by Goldflinger Kuzbizz

Whether your priority is enhancing your athletic prowess or neutralizing the effects of long desk hours, yoga serves as a powerful tool to upgrade your flexibility and range of motion (ROM). But frequent practice is vital, ideally three to four times in a week, and initiating with poses on sitting or lying positions can help you focus on your flexibility without the added challenges of balancing or stamina. Utilize blocks as arm extensions (beneficial in pyramid, standing forward folds or reverse triangle poses) and try a strap around your foot in hand to toe pose when muscles are stiff.

Dedicate more time in each asana than you usually do. Noted yogic champion from America, Erich Schiffmann suggests stretching till you encounter your ‘limit’ (termed as ‘the area right before experiencing pain’), then as you feel the muscle releasing, sink a bit more into the pose to touch your next limit. Also, focus on building muscle strength – as muscles lend support to joints, without enough strength, joint stability risks being disrupted, escalating injury risk.

Remember that ROM depends on myriad factors, which can include the time of day, age, anatomy, injury history, job type, exercise habits, diet, and even posture. So, always work together with your body and aim at amplifying your flexibility by addressing all these areas.

Ready to plunge into the yoga journey? Here are some ideal poses to boost flexibility.

Excellent Yoga Poses for Tensed Hips:

Aiding hip rotation externally can support the health of your knees. This is indispensable for weight-bearing sports like running and weight lifting and can diminish the risk of cartilage or ligament issues. Poses to unlock your hip potential include:

• Bind Maker’s pose
• Sprawling Seated Forward Bend
• Lying Down Big Toe Pose (with your leg lifted sideways).

Excessive sitting may lead to shortening of your hip flexors, making you prone to lower back and knee pain. Try:

• Crescent moon
• Pigeon
• Lizard

for extending your hip flexors.

Brilliant Yoga Poses for Shoulder Flexibility:

Your shoulder mobility is affected by stress, posture, and even your movement habits like driving, lifting items, or exercising. These can further impact your sports performance. Enhance your shoulder mobility with these yoga poses:

• Cow face pose
• Eagle
• Child’s pose
• Wide-legged standing forward fold with your arms behind your back in praying position or fingers intertwined and hands extended upwards.

Yoga poses to keep your spine flexible:

Maintaining a flexible spine requires regular movements (like bending forwards, backwards, side ways or twisting). Try these yoga poses to enhance your spine flexibility:

• Start with cat/cow pose for a spine warm-up, while breathing rhythmically
• Explore yin yoga’s banana pose and easy twist
• Add some challenge with standing and seated forward folds; cobra, camel and bridge
• Include twists such as revolved side angle pose and revolved triangle.

Best Yoga Poses for Leg Flexibility:

If you’re into endurance training, just started a new exercise routine, or sitting for extended hours, your quads, hamstrings, and calves might suffer. Regular stretching can help avert muscle shortening, but specific yoga poses could enhance flexibility. For your quads, try:

• Bow
• Half moon bow
• Dancer’s pose
• Extended hand to toe pose

Your hamstrings will get benefit from all straight-legged forward folds. Try;

• Head to knee pose targeting one leg at once
• Downward dog
• Sleeping Vishnu
• Half moon
• Pyramid

Dilemma Between Yoga and Pilates for enhancing flexibility?

Both yoga and Pilates are low-intensity, low-impact forms of exercise with shared postures like plank, cobra. However, from a physical perspective, Yoga tends to be more inclined towards flexibility whereas Pilates focuses more on strength. Yoga integrates mind, body, and often a spiritual element, created initially to prepare for meditation. On the other hand, Pilates, born during the first world war, was designed for healing and rehabilitation. Try both exercises and decide what suits your needs better.

Try the flexibility of online yoga through sites offering free trial classes or online Pilates studio providing both classic and contemporary Pilates on-demand plus Pilates flow classes. Jump on the wellness wagon and discover what works best for you.

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