2016 Intensive Sold Out/Winter 2017 Intensive Added

by Nina

Namaste Berkeley recent informed us that even though it is only January our 2016 summer intensive is already sold out. At this point, they are just taking names for the wait list. Yes, we do realize that some of you will be disappointed at that news. Unfortunately the size of the room we’re teaching in means we need to limit the number of people attending. 

Because of this, we have decided to schedule a 2017 winter intensive at the same location. The dates will be January 9 through 13, 2017, with an extra day for teachers who want certification on January 14. This intensive will taught by Baxter and me, and will be exactly the same as the one offered for summer 2016 (see http://yogaforhealthyaging.blogspot.com/2016/01/sign-up-now-for-yoga-for-healthy-aging.html). So if you’re interested, save the date and stay tuned for registration information.

Both these intensives are organized by Namaste Berkeley not us, so I can’t reserve you a spot or even take names. But we promise to let you know as soon as Namaste opens registration for the Winter 2017 intensive.

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Strength and Fitness Training Program

Physical fitness is the state of the human body when it is in perfect health. Being fit is very important to stay alert both physically and mentally and also to ward off certain diseases that attack as the body ages. Fitness programs are schedules that allow a person to incorporate exercise into their daily routine.

Choosing the right fitness training program is not the only important step of getting in shape – you must also construct your plan realistically so that you can stay fully committed. Anyone can begin a fitness training program after getting clearance from his or her physician, and there are thousands of different programs on the market today; however, the real trick comes in knowing how to achieve the personal fitness goals you have set forth.

You are about to embark upon the journey of a lifetime and the program, the timing, and the overall coaching is crucial. One component ignored or mishandled will result in a less-that-desired effect. As in business and in life, planning and timing are everything. You are basically embarking upon a launch, a product launch, and you are the product.

The beauty of golf fitness training is that it is something that improves your game, but can also become a hobby in itself. An exercise program can dramatically improve your life, and also provide inherent satisfaction. As you delve into your fitness program, you will grow more and more interested in living a healthy lifestyle.

Another attribute of your typical fitness training program that didn’t quite work out for me was the aggressive weight training. Thanks to my physical condition, I couldn’t put it too much stress on my wrists, elbows or shoulders without suffering from an undue amount of pain which would eventually become nearly unbearable.

If you are like me and want to be fairly big, big enough that my wife is proud to have other women look at me, then you may need to look into additional equipment or a gym membership. For most people getting tone and musclar can be done right at home. You will find on the market today hundreds if not thousands of programs designed to meet at your fitness needs.

While your progress might not seem apparent when you step onto the scale on Day 2 of your fitness program, the fact is progress has been made. This is another reason why people give up so soon on their fitness dreams. They finish a hard day at the gym plus starve themselves of their chocolate fix only to hit the scales and realize no weight has been loss.

The bottom line is that you will be able to get free fitness training program which will be as good as any other program that you might end up paying scores of money for. When you get yourself a free fitness training program you can go on and further tailor make it to suit your individual need and requirement.

The intensity that you have in the physical fitness training program plays an important role to decide whether you will continue with the program or not. If you are going to pick an exercise plan that is too hard on you then you might be tempted to give up midway or you might harm your body.
You won’t have a trainer in the online fitness training program to push you into completing the exercises and also to increase the number. You need to make certain that your levels of motivation are really high; in fact you need to be highly self-motivated.

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The Best Gym Workout Routines for Men

When it comes to deciding on what the best gym workout routines for men are, it can be hard to know which the best is for you. Everyone’s body reacts differently to exercise, and it can be hard to find the best exercise that will help you get fit, lose weight, and build muscle. In order to determine what the best workout for you is, you need to know what your goals are for your workout routine.
Weight Reduction:

Many men workout with the purpose of losing weight in mind, and the workout routines that you will do to lose weight are very specialized. In order to lose weight, you need two things:

1. Lots of cardiovascular exercise (Cardio)

2. Sufficient weight training

The cardiovascular workout is the only way that you will get your heart pumping sufficiently to burn fat, and the weight training ensures that the fat all over your entire body is being burned and turned into muscles. Cardiovascular exercise is very effective for burning fat, but you will simply lose overall mass and develop a lean runner’s body if you don’t do sufficient weight training.

