You don't have to touch your toes to start yoga.
The reels lied to you. Yoga is not a flexibility contest — it is a practice you get to be bad at first. Free yoga beginner classes filmed right in my studio apartment in Cebu for tight hips, stiff shoulders, weak arms, and restless minds.
Tree Pose
Vrikshasana
SAY IT LIKE
vrik-SHAHS-uh-nuh
Every class lives on YouTube
Catalogued with pronunciation
Hot, humid, small-space real
Required to press play
Made for you who keeps saving yoga videos and never presses play.
Nothing you cannot do on day one
Every class starts from the easiest honest version of a pose. If you can breathe and sit on the floor, you can follow along.
You are told what to feel, not just what to copy
Where the weight goes, where to breathe, what to do when it pinches. No silent flowing while you squint at the screen.
Learn yoga as lifestyle, not just an exercise.
Manage stress, stay grounded, and carry that calm into the rest of your day. Breathing, resting, and moving well are part of the practice.
Three reasons people think they cannot start — and why they are wrong.
“I need to be flexible first.”
I heard this a lot from people who told me yoga isn’t for them. Flexibility is the result, not the entry fee. Bending your knees in a forward fold is not cheating — it is the pose.
“My body does not look like theirs.”
Reels are edited for the algorithm, not for your hips. A pose is working when you feel it, not when it photographs well.
“I do not have time or a studio.”
Fifteen minutes beside your bed, three times a week, will do more for your body and mind than one perfect studio class a month.
Learn the poses with me in both Sanskrit and English.
Not knowing how to say Vrikshasana out loud is a real reason people feel like outsiders. Every pose I teach comes with a plain phonetic guide, drawn from a library of cataloged poses.
Tree Pose
Vrikshasana
SAY IT LIKE
vrik-SHAHS-uh-nuh
Forward Bend
Uttanasana
SAY IT LIKE
ut-tahn-AHS-uh-nuh
Warrior 2
Virabhadrasana 2
SAY IT LIKE
veer-uh-buh-DRAHS-uh-nuh
Pick the one that sounds like your week.
7 days of absolute basics
One short class a day for a week. Breathing, standing, folding, resting — the four things everything else is built on.
Beginner tips and honest stories
Guides on props, back pain, proper forms and pose pronunciations — plus the unglamorous version of my own first year.
Ask me anything, no class required
Message me a question, send feedback, or suggest a video for my next tutorial series. No question is too basic.
Mats, tumblers and tees are on the way.
Gear built to optimally support your practice. The first batch will be limited.
For people who thought they were “not the yoga type”.
Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s completely okay if you can’t reach your toes in your forward fold. More than the asanas, your breath is your friend.
Mastery takes time and consistent practice. It took me two years and a YTT in India to finally hold my crow pose for more than one second.
Take a few classes at a studio with a teacher to better understand your body alignment in certain poses. It’s something you can’t self-study from online classes.
I started stiff and couldn't reach my toes in forward fold, just like you and everyone else.
I am Mel. I’m a full-time writer and a part-time yogi — that is the whole point of the name. I practice around a job, in a small space, on days when I do not feel like it.
Everything on this channel is the version I wish someone had made for me in year one: honest about what is hard, specific about what to do instead, and never pretending a pose is easy when it is not.
Five poses, five minutes, tonight.
A one-page PDF with the five poses I give every beginner, including how to say them and what to do if your hamstrings complain.
Coming soon…