Many people do not have a flexible body and even though they have begun to practise yoga, they do not practise frequently.
Should this be what happens to you,  I suggest you should practise very carefully, do not force yourself and keep in mind that your body needs time to become flexible again,  without trauma and without you feel like unsuited.

Do not be discouraged by the fact that you move stiffly even though you get some exercise and sport, you should be aware that yoga works on your muscles and on the whole body in a very deep manner, deepest than a walk or a swim or any other physical exercise.
However, do not worry, you will get your agility very soon. Some Hatha yoga exercises and a few sessions of meditation  once or twice a week and your body will gain its agility again: our body does not stop to learn even when we rest.

Yoga has a great power that works either at physical and mental level . “Hatha means strength, balance but it also expresses the human being polarity”
HA means Sun, Warmth, Earth and THA means Moon, Cold, Heaven. You surely know that the word yoga means “ to yoke”, “ to rule”, “to bind” therefore HATHA means balance and join of two opposites.
Yoga exercises have therefore the task to balance and dominate the opposing powers of our being.

It is really important to practise constantly,  every day even for a few minutes only, and health and peace develop naturally. However, should it not be possible for you, do not feel guilty about this otherwise your inner peace is pointless.
I said inner peace, but do not think of yoga as a religion: this would be a wrong concept. Yoga is a path that leads to the realisation and it can be  run either by believers and atheists, followers of any confession without conflicting with personal feels and believing.

Yoga is given by a Guru (master) to a disciple. Gu means darkness Ru means light: so the Guru should remove darkness and bring light in the life of a disciple.
In the ancient India, the disciple used to live very close to his Guru and serve him with devotion. By doing so the disciple absorbed guru’s knowledge becoming master himself.
The Guru as well had the duty to revert his knowledge to the disciple as to a son and to give the disciple any means to act on his own.
Disappointing are those teachers who do not revert their knowledge considering it entirely of their property. Those who do  not support their pupils growth. Those who deliver the science of yoga a bit at a time. And disappointing are those pupils who stay close to their guru with the only aim to steal his knowledge, but  knowledge is a matter of a mutual exchange.

To tell the truth, all of the yoga physical exercises are explained in various books and anyone can look them up, but we must say that the experience, the precise instructions to perform the exercise, the philosophy, the science of yoga are given by a guru who continuously develop his experience. It is so much important that a guru must be devoid of self-centredness  and centripetal force and a disciple must be devoid of selfishness and be full of  gratefulness:  this is the only possible way for a  transfer or you run a risk that the yoga gets dirty and sterile.
It can be said that such an ancient tradition as yoga  remains an alive science when both guru and disciple behave with love and drop any attachment.

Emy Blesio
(articolo gentilmente tradotto da Nuccia Cerini)