Peak Physical Condition:

When it comes to getting your body into peak physical condition, it can be a lot more difficult than simply losing weight. Your body can handle a lot of strain, and it takes a lot of exercise to get into peak condition. You will need to do a lot of circuit training, which is doing a lot of exercises focusing on toning every area of your body, all with very little rest between exercises. An example of a circuit training routine is:

1. Bench Press

2. Squats

3. Pull-Ups Squats

4. Push-ups

5. Dips

6. Lunges

These exercises concentrate on exercising the various muscles within your body, all inside a circular pattern. To be able to have the obtain the most from circuit training, you have to allow a maximum of 20 seconds between exercises. Do 20 or 25 repetitions of every exercise to be able to build lean muscle mass in your body.

Building Muscle:

When it comes to building muscle, there is no particular formula that will work for everyone. Each body reacts differently to the exercises, and you need to see what works for your body. However, you need to focus on lifting a large quantity of weight, as that is what will truly stretch the muscles and make them grow. You also need to do few repetitions, between 4 and 6 for each exercise. Make sure to build every area of your body evenly, as you don’t want to end up with huge chest and shoulder muscles and a weak core. Make sure that your entire body receives an even workout, and focus on building one muscle set every day of the week.
Here is an example workout:

- Day 1: Chest

- Day 2: Biceps

- Day 3: Back

- Day 4: Triceps

- Day 5: Shoulders

- Day 6: Core

- Day 7: Legs

These are just a few sample gym workout routines for men, but they are some of the best for anyone, regardless of body type. Choose the workout you want to do, be faithful, and stick with it. Only by working out consistently will you achieve the results you desire.

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Friday Practical Pointers: Who Should Avoid Certain Wrist Movements?

by Baxter

Leslie Greinstein, Age 62

We now arrive at one of our most delicate joints of the body, the wrist. I remind my students at least once a week that the human body has evolved to walk upright, freeing the wrists and hands from clomping around on all fours like our very distant ancestors. And yet, in modern yoga, we are down on hands and knees quite often, with poses such as Cat/Cow pose, Hunting Dog pose, and much more challenging poses for wrist integrity, strength, and flexibility such as Plank pose, Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) and Upward-Facing Dog (Urdva Mukha Svanasana) poses, and even Handstand! We are often asking a lot of our wrists, and for some it may be too much.

Movements of the Wrist

Start by taking your arms  out in front of you with your palms turned up towards the sky—or imagine it.

Flexion: From the starting position, bending the palm of your hand toward your chest. We rarely use this movement in yoga asana, except in the version of Arms Overhead (Urdhva Hastasana) where you interlace your fingers, pulling the wrists away from one another, and take your arms overhead, with the backs of your hand facing the ceiling. 

Extension: From the starting position, dropping your hand forward and down so the palm faces away from you. We often use this movement in yoga asana, from the slight flexion of Downward-Facing Dog to the 90-degree flexion of Upward-Facing Dog, Plank pose, Side Plank pose (Vasithasana), and so on. Sometimes we bear our full weight with our wrists in this position, as in Handstand, and sometimes we bear just a light amount of weight on it, for example, in Extended Side Angle pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana) when the bottom hand is flat on the floor or block. 

Abduction: From the starting position, moving the pinky sides of the hand away from the midline of your body. We use this movement when our hand is on the floor or a support to adjust the angle of our hand and wrist, such as in Downward-Facing Dog pose when we turn our hands toward each other or in Upward Plank pose (Purvottanasana) when we turn our hands out a bit. 

Adduction: From the starting position, moving the pinky sides of the hands towards each other, toward the midline of your body. We use this movement when our hand is on the floor or a support to adjust the angle of our hand and wrist, such as in Downward-Facing Dog pose, when we turn our hands away from each other or in Upward Plank pose (Purvottanasana) when we turn our hands toward each other. 

Note on Rotation: Although it feels like the wrist joints can rotate, this action actually comes from the forearm bones rolling over one another, not from wrist joint itself rotating. 

Cautions for the Wrist Joint 

Now let’s look at who should avoid or minimize certain wrist movements. Keep in mind, however, that we want to maintain as much of our full range of movement of the wrist joint as possible. So, in many instances, my caution will not mean “don’t” or “never,” but rather approach cautiously and stop if the movement worsens pain. 

