Practicing yoga to increase flexibility, will help you to progress to more difficult poses, and make your body feel better overall.
The idea that yoga requires flexibility is untrue. However, if you practise your asanas consistently, you can develop flexibility over time, which will allow you to move more quickly both on and off the mat.
Contrary to what you may have seen on social media and in promotional materials, you don’t need to be a contortionist to engage in a regular yoga practise. In fact, research has indicated that flexibility may be influenced by heredity just as much as by the condition of your tissues, muscles, and joints.
Advantages of flexibility
Using yoga to increase flexibility should be developed and maintained for a variety of reasons, not simply for physical well-being. Here are a few advantages for maintaining your:
- lowers the possibility of harm
- improves balance and mobility
- reduces discomfort and agony throughout the entire body.
- enhances alignment and posture
- relieves stress and promotes more profound relaxation
- enhances your physical performance in general
Benefits of using yoga to increase flexibility
It is a fallacy that you need to be flexible to practise yoga because yoga is for everyone, regardless of physical characteristics and skill level. However, a lot of yoga practitioners discover that with time and regular practise, their flexibility improves. There are several reasons why using yoga to increase flexibility works.
First, yoga aids in improving the flexibility of the connective tissues that bind the body’s parts together and connect them all, such as tendons, ligaments, and muscular fascia. These tissues are being lubricated and made more flexible while you move via yoga asana.
In order to enhance flexibility over time, yoga can also work with the body’s “stretch reflex,” a neurological reaction in which a muscle contracts in response to a stretch. The stretch reflex is activated by deliberate, static stretching (do not bounce), such as that found in yoga postures.
For this reason, when you fold forward in Uttanasana, you could experience stiffness in your hamstrings (Standing Forward Bend). Repeating the motion can train your muscles to withstand more strain before tightening, allowing you to fold deeper as you practise more asanas.
Flexibility won’t suddenly get better. However, regularly using yoga to increase flexibility will assist you over time. You will begin to move more effectively both on and off the mat.
Yoga poses that increase flexibility
This yoga sequence’s stretches are made to loosen up the muscles in your legs, shoulders, and back, among other key body parts. Your flexibility will gradually increase if you regularly stretch your entire body by focusing on these key areas. When you first wake up, right before you get into bed, or as a warm-up for another round of exercises, you can perform yoga to increase flexibility.
Baby Pose (Balasana)
With this traditional stance, you can reduce tension in your shoulders, hips, and low back. It’s great for calming down before night to lessen worry or for preparing the back, legs, and hips for a challenging run or weight-bearing workout.
Practice it by:
Kneel down on the ground. Sit on your heels with your big toes touching, then spread your knees about as wide as your hips.
After exhaling, place your torso between your thighs. Narrow your hips toward the navel and spread your sacrum across the rear of your pelvis so that they rest comfortably on your inner thighs. Lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck as you lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis.
Release the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor as you place your hands on the floor next to your torso, palms up. Feel how the strain on your front shoulders causes your back’s shoulder blades to spread widely.
Hold for a few minutes or up to 30 seconds.
Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
Many people base their assessment of their flexibility on whether they can maintain this position while having their hands on the floor. This is just one (certainly not the only) sign of flexibility, but it is a useful one because it focuses on the hamstrings, hips, and low back, all of which have an impact on posture, gait, and manoeuvrability.
To put into use:
Put your hands on your hips and stand tall. Inhale deeply, then lean forward from the hips rather than the waist. Draw your chest away from your groyne as you drop to create room between your pubis and sternum. As you assume the position fully, the front torso should be lengthened with particular emphasis.
If at all feasible, bend your knees straight and place your palms, finger tips, or backs of your ankles on the floor just in front of or alongside your feet. Cross your forearms and grasp your elbows if this isn’t possible. Lift the sitting bones up toward the ceiling while pressing the heels firmly into the ground. The top thighs should be gently turned in.
Lift and lengthen the front torso just a little bit with each inhalation, and with each exhale, release more fully into the front bend. The torso moves nearly slightly as a result of the breath. Let your head dangle between your shoulder blades from the root of your neck, which is located deep in your upper back.
For 30 to 60 seconds, hold the position.
Avoid rolling your spine as you ascend. Instead, reinforce the length of the front torso by bringing your hands back to your hips. After that, squeeze your tailbone into your pelvis and rise up with a long front torso when you inhale.
Matsyendrasana Ardha (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose)
Twisting increases your side body’s flexibility, or your obliques, which will enable your spine and torso to move through all of their ranges of motion. Additionally, the way your arms are positioned in this posture opens up your chest, shoulder blades, and back.
Try it:
With your legs extended straight in front of you, sit on the floor with a folded blanket supporting your buttocks. Slide your left foot to the outside of your right hip while bending your knees and placing your feet firmly on the ground. Lay the left leg on its side on the ground. Step the right foot outside your left hip and place it on the ground. Directly toward the ceiling, the right knee will be pointing.
