ARDHA BADDHA PADMOTTANASANA
Stretching exercise video series with Lucas Rockwood, founder of YOGABODY Naturals. Lucas demonstrates ardha badha padmottanasana for flexibility of the knees, hips, and ankles.
ABOUT THIS YOGA POSE
Yoga is a really safe practice, but people do hurt themselves regularly, usually when they are trying to move too quickly into a posture they are not ready for. Also, in yoga, often the poses that heal our weak areas of the body are ALSO the same poses that can hurt us if we’re not careful. Ardha badha padmottanasan, for example, is excellent for building strong knees, angles, and hips, but you need to be careful anytime you bend and rotate your knees.
FLEXIBILITY IN JOINTS
Often, we talk about “opening up our hips” or “loosening up our spine.” But the truth is, when we want a joint to have more range of motion, what we want to “loosen up” is the connective tissues supporting that joint. So the knuckle on your index finger has a small amount of connective tissue supporting it compared with your hip joint. For this reason, you can “open up” your hands much quicker than you can your hips. You can also accomplish more with less, meaning less time and energy will produce greater results… this is why many us struggle with stiffness in the big joints. The hips, the knees, the shoulders.
FLEXIBILITY CAN BE LEARNED
I used to be extremely stiff… so stiff, I honestly never thought I’d make it through an entire yoga class much less become a teacher. But flexibility is not magic. It’s not genetic. There’s a science to it, and I’ve done a good job of cracking the code. Nutrition is essential. Let me show you: http://www.yogabodynaturals.com
Tags: yoga, pilates, stretching exercises, flexibility, bikram, ashtanga, pose, iyengar, anusara, posture
at 7:24 am - 10th August 2010 Permalink
I really agree with you Lucas. Flexibility can be learned, and with sufficient nutrition and constant practice we can improve our flexibility. The soreness and pain are natural occurrence when you practice flexibility exercises, it really goes with it.
at 11:05 am - 13th August 2010 Permalink
I also used to be so stiff. And I absolutely agree with you, its a matter of constant practice and proper diet. Its good you write about it Lucas.