Can I Still Do Yoga If I’m Not Flexible?
Hi friends. I’m Kathleen and I am here to talk about how yoga can help you be more flexible over time. There are so many health benefits of online yoga workouts like the kind we practice here with Bulldog Online.
A consistent yoga practice will make you more flexible over time. Yoga is about breath and since everyone breathes, everyone can do yoga.
You’re going to come into your yoga studio, park your mat somewhere, and it’s likely you won’t look like the person next to you. You won’t look like the person across the room from you. And we’re all capable of doing yoga. Every body is different so everyone experiences yoga in different ways.
I’m going to show you a few poses today that are going to help with spinal flexibility – flexibility in the hips, hamstrings, and calves. These moves may be difficult at first but after continued practice, you will see that you are more flexible.
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Yoga Moves for Flexibility
Join us on the mat and see the moves you can do now to gain flexibility!
Coming into a neutral tabletop position, ring your wrists underneath your shoulders. Knees are underneath your hips and parallel. Draw your belly towards your spine and projecting that lower back on an inhale. Drop your belly, shine your heart forward and look up cow pose on an exhale. Round your spine. Tuck your chin gaze goes towards your thighs. Drop your belly and shine your heart forward. Look up with a big exhale and feel the stretch here. Tuck your chin. Gaze goes towards your thighs.
Inhale, drop your belly, shine your heart forward and look up at ceiling. Round your spine, press your hands into the back. Tuck your chin. Take a deep breath and come back into tabletop.
Standing Forward Fold
We’re going to move into our standing forward fold as a way to transition. You can get there any way you like so take your time. I’m going to put my hips up and back into a downward facing dog to get there.
Tuck your toes onto your mat and send your hips up and back into this inverted V-shape drawing your core towards your spine. Gaze goes towards your thighs and then your heels. Your heels can be wherever is comfortable for you so don’t think too much about it. Come into a posture that feels good in your own body. Press your hands down into the mat and take an deep breath in. After that, come onto your tippy toes on an exhale slowly. Take baby steps towards the front of your mat and bring your feet about hip distance apart. Your fingertips may raise off the mat but that is totally fine.
Next, allow your knees to have a tiny microbead here to protect your lower spine. Draw your court into your belly, protecting again. Your lower spine. Now allow gravity to just take over here. Let your head drop towards your mat. You can grab opposite elbows. If you like creating a box around your head, you can sway side to side. This should feel good in your spine and is engaging your core muscles.
If you are on your elbows, release them here and let go. Look forward on an exhale as you go through this flow. Dive forward, inhale, and sweep your arms all the way up. Look up on the exhale. Bring your hands to heart center and be still. Allow your eyes to close for just a few moments. Take a deep inhale through the nose, fully exhale through the mouth. One more time. Deep inhale through the nose as you feel the active stretch. You may think this is any easy move but you are engaging your hips, knees and calves all at the same time!
Take a deep breath and let it go.
Ending your flow
Allow your hands to come down by her side and roll your shoulders back. Your eyes may have been closed earlier but go ahead and open them up now. Try to practice these move daily if not a few times each day. By doing so, you will see improvement with both your flexibility and your strength. Yoga is one of the greatest tools to slowly gain flexibility through low-impact flows and you can have fun while doing it!
Get started with yoga at home
Low-impact yoga is a great way to gain flexibility!