Why You'll Want to Quit After 3 Months, And Why You Absolutely Shouldn't.

by Hannah Moran, Yoga Teacher and Director of Marketing & Operations

As of 2023, Inner Fire Yoga has been around for 21 years and has served up the hottest, sweatiest yoga classes to tens of thousands of yogis (humble brag 😎). With such a long-standing yoga business comes some pretty spectacular insights into the psychology behind practicing yoga, and a profound understanding of some of the key stages of the yoga journey.

In this blog, I’ll share what I’ve learned regarding what to expect out of your first 3-4 months of a new yoga practice. Spoiler alert: you’re probably going to want to quit sometime around your third month... But here’s why you absolutely shouldn’t.

Part 1: The Honeymoon Phase.

The first month of any new, healthy habit is the most exciting part – the “honeymoon phase” if you will. You’re pleased with yourself for getting started, beginning to feel the effects of your hard work, and for many of us, we go all-in due to that “honeymoon phase” enthusiasm: 4-5 classes per week, if not more. It’s a fun time to be alive!

Part 2: The Waning Energy.

Then we enter our second month. At this point the early excitement has worn off, but the fantastic benefits of our regular yoga practice remain. In other words: you’re feeling great and still practicing fairly often (perhaps 2-3 classes per week), but probably not willing to practice as often as you were when you first started. You might start missing that spare time you used to have for other hobbies, family, friends, etc. You might also feel like you’ve done the work, experienced the benefits, and now the work is done. You couldn’t be more wrong, but we’ll get to that…

Part 3: The Drop-Off.

Your third month comes around. Here we tend to see a split: the die-hard lifers who decide to stick with it for many more months to come, and those who decide, “I tried it! I feel good. Goal achieved – I can quit now.” This results in a huge “Drop-Off”. But any die-hard lifer can tell you that a) there is SO much more where those first three months came from, b) there isn’t really a “goal” to practicing yoga, and c) quitting now is just about the worst thing you could do for your new, healthy routine of yoga.

How to Avoid the Drop-Off

There’s no secret, convoluted formula to gaining the benefits of a yoga practice. It’s quite simple, in fact: if you want to keep receiving the benefits of the practice, you’ve got to keep practicing. Not for just one month or three months, but for as long as you wish to feel good (which for most of us is FOREVER, right?).

Imagine you were training to be a better swimmer, for example. Think of the Drop-Off as a literal drop-off in the ocean, just off-shore of a beautiful beach. Do you stop swimming past the Drop-Off because it gets deeper? No way! You keep swimming in the deep end because that’s the only way to become a better swimmer.

Similarly, the only way to become a better yogi is to keep returning to your yoga mat again and again and again, day after day. It’s not easy, and we’d never be so bold to claim that it is. But when you dedicate yourself to something challenging like this rather than run away from the discomfort, you will undoubtedly experience improvements in just about every area of your life: stress levels, sleep quality, mobility, strength, flexibility, productivity, and so much more.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you navigate your first few months of this awesome practice we call Yoga:

1. Beware of burnout. We love the enthusiasm in that first month, but those who jump in practicing 4-5x/week or more tend to experience the most burnout. We recommend starting with 2-3x/week to extend that “Honeymoon Phase” a bit and keep the excitement up well into months 2 and 3. Shoot for sustainable and long-term, rather than intense and short-lived.

2. The benefits compound over time. There’s something that happens to many dedicated, steady yogis at about 4-5 months in. Remember those incredible mind-body benefits we talk about all the time? Well, turns out, they get better the longer you stick with it. You might even discover some unexpected benefits that you didn’t anticipate. Some people find that their diet improves after 3-6 months of practicing yoga. Others experience weight loss, fewer injuries, and even a greater sense of joy in everyday life. So if you haven’t already seen these benefits in your first few months, stick with it longer and pay attention to how your life improves. Consider getting a dedicated yoga journal and document your journey! That way you can look back at where you started and take pride in how far you’ve come.

3. Embrace discipline. Discipline is one of Inner Fire Yoga’s core values. It goes way back to the culture of our Original Hot Yoga days, but it certainly still applies today. There is a deep satisfaction that comes with staying disciplined about anything, whether it’s yoga or reading a chapter of your book every night. 

   We (and I do mean We – as in humankind) tend to find something really special in ourselves when we commit to a routine that we know to be good for us. Yoga is one of those things. The longer and more often we do it, the better we feel in our bodies – that’s no secret. But we also feel better about ourselves because we’re doing it! This can lead to a level of confidence and self-awareness that you probably didn’t expect to find when you started.

   Here’s a tip: Join our seasonal yoga challenges – we call them “Personal Revolutions” and they’re meant to challenge yourself to practice often. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable and embrace our core value of Discipline. Plus, you get to give yourself little gold stars every time you take a class :) Who doesn’t love that!?

The key takeaway here is: don’t quit while you’re ahead. Stick it out, because it gets so much better 🙂

Namaste, yogis – I’ll see you on the mat ✌️
Hannah