In general, most people can safely do all of the wrist movements if they are not bearing weight on the hands and wrists. In fact, a famous study published in JAMA in 1999 Yoga-Based Intervention for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome looked at using yoga to address one of the most common maladies of the wrist, carpal tunnel Syndrome, and all of the poses used where non-weight bearing poses. So even if you have wrist issues, you can still do a modified practice using lots of our poses! 

Generally avoid a particular wrist movement if:

1. The movement increases pain or numbness due to a painful wrist condition that is chronic, such as long standing repetitive strain injuries of the wrist, general arthritis or thumb joint arthritis, or more acute, such as acute sprains and strains of the wrist, carpal tunnel syndrome or new ganglion cysts.
2. If you have significant swelling in the joint—whether from an acute injury or the flare of a chronic condition—and the swelling inhibits a particular movement or elicits significant pain during the movement.

Now for the specific movements. Who should avoid or minimize the following movements?

Flexion

1. Those with carpal tunnel syndrome, which can worsen with flexion, even when non-weight bearing. 
2. Those with arthritis of the wrist that becomes more painful with flexion, especially when weight bearing. 
3. Those with a ganglion cyst (which usually appears on the back of the wrist). 

Extension

1. Those with hyper-flexible wrist joints may want to avoid full extension in weight-bearing poses to avoid wear and tear on the internal wrist structures and overstretching ligaments. 
2. Anyone who experiences significant numbness and tingling in the fingers and hands in extension while bearing weight in the wrist joints. 

Abduction 

1. Those with arthritis at the base of the thumb (the most common site for arthritis in the hand and wrist) or tendonitis of the thumb tendons, known as DeQuervain’s tendonitis, because abduction narrows the thumb side of the wrist joint which can compress the arthritic thumb joint or the inflamed tendon. 

Adduction 

1. Those with arthritis the pinky finger side area of wrist because this action can narrow and compress this side of the wrist joint. 

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Techniques for Cultivating Flexibility with Yoga

by Nina

De Jur, Age 57

After delving into strength (see Techniques for Strength Building with Yoga), Baxter and I immediately moved onto flexibility. Now, after our usual time spent on research, discussion, and debate, we’ve come up with a basic set of guidelines for how you can use your yoga practice for improving and maintaining flexibility. 

An important thing to consider when you move into flexibility practices is how flexible you already are. Overly flexible people should emphasize strength and stability rather than promoting more flexibility. These people should do what they can do protect their joints by activating the muscles that support their joints (see below) and stretch less intensely than people who are naturally tight or even just average. Tighter people can safely move into a noticeable stretching sensation, as long as they are not feeling that sensation at tendon/bone connections near the joints. 

How Far to Stretch. Be mindful in your stretching not to go beyond the sensation of a healthy stretch into feelings of pain, burning, or compression in your joint. If you experience sensations that seem unhealthy, either back off the stretch or use a prop or different variation of the pose. Overly flexible people should be extra careful, aiming for a lighter feeling of stretch (or even do the pose for strength instead flexibility by actively contracting their muscles instead of allowing them to stretch).

How Long to Stretch. To cultivate long-lasting flexibility in your muscles and fascia, aim for at least 90 seconds. If holding for 90 seconds isn’t possible, it might be an indication that you are: stretching your muscle too far or that the opposing muscles are contracting too tightly, that the initial intensity of your stretch set off a strong stretch reflex, or that you are doing a pose or a version of the pose that is too challenging for you. So start by seeing if you can back off the stretch a bit or modify the pose. But if you just can’t get comfortable, hold the pose until you are fatigued, and gradually over time work your way up to longer holds. 

Static poses held for shorter periods of time will release the overnight tightness that we all experience and bring you temporary flexibility that will enhance the rest of your practice. For example, you could warm up for standing poses by doing leg stretches. Hold these warm-up stretches for 20 seconds or longer to trigger a relaxation in the muscles, allowing a more complete stretch. 

How Often to Stretch. To cultivate lasting flexibility, stretch a particular muscle or muscle group regularly, at least three times a week and at most every other day. In general, with consistent practice, you can see results after 3 to 8 weeks for muscles. For fascia, however, it takes longer to create lasting changes, from 3 to 6 months.

