Yoga Flexibility - Increase Flexibility

14/04/2011 18:13

Being flexible is defined as if the joints in your body have a wide range of movement. The ability to bend and stretch this way and that decreases as you age, as the joints become rigid, muscle lengths decrease, and conditions such as arthritis limit flexibility all the more. You can regain your youthful flexibility by starting a yoga teacher training program. Stretching out in general improves overall flexibility, but specific exercises of the hamstrings, shoulders, and hips may improve your flexibility faster than any other method.

If you think that being flexible is exaggerated, consider the many benefits of having great flexibility. The first is the basic rise of movement you can experience that allows you to bend, reach, and also dance. Being flexible will also reduce the muscle pain from exertion. Furthermore, it helps to prevent injury. Picture a cold, stiff elastic band. It has the potential to stretch, but when strained past its limitation or stretched out too quickly, it breaks. With a loose, supple elastic band, similar to what your tendons can become after training in yoga, you will be significantly less prone to any injury because your tendons can stretch more without tearing.

Although flexibility is naturally decreased with age, it can also be gained back at any age. In fact, as a mother of older children, or perhaps as a grandmother, you can still achieve greater flexibility than ever before thanks to yoga.

One great way of increasing your flexibility quickly with yoga is by obtaining a hot yoga certification. A hot yoga, as it sounds, is performed in a hot, humid room. This will serve to relax your muscles to their most loosened condition. When you stretch while you are in a soothing, hot space, your ligaments and tendons attaching the muscles and bones in your body will stretch further than ever. Moreover, they will more readily keep this flexibility even when you are inside a room temperature location.

There are a few specific yoga poses that you can work toward practicing to improve the flexibility in various parts of the body. Your hamstrings will feel a pull with the Downward Facing Dog Pose. A focus on both your hamstrings and your hips is achieved with the Side-Reclining Leg Lift pose. Your shoulders can increase their flexibility by mastering the Cow Face pose. Your quads, abdomen and chest will be stretched and made more flexible with the Camel pose. There are many other yoga postures to improve flexibility, however right now you have an idea of a few.

If you have by chance considered being a yoga teacher, get started with your yoga teacher training by joining an accredited training course which focuses on yoga instructor certification.