Inhale…
Inhale, then turn your body toward the inside of your right thigh. Put your left upper arm on the outside of your right leg, close to the knee, and press your right hand against the floor behind your right buttock. Put a tight grip on your inner right thigh and front torso.
Release the right groyne, lengthen the front torso, and very firmly press the inner right foot into the ground. Lengthen the tailbone into the floor and slightly lean the upper torso back toward the shoulder blades.
You have two options for where to turn your head: The body can be rotated to the right to continue the twist or to the left to counteract it while looking over the left shoulder towards the right foot.
Lift slightly through the sternum with each inhale, using the fingers to assist by pressing them against the ground. With each breath, twist a bit more. Don’t focus the twist in the lower back; instead, make sure to spread it equally down the full length of the spine.
Then, exhale and return to your starting posture after remaining for 30 to 1 minutes. Repeat to the left for the same amount of time.
Even while this stretch is more frequently found in yoga sequences than in standard pre-workout stretches, it might be the one you need to achieve full-body flexibility. While performing it can be difficult for some people, you will feel immediate comfort as you feel the deep stretches in your quads, pecs, shoulders, and back.
To start:
Lie on your stomach with your palms facing up and your hands next to your body. (To cushion the front of your body and legs, you can lie on a folded blanket.) As you exhale, bend your knees and position your heels as close to your buttocks as you can. Grab your ankles with your hands as you extend your back (but not the tops of the feet). Keep your knees hip width throughout the posture, making sure they aren’t wider than the breadth of your hips.
Take a deep breath in and push your thighs off the ground while simultaneously lifting your heels away from your buttocks. Your head and upper chest will be lifted off the ground as a result. Maintain a relaxed core and tuck your tailbone toward the floor. Press your shoulder blades firmly against your back to open your heart as you raise your heels and thighs even higher. Pull your shoulder blades away from your ears. Look ahead.
Breathing will be challenging with the belly pressed on the floor. Increase your breathing into the rear of your torso, but don’t let it stop.
You can hold this position for 20 to 30 seconds. Release when you let out a breath, then lay still for a few breaths. You can perform the position one or two more times.
Variation of Anjaneyasana (Low Lunge)
To the traditional low lunge, add a modification for a strong quad stretch. Don’t go any deeper than what is comfortable in this pose; it can feel very intense. Instead, pay attention to your body.
Try it:
Exhale as you step your right foot forward between your hands in Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), placing the right knee over the heel. When you feel a comfortable stretch in your left front thigh and groyne, lower your left knee to the floor while maintaining your right knee fixed in place. Your left foot’s top should now be on the ground.
Take a deep breath in and straighten your torso. Sweep your arms out to the sides and up, parallel to the floor, as you move. Lift your pubic bone toward your navel while drawing your tailbone down toward the floor. As your shoulder blades firmly rest against the rear of your torso, raise your chest from there.
Be mindful…
While being mindful not to strain the back of your neck, tilt your head back and look upward. Your pinkies should be pointed upward. Hinge your rear leg up toward your buttocks after holding for a minute. Grab the outside of your left foot with your left arm and slowly draw it in toward your body as you extend your left arm back in a sweeping manner.
Release your left leg as you exhale, then reposition your body such that your chest is next to your right thigh with your hands on the floor.
Lift your left knee off the floor and return to Adho Mukha Svanasana with a subsequent exhalation. The same amount of time should be repeated with the left foot forward.
Ustrasana (Camel Pose)
This pose prepares your body for a strenuous workout by stretching your toes, quads, abdominals, hips, chest, and shoulders. Despite not being physically demanding, the stance itself can be painful. Take it easy, and if the stretch becomes too strong, leave it.
To put into use:
- Kneel down, keeping your thighs parallel to the ground and your feet hip-distance apart. Keep your pelvis neutral throughout the position.
- Your outer ankles should be tight on your midline as you extend your big toes straight back and push down with all 10 of your toes.
- Gently release the flesh of your buttocks toward the backs of your knees while rotating your inner thighs back.
- Root down from your knees to the tops of your feet, then bounce back up with your chest.
- Drop your chin in the direction of your sternum while bringing your palms together in front of it.
- Create Savasana (Corpse Pose) arms after taking a breath to emphasise lifting your chest (palms facing forward).
- Take your hands to your heels on the subsequent exhalation, maintaining your chin down and pelvis over your knees.
- In order to lift your chest any higher, immediately force your shoulder blades forward and forward and coil your thoracic spine.
- Your upper back has been extended and given more room, allowing your head to swing freely and sink back.
- To rise up with your thoracic spine and chest, keep pressing down with your feet and lower legs.
- After holding for 5–10 breaths, utilise an inhale to come up, starting with your sternum (head is the last part of the body to exit).