3 Easy Ways to Make Yoga Comfortable in Your Body
It doesn’t have to be so hard
I hear it all the time: “I’m too stiff to do yoga.”
Saying you are too stiff to practice yoga is like saying you are too dirty to take a shower. A shower is how you get clean, and yoga is how you become less stiff and more mobile.
Being “too stiff” is one of many things that might be holding you back from starting a yoga practice. It might be tough on your wrists or shoulders. You might have sensitive knees. You might have back pain from sitting at a desk, or from life. There are ways to make all of these things okay.
Yoga helps you feel more comfortable in the body that you have. You don’t need to contort yourself into a yoga pose, the pose can meet you where you are. There is a yoga practice for every body, with adjustments and modifications to make most of the most common poses.
Here are three ways to make yoga more comfortable in the body that you have.
1. Finding the balance between strength and ease
I worked with a yoga teacher once who said “try easy, don’t try hard.” This embodies the soul of yoga. Finding the balance between strength and ease is the sweet spot for your practice.
When things feel hard, it’s common to tense up and resist. Notice if your shoulders are up by your ears and see if you can drop them. Even now, while reading this post. Drop them more. Pushing and shoving yourself into a pose will only cause injury and will detract from the joy of practice.
Approach each pose with curiosity. Notice how your body feels. Which muscles need to work and which ones can you relax? Maybe you let go of the racing thoughts in your mind and focus on breathing, both in and out. Notice if you hold your breath when you feel challenged. Practice exhaling through your nose as you release your jaw.
Each pose has certain muscles that are working and others that aren’t. See if you can activate your muscles without creating tension, and relax the rest of the body. Can you let go of the struggle, even if only in your mind? It takes practice to do this, but when you “try easy” yoga poses feel more doable.
2. Don’t be afraid to use props
Props are our friends. Many beginning practitioners think that props are a crutch, and that other people will judge you for being a beginner. In truth, the more experienced you are at practicing yoga, the more likely you will be to use props during your practice.
Props make the poses accessible in the body that you have so that you can let go of struggle and strain. I remember early on a teacher told me to use a block between my knees for a reclining twist. I thought “I don’t need that.” But when the teacher placed the block between my knees (because I used to be quite stubborn), I was able to relax my hips and shoulders more than without.
Blocks make the floor closer, like with certain balance, standing or forward bending poses. Blocks also create more space between your hips and the floor, making stretching more comfortable. When you feel supported with the block, it’s easier to relax into the stretch. You can soften into the stretch instead of forcing it. Force often leads to injury.
Straps make your arms longer so that you can reach your feet or connect the hands together behind your back. Blankets can soften the floor beneath sensitive knees or raise your hips or other body parts for support. They are also wonderful for warmth in the Winter when practicing Savasana or meditation.
3. Spread your fingers
If practicing yoga poses like Downward Dog or Plank bothers your wrists, the first thing to do is to look at your hands. If your fingers relax and curl, then all of your upper body weight falls into your wrists and they’ll hurt.
Try spreading the fingers and pressing the entire surface of your palm into the mat. This will distribute the weight more evenly through your whole hand and take the pressure off your wrists. Connect the knuckles of the index fingers and thumbs into the floor in particular.
If this still bothers your wrists, because you’ve had a previous injury, surgery, or arthritis, lower onto your forearms so that your elbows are under your shoulders and your forearms are parallel to each other. You’ll still want to spread the fingers, but there will be much less pressure on your wrists.
Beginner Yoga Support
If you are new to yoga or have never tried it before, you might have all sorts of reasons that you “can’t” practice. You might struggle trying something new, or feeling like you don’t know what you are doing. Maybe you are stressed out and have heard that yoga might help, but you don’t know where to start. You might be coming to yoga because of chronic back pain. Whatever your reason, I can help you get started.
I wrote a free eBook called Top 10 Things to Know Before Attending Your First Yoga Class to help you get out of your head and onto your yoga mat. This guide is to make your first yoga class the first of many by telling you what to expect. If you are curious to know if yoga might be exactly what you need, get out of your own way by reading this eBook! Click the button below for your free copy!
If you are ready to dive right into classes, I teach Beginner Yoga online every Monday at 9am ET and Wednesday at 9:30am ET. You can drop in or get a subscription! Click the button below to see the full schedule of classes. Click here for a 10 day All Access Free Trial!
