What I love about yoga is that you can do it at home, in a class, with a DVD...there are so many options available to you! I also love that it's not competitive and it teaches me things. Like patience. Because when you're trying to hold 'plank pose' for 3 minutes, you start learning a lot about patience. I get incredibly frustrated with stretching, because I am really inflexible from years of running without stretching. But I like that in yoga you can see little improvements every time you practice, and for me, that's enough to keep me going.
Anyway, I am still pretty new at it, I'm not a super yogi. But I thought I would share my favourite poses with you. Someone who has been practicing at years might be more flexible in these poses, but that's okay. I also like that yoga can be adapted for every body.
Okay, here we go. My favourites, in no particular order:
(btw I'm not going to pretend to know the proper names for these poses)
Downward dog: I used to do this pose wrong. I focussed so much on pushing the backs of my legs to the floor that I was missing the wonderful shoulder stretch you get out of this one. This pose is adaptable depending on which areas you want to focus on: for a stronger stretch in the arms, bend your knees a little. For a stronger stretch in the back of each calf, peddle the legs gently. You also built a bit of strength in your shoulders as you push the floor away. I used to hate down dog, but it's now one of my favourite poses. Strength and flexy training? Check!
Plank pose: Plank pose is an all-over strength builder. This is part of the sun salutation sequence (which let's be honest, is probably the only real sequence I will do unless given guidance on others). This pose is basic and almost anyone can do it, even if only for a few seconds. I just love this one because every muscle is engaged to hold you straight.
Headstand: This is a supported headstand, because the grass under me was quite uneven. I also quite love tripod headstands. Again, this pose is an all-over strengthener. It strengthens your shoulders, arms and your core as you stay upright. Your core is what keeps your heads straight above you, so this is a big core workout. There's also a heap of yoga literature about it increasing blood flow to the head and draining fluid from the feet. And it looks awesome.
Crow pose: Crow is a new one to my yoga repertoire, and one that I have spent quite a number of weeks working on. This balancing posture strengthens your arms, shoulders, wrists and core. It also takes a surprising amount of mental clarity to reach it. And by that, I mean you kind of have to focus on what you're doing to get there. Which is incredibly humbling.
Camel Pose: I've shown you a few poses that are over-all strength builders, but this one is an over-all stretcher. I started this one as a precursor to some more serious back-bending and was surprised at how difficult it actually is. This is a pose that takes a lot of focus and trust in your body. I would recommend doing it with a teacher first though, because it is very easy to get it wrong.
That's it! My favourite poses! Do you practice yoga? Are any of these your favourites or do you have others that you love? Let me know!
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