Nowadays, most people tend to forget to take care of themselves, physically and mentally. They keep on working day and night which results to different health problems. But there is one thing that can help us in order to improve our health and be more productive. In this case, stretching through yoga may do the trick. Yoga, while can also be a form of dynamic stretches, incorporates static stretching. This, in turn, results to flexibility.
Static stretches [static stretching] are those in which you stand, sit or lie still and hold a single position for period of time, up to about 45 seconds. Dynamic stretches [dynamic stretching] are controlled movements that prepare your muscles, ligaments and other soft tissues for performance and safety.
Yoga, in general, helps us maintain our muscle strength, increases our flexibility, and improves our stamina. Flexibility is very important in our day-to-day life. It supports our body to move in different position making our blood to circulate properly.
If you are going to compare your body to that of a child, the latter can make his or hers more malleable since their muscles and joints are not yet that stiff. In this article, we will focus on how to become more flexible without straining our joints. Yoga is a very helpful practice to improve one’s flexibility, so maybe you can try it.
What is flexibility through Yoga Workout, and Why Does it Matter?
Flexibility is the ability of our joints to move freely without feeling pain. It is an unrestricted movement of our body. So how will an individual attain such ability?
We must take note that being flexible is not an easy job. Maybe, when we were young, we are able to do it, and to a greater extent, seamlessly and effortlessly.
However, as we grow old, our muscles forget it, making our joints inflexible and rigid. But in Yoga, we can reacquire this ability.
Yoga posture is very important. It aids the body to move in different position by making use of all its muscle and joints. The act of stretching and bending them helps to facilitate the coordination of the muscles and the central nervous system.
Movements and Sensory Processes within the body
These series of signals are produced by proprioceptive [proprioception]. This kind of receptors are the ones which transfer signals to our muscles and joints. The resultantly produce the information to move, such as giving directions to our body, giving our body the ability to motion in different position, and providing the amount of muscle tensions in every movement.
Yoga helps the nervous system to respond immediately and appropriately with different self-regulatory measures. It promotes the use of proper biomechanical movements.
This biomechanical movement tends to help individuals remove the stress and pressure to the joints, muscles, and ligaments. Perforce, it eliminates the imbalances of our muscles.
When stress and pressure are eliminated, the body will conduct self-healing and self-regulation. The central nervous system is the one that helps the muscles to relax by giving signals through proprioceptive nerves throughout the muscles.
When the information is already communicated to the muscles, it will make them tighten in much organized and fashionable sense which will instantly hold the yoga posture, as you execute them.
Gradual Posturing and Calculated Motion
However, in order not to strain our body in the variety of movements of our muscles and joints, we must consider doing it slowly. Moving our body in a slower pace provides for the information to be transferred accurately to the central nervous system making the movements coordinated with the muscles properly.
The slow stretches protects the fibers and the tendons from damages. Resistance by holding our posture increases muscle strength. When muscles are improved, it provides stability and flexibility that will protect our joints.
Yoga practice helps our central nervous system to be more relax. Yoga activity is kind of a massage to our internal organs, helping it to be more functional and productive. This proper practice of yoga encourages and develops appropriate structural alignment, which reduces strain or damages to our tendons, ligaments, and muscles.
This correct alignment also develops the functionality of every organ in our system. Nonetheless, if an individual does not consistently practice and he maintains poor posture, it will lead to health problems. The body will be prone to stress and anxiety.
Avoiding Poor Postures
Poor posture changes the organization of every tissue in our organs, thus, becoming a nagging issue within. If the tissues in an organ are not properly aligned or they are not intact together, it will lead to a dysfunctional system.
The stress in the organs will lead to a distortion in the circulation of not only the blood but also the receptors of the nervous system in a specific structure.
Improving the posture through yoga supports not only our outer physical appearance yet also our internal organs. Proper posture and positioning of our muscles helps our body to relax.
It eases the tension of, and within, the muscles, leaving our ligaments and tendons more coordinated with our body movements. The central nervous system will be able to transfer information, accurately and much faster than those times when we are not conducting yoga exercise.
Effects of Yoga Practice and Well-executed Postures
At the risk of being repetitious, yoga makes our body become flexible. Yoga likewise assists it to have synchronize movements through biomechanical postures. It helps us to be more fit, not only in our appearances but also for our internal organs.
You should take in consideration, whenever you conduct exercises and fitness workouts, what would be the benefit of this movements to the internal organs. Because in yoga, it is not about mental or physical strength but also the healthy life that will follow after experiencing this activity.
How to improve flexibility through the practice of yoga?
Flexibility is a challenging practice to us individual who are not really that flexible. If we suddenly practice exercising such as yoga postures that need a flexible body, we can guess that it will produce an effect in such a manner that we will initially feel pain and discomfort.
Yoga is not that easy. It needs a lot of proper executions and discipline in order to maintain a certain posture. Even those individuals that are already flexible, they need to study first the positions that they will perform. They still have to be careful and cautious, lest it might cause sudden injuries.
The thing that an inflexible individual is that they fear performing yoga exercises. Hence, some people view yoga as an activity for those that are already flexible, which is not really true and accurate.
Yoga can be done by anyone who is persistent to achieve healthy body and mind. Remember that flexibility is not a requirement in performing yoga but a result in doing such exercise.
Developing Flexibility
In order to improve flexibility, we must remember these three factors: alignment, attention, and awareness. In doing yoga, you must consider every part of your body, and you should take note if a certain pose will make one part of your body not aligned.
For you to avoid such misalignment, you may opt to try tools that will help your body balance when doing different yoga posture, such as yoga blocks.
You should also be attentive when doing yoga exercises, because if you zoned out for a bit, it might result to injuries or discomfort in doing such activity.
Awareness is another thing you must observe. You need to focus on your activity and executions. In asanas yoga, it teaches us to breathe properly. It leads our mind to concentrate on the things that we do.
Flexibility is not an overnight workout; it takes a lot of time, energy, and patience for us to achieve our goal. Now, I am going to introduce to you some yoga poses that will help us to be more flexible.
Some Yoga Poses for Flexibility
Reclined hand to big toe Pose
This kind of pose stretches your groins, hips, hamstrings, and calves by keeping your leg straight. In this activity, you may use yoga strap to lift your leg, but if you don’t have you just need to straighten your leg and until you reach your hand.
Eye of the needle Pose
In this pose, it stretches our hip flexors.
Downward facing dog Pose
This pose is good in stretching our hamstrings and calves at the back of our legs.
Crescent Lunge Pose
This pose stretches not only the back hip but also our knee. In reaching our arms towards the ceiling, it also stretches our ribs.
Pyramid Pose
This pose is also good to our hamstring and hips.
Half-moon Pose
This pose is good to our hips, hamstring, chest, ribs.
Garland Pose
This is a squatting posture. In this pose, stretches not only the ankles but also the lower hamstring, the back, and neck.
Half Lord of the Fishes Pose
In this pose it stretches the shoulders, hips and neck.
Cow Face Pose
In this pose, it stretches the butt which relieve the tightness in the hips and lower back pain.
Final Thoughts
These are just some of the poses that you may do if you want to become more flexible through yoga. Again, yoga is not limited to certain group of individuals. This practice is for all the people who desire to be healthy, both physically and mentally.
Flexibility is just one of the benefits of doing yoga; it is not part of the qualification in order for us to perform it.
Flexibility is the result of the efforts by a person in a yoga session, so make sure that, whenever you do yoga, you are constantly improving your flexibility.
Yet again, be careful and be cautious. Yoga is not short-term activity; it is a long process which needs a lot of effort and patience. In doing yoga, make sure that you enjoy it. Be happy in engaging in it.
