don't have to lose weight for yoga to have value.
That part is important to me because I don't want the message to be, "Come practice yoga so that someday you can become acceptable." I want the message to be, "Come practice yoga because you have a body, and that body deserves care."
You don't have to hate your current body to want to start taking care of it
I know this can be a complicated subject because there is a lot of pressure to have the "right" attitude about your body. For me, the truth is pretty simple. I do want my body to change.
I would be lying if I said I didn't hope to eventually reach a size and level of physical comfort that feels better to me. I can want that and still care about the body I have today. Those things don't contradict each other.
I don't have to hate my current body in order to want something different for my future body. My body today deserves care too.
This body has carried me through 43 years of life. This is where it is now and I am proud of it. It has carried me through pregnancy, parenting, grief, work, school, moving, stress, joy and a whole lot of change. It has gotten me through days when I didn't know how I was going to get through them.
It has worked very hard for me. I think it deserves some kindness.
Representation can make a difference
Since gaining this weight, I've had so many students come up to me after class and tell me that seeing me teach in a bigger body mattered to them.
Some have told me that they felt more comfortable trying yoga because they saw me teaching. Others have told me that seeing me move helped them realize that they might be able to move too. Those conversations mean a lot to me.
I'm not saying that every bigger person needs a bigger teacher in order to practice yoga. That's not the point. The point is that sometimes seeing someone who looks a little more like you doing something you've been afraid to try can remove one of the barriers standing in your way.
You see them get into the pose. You see them modify it. You see them move through a transition. You see them laugh when something doesn't go perfectly. You see them simply being a person on a yoga mat.
And maybe you think, "I could do that." That is exactly why I started creating a whole series of yoga classes with bigger bodies in mind.
I don't want this to be just one class
One of the things that has become really important to me with Maydwell is making sure that our bigger-body yoga classes aren't a one-time offering that someone has to stumble across.
I teach a growing series of classes on YouTube with bigger bodies in mind. These classes are not about creating a completely separate kind of yoga. They are about teaching from my own experience and offering variations, modifications, pacing and explanations that I know can be useful when you're practicing in a bigger body.
And while those classes are designed with bigger bodies in mind, you certainly don't have to be in a bigger body to take them. If you're looking for a thoughtful stretch, a slower practice, modifications, more explanation or simply a teacher who isn't interested in making every posture look exactly the same, you are welcome there too.
You can explore the Maydwell Yoga YouTube channel and find the bigger-body classes along with the rest of our growing library.
And if social media or YouTube isn't really your thing, that's completely fine. You don't need to use social media to practice with us. Maydwell is a virtual yoga studio, and our live online classes and recorded class library are available through maydwellyoga.com. Our classes are free, and you can practice from home without needing to join social media or buy a membership.
That matters to me because I want access to yoga to be about the practice, not about whether you know how to navigate another social media platform.
I don't want you to just try yoga. I want you to stay.
This is probably what I care about most.
I don't want you to come to one yoga class, struggle with a pose, feel uncomfortable in your body and decide that you aren't a yoga person. I don't want you to think you have to lose weight before you come back, or spend the entire class comparing your body to the teacher's body.
I want you to learn how to practice in the body you have. Maybe that means starting with a chair. Maybe it means practicing on the floor. Maybe you need a slower class, more props or more explanation. Maybe you need to try several teachers before you find someone whose teaching makes sense to you.
That's okay.
There isn't one correct way to begin, and there isn't one correct way to continue. What matters is finding a practice that allows you to keep coming back.
Over time, yoga can become a relationship with your body rather than another place where you judge it. You begin to notice what feels good, what doesn't, where you need support and where you can challenge yourself. You learn when to push a little and when to back off. You become more familiar with the body that gets you through your actual life.
That relationship is worth having at any size.
Your body belongs in yoga
If you've been looking at yoga from the outside and wondering whether you can really do it in a bigger body, I hope the answer is becoming clearer. Yes, you can practice yoga.
You might need modifications. You might need props. You might need a chair, a wall, more space or a different way into a pose. You might need to practice something differently than the person next to you.
None of that makes your practice less real.
Your body doesn't have to become smaller before it becomes worthy of movement. You don't have to become flexible before you deserve to practice. You don't have to look like the people you've seen in yoga advertisements or on Instagram. You don't have to apologize for the space your body takes up on the mat.
You get to start where you are and then you get to keep learning. That's what yoga has taught me. Not that my body has to become something else before I can practice, but that I can keep meeting myself where I am.
My body has changed. My yoga has changed with it. I'm still here.
At Maydwell Yoga, we believe yoga belongs to everyone. We mean that when we say it. Our classes are free online because we don't believe cost should be another reason someone can't practice. You can join us for live online classes, explore our growing library of recorded practices, or find Brooke's bigger-body series on YouTube and practice whenever it works for you.
You don't have to earn your place on the mat.
You already belong here.
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