Yoga Poses for Flexibility

Incude These Poses to See Improvements

Can you touch your toes? Yoga poses for flexibility can help limber up tight muscles so you can bend and move more freely. Poor posture, sitting for long periods of time, or prolonged stress (both physical and emotional) can cause your muscles to tighten and your joints to become stiff. 

A lack of flexibility can also affect your everyday life. Do simple things like bending down to tie your shoes, or reaching across the table for the basket of bread seem more difficult than they used to? 

Well, you are not alone. We often say it's because we aren't as young as we used to be. But, maybe it's because we aren't as flexible as we used to be. While we can't do anything about our age, we can certainly improve our level of balance and flexibility. 

Yoga Poses for Flexibility

Hero Pose

The hero pose stretches the hamstrings, hips, and thighs while opening the chest and lung area to help increase your lung capacity. It is an excellent pose to align yourself and really stretch your shoulders.

• More on the Hero Pose

Bow Pose

The bow pose also helps to open the chest for better lung capacity and this pose also stretches areas of the back at the same time. Other benefits include stimulating body organs for better digestion, help improve posture, and increase the strength of major core muscles. Strengthening the core muscles can help to relieve lower back pain.

• More on the Bow Pose

Triangle Yoga Pose

The triangle yoga pose provides a great stretch for the hamstrings, thighs, and groin muscles. The pose opens up the hips to help release tension and also lengthens the spine with the forward stretch.

• More on Triangle Yoga Pose

Pigeon Pose

This posture opens the hips and stretches the glutes, groin, and upper thighs. It is another good pose for relieving back stiffness and sciatic pain.

• More on the Pigeon Pose

Plow Pose

The plow pose is an inversion movement that stretches the back and is good for improving flexibility of the spine. In fact, it is often thought to be the best pose for opening up the vertebrae and strengthening the back. Plow also provides a nice stretch for the shoulders, calves, and thighs.

• More on the Plow Pose

Yoga Twists

Yoga twists provide a good stretch for the hips and upper body. The pose also helps to lengthen the spine, which can help your breathing and improve posture. Yoga twists also massage your organs for better digestion.

• More on Yoga Twists

Yoga Poses for Flexibility Tips

• Warm up: Cold muscles don't stretch as easily as warm muscles and you can increase your risk of injury if you try to force your body to do something before it is properly prepared.

• Modify Poses: You can adapt postures to accommodate your flexibility level. As you become more flexible, you will be able to work toward doing the unmodified version.
  
  
• Don't overstretch: Don't force your muscles to do what they are not yet capable of doing or you may cause an injury that could take weeks to heal.
  
  
• Be gentle: Slowly ease into the poses, allowing gravity to move you deeper into each stretch. Moving too quickly can cause damage to the muscles, joints, or ligaments.
  
  
• Remember the mind/body connection: Focus on relaxing and allowing the muscles to slowly release all their tension.
  
  
• Don't be discouraged: Improvements may be slow in coming, and you may never be as flexible as a gymnast, but any increase in flexibility will help your body become stronger and more balanced.

Yoga Poses for Flexibility

If you wake up stiff and sore in the morning, if you have a difficult time performing everyday tasks, or if you just want to improve your athletic ability, yoga poses for flexibility can help limber up your muscles and joints so you can build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient body.

Other pages that might interest you:

• Yoga Inversion Poses
• Back Bending Yoga Poses

I will continue to share ideas about diet and exercise that have helped me along the way. If you have any questions I can help you with, or ideas you would like to share, feel free to contact me or visit our Q&A forum