6 Easy Yoga Poses for Flexibility and An Easier Practice
Why you should strive for better flexibility
Flexibility is a HUGE part of yoga. That doesn’t mean if you aren’t flexible you can’t do yoga (and I’m naturally very inflexible) but it does mean that in order to get good at yoga and progress through your practice to more difficult poses, you’ll have to actively work on your flexibility at least a little bit. This happens naturally when you do any pose, but I made a list of some of the posts I’ve found contribute to my flexibility the most! On days where I find I don’t have time to practice yoga as long as I’d like, I try to make sure to do a few of these best yoga poses for flexibility to prevent regression.
Best Poses for Flexibility
1. Triangle Pose
How to do it: Stand up straight and step your feet 3-4 feet apart (which will vary based on your height). Raise your arms to parallel to the floor with your palms down and turn your front foot to face forwards while keeping your back foot facing sideways. Assure your heels are aligned in a straight line. Start extending your torso towards your front leg, and then reach your front arm towards your front leg, keeping your arms in a T so that your back arm is reaching towards the sky. Rest your front arm on your front leg, not leaning on your leg but instead lifting upwards and just using it for balance. Turn your gaze towards the sky & your reaching arm and aim to keep your body in a straight line as much as possible.
What it stretches: Hamstrings, hips, groins, calves, chest, spine and shoulders.
2. Forward Fold
How to do it: Stand up straight with your legs hip-width distance and stretch your arms up to the sky. Bend forward at the hip joint, keeping your back straight and squeeze your upper body and arms against your legs, getting them as close together as possible and folding in half. You can use your arms to pull your body closer to your legs – making sure not to overstretch or hurt yourself of course! Bend your knees if you need to, but work towards being able to do this with your legs straight.
What it stretches: Deeply stretches your hamstrings and calves.
3. Forward Fold with Shoulder Stretch
How to do it: Stand up straight with your legs hip-width distance and clasp your hands behind your back with your arms straight. If you aren’t able to do this, use a yoga strap (super cheap, example at this link!), holding it behind your back with both hands as close together as possible. Bend forward at the hip joint, working your chest as close as possible to your legs while reaching your clasped hands upwards over your body towards the sky or forwards, squeezing your arms together. Bend your knees if you need to. Work your arms as far away from your body as possible without hurting yourself for maximum stretch.
What it stretches: Shoulders, hamstrings, and calves.
4. Bridge Pose
How to do it: Lay down on your back with your arms down by your sides and palms on the ground, and then lift your knees up while placing your feet flat on the floor. Press your hands and arms against the ground to create a deep back stretch, lifting your hips upwards as much as possible.
What it stretches: Chest, shoulders, hips, neck, and spine.
For more info on bridge pose like benefits of and tips check out my post on the best poses for beginners!
5. Camel Pose
How to do it: Get down on your knees with your shins on the ground, keeping your chest facing forwards and arms by your side. Rest your hands on the back of your pelvis with your hands on the top of your butt and fingers facing downwards. Start pressing your hips forwards and opening your chest, arching your back and gazing upwards. If you’re able to, reach your arms back towards your calves and grab them for support, arching your back and opening your chest. ***This pose is likely to make you feel a little weird if you haven’t done it before or stretched these muscles much. I used to get super dizzy and nauseous. To counter this after you’re done with the pose, go into child’s pose and it should subside quickly. The good news is, once I pushed myself to do this pose five or so times, the dizziness and nausea stopped coming and now I feel 100% normal when I do it, so push through! 🙂
What it stretches: Chest, abdomen, hip flexors, groin, quadriceps, and thighs. This is my favorite yoga poses for flexibility as it stretches so many different parts and you really feel it all over.
6. Pigeon Pose
How to do it: Get into down dog pose and lift one leg back up to the sky. Next pull your knee inwards towards your face and then rotate your knee towards the ground and rest the side of your leg on the ground, behind your arms. Make sure the front of your back leg is flat on the ground and that your hips are square. If this is a deep stretch for you, keep your torso upright and hands on the ground and just work on keeping your hips square. If you feel you could go deeper, bend forwards and prop yourself up with your elbows on the ground or with a block. Work towards laying flat on the ground in this stretch. This
What it stretches: Hip flexors
These are a handful of my favorite yoga poses for flexibility at the moment but they’ll likely change and as I find more I like to do that I see a big impact from I’ll add them to the list! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any you love
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