Do you ever find yourself in yoga thinking how far should I bend, should I be able to reach my toes, how much stretch should I feel, how much should I squeeze the muscles?
These are great questions to be asking yourself. You should pay attention to how you feel a pose or stretch in your body.
The answer is often a moderate amount. But what does that mean? It’s like when my dad told me to put a ‘certain amount’ of oil in the pan to fry my pancakes. I put in enough to cover the entire frying pan, and consequently saturated my pancakes. What does a certain amount me? What does moderate mean?
Try my free online 20 minute yoga practice while you think about these tips:
- Do you feel pain? You’ve gone too far.
- You should be able to be in the position with a relaxed face, neck and throat. Are you grimacing? Clenching your teeth? Unable to swallow? If the answer is yes, then you are working too hard/too much.
- You should be able to breath easily and naturally. Are you holding your belly too tight to breath, hyperventilating, feel dizzy or short of breath? If yes, then it’s too much.
- Only bend your body as far as you would comfortably in normal life with a little muscle tension around the joints you are bending.
- When you first squeeze your muscles, relax that tension to 50%. Or relax totally and then only squeeze with 50% effort. Pause and see if that’s enough. You’re getting strong over a lifetime, not a 60 minute yoga class.
- Stop when you first feel a stretch. Don’t go further, just stay there and breathe normally. After 30 seconds, relax. Then try the stretch again to the same distance, does it feel different? Rarely do you need to increase your ability to stretch, often you need to release tension and maintain range of motion.
What else do you notice?
How much to bend or squeeze?
