Yoga/stretching?
February 16th, 2009
Shayk03 asked:
I’m not a flexible person at ALL. I can’t touch my toes without bending my knees. I’m not very active either, I’ll walk twice a day for 30 minutes 5 days out of the week, thats about it. I want to improve my flexibility. I thought trying yoga but not sure I can handle it. I know there is yoga for beginners, does anyone know how difficult that may be or any other exercises I could try? Thanks!
ROCKY
I’m not a flexible person at ALL. I can’t touch my toes without bending my knees. I’m not very active either, I’ll walk twice a day for 30 minutes 5 days out of the week, thats about it. I want to improve my flexibility. I thought trying yoga but not sure I can handle it. I know there is yoga for beginners, does anyone know how difficult that may be or any other exercises I could try? Thanks!
ROCKY
Categories: Yoga Toes
Try yoga for beginners. They teach you how to work around your own limits and improve your flexibility. It’s working for me and I can’t stretch my muscles to touch my toes either. Yoga is very independent and you really do work at your own pace.
You need not be a flexible person to start or learn Yoga. You just need to be regular in practicing it once you start. It’ll make you more flexible. It suits almost all types of people and I’m sure you can handle it. You do have an hour of exercise everyday. It does help.
You could probably try ,It’s a Yoga website which is good. They even have a Yogapedia in case you have any queries. They also have videos and poses with explanations for yoga postures.
Yoga is excellent for people who are stiff or not too flexible like you say you are.
When you decide to start, remember a few key points:
Always make sure to breathe deeply with the poses. Most beginner videos will have you focusing on the breath anyway, but I’ve noticed some instructors in those videos forget to remind the student to keep breathing deeply and completely through all the movements and when holding poses. Never ever sacrifice your breath for the pose, you should never be holding your breath. That is most important.
Second, listen to your body. Only go as far as is comfortable, if it hurts, back out a little. Yoga should never hurt. Our bodies are all different and we are put together a little differently. Some of us have slight misalignments that might make a pose painful, while it is easy for someone else to do. Listen to your body, that’s what yoga is about.
A great beginner series is on this website:
This is kundalini yoga, but it is geared toward the beginner and is rather gentle. Don’t over do it, don’t push yourself too hard.
Good luck!
One should not stay away from yoga because of being inflexible. On the contrary, being not so flexible should be a fantastic incentive to join a beginner yoga class and start doing something about it.
The nice thing with yoga is that it is not a competition, people do it by listening to their own bodies and limits so everyone can do it and very quickly you will start to feel so good.