Yoga Doesn’t Work for Stretching Flexibility
7 SECRETS OF NUTRITION & FLEXIBILITY
#4 of 7: I’m sorry, but yoga doesn’t work
How to improve your flexibility
Warning: this might shock you!
Yoga classes, for flexibility, rarely work. Sad but true. Let me tell you why. In most yoga classes, you’ll practice 30-50 postures in 90 minutes. This means that you usually get less than 30 seconds per posture.
I’m no math whiz, but I can tell you this: 20 seconds ain’t much! Neither is 40 seconds and neither is 1 minute.
If you want to really get flexible (this century), you need to start holding postures for 2-5 minutes.
Sound crazy?
Well get this: most yoga poses demonstrate rather than develop flexibility. That’s why dancers are
always the stars of yoga classes while the stiff guys (like me 5 years ago) hide out in the back and pray for a miracle.
Well stop praying and start practicing! The miracle of flexibility is in self practice, at home, where you can take your time. I’m a yoga teacher, and I know what I’m talking about.
If you want to get flexible, you need to learn a different way to stretch. The method I use, called Gravity Poses, involves ZERO effort, just a ton of concentration and deep breathing.
Let me give you a sample of what I’m talking about. This is for tight hamstrings:
1 - Stand with your feet about as wide as your hips
2 - Bend you knees a little
3 - Grab opposite elbows, and fold forward over your legs
4 - Relax your head
5 - Breath in through your nose and out through your mouth really deeply (I mean, really deeply)
6 - Count 100 breaths and then release
*NOTE: don’t bounce or wiggle or use any effort… just allow gravity to do the work.