Muscles need a day of rest between stretching sessions or you could develop an overuse injury. So generally you shouldn’t stretch the same muscle group on consecutive days. However, you can do flexibility poses every day if you focus on different areas of your body on each day, for example, alternating between upper body and lower body or between backbends and forward bends. Or, you can alternate intense stretching days with other types of yoga practice, whether that is active strength, balance, or agility practices, a gentle or restorative practice, or pranayama/meditative practice on your “off days.” 

Static Poses. Entering into static poses slowly will allow elastic muscle lengthening to take place more easily. And, once in the pose, you can add in muscle activation on the opposite side of the joint to enhance the stretch (see below). 

Dynamic Poses. Slow, dynamic movements in and out of poses allow gradual muscle lengthening without triggering the muscles’ protective stretch reflex. So these are a good way to warm up your joints in an easy fashion and can lead to immediate improvements in muscle flexibility, which you can then further with your static hold of the same pose. For example, you practice Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) dynamically to temporarily improve hamstring/hip flexibility, which you then further with a long hold of the pose. In general, we recommend a combination of small dynamic sequences of stretches done for 6-8 repetitions, followed by holding the stretch statically for 90 seconds. 

Restorative Poses. Poses where you can relax as you gently stretch your body in a supported position are an excellent way to cultivate flexibility. For example, holding Supported Backbend for at least 90 seconds allows you to gently open your front body. Likewise, holding Supported Child’s pose for at least 90 seconds allows you to gently stretch your back body. And because fascial planes run for long distances through your body, using a supported pose that stretches your entire body (front, side, or back) will help address fascial tightness as well as muscular tightness. 

Balance Your Practice. To balance your flexibility, make sure your practice includes poses of all the basic types: standing poses, seated hip openers, backbends, forward bends, and twists, as long as they are safe for you. Of course you don’t need to do all these basic types within a single practice; just try to get to them sometime each week.

Activating Muscles. In static stretches, intentionally contracting the muscles on the opposite side of the joint—known as reciprocal inhibition—allows the muscle group you stretching to lengthen more effectively. So when you are stretching a particular muscle, bring your awareness to the antagonist muscle, which is the opposite muscle to the one you are stretching, and gently activate it. For example, when stretching your front thigh muscles in a Lunge pose, try consciously activating the back of your thigh. If you’re not used to working this way, it may take some practice. Take it in two steps: 

1. Consciously relax the muscle, allowing it to lengthen. 
2. Gently firm the muscle toward the bone. 

Protecting Your Joints. For people with joint problems, such as arthritis, consciously firming the muscles that support a problem joint will help protect the joint from strain or wear and tear. For example, if you have knee arthritis and are practicing Reclined Leg Stretch (Supta Padangusthasana), you could firm around your knee joint as you bring your top leg into the pose and try to maintain that firmness as you stretch the back of your thigh. 

For people who are overly flexible and can bend easily into deep forward bends and backbends, consciously activating the muscles that are supporting you in the pose will prevent you from hyperextending the joints. For example, in Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana), you can protect your hip joints by activating the muscles around your hip joints before you enter the pose and maintain as much of that as you can while you come into the pose. While the result will be a stretch that is not as deep as usual, your hip joints will benefit. 

And just as over-stretching can cause joint problems in an active pose, it can also do so in restorative poses. So if you feel any sensations of overstretching, pain, pinching, or compression while you are in a restorative pose, come out and add more support, reducing the stretch you are experiencing. Likewise, if you notice pain in your joints after practicing restorative poses, add in more support the next time you practice.

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Video: What is RESTful? (2.0.0)

Roughly two years ago, the Bodybuilding.com Commerce Engineering Team set out to deliver native mobile phone applications for iOS and Android that offered the same rich user experience that hundreds of thousands of customers enjoy within our web applications each day. We started with a couple of UI/UX mockups, a firm knowledge that we needed to develop an API, and a strong desire to make that API RESTful. A large, dedicated team spent 18 months of their lives learning and growing to achieve a soft launch of the applications in May of 2015 in the Google Play Store and iTunes. We believe a project of such magnitude must, beyond its primary goals, create useful and reusable assets to be considered a success. By that definition, this project was a huge success. We have a few libraries we plan to open source, a bunch of best practices to document and present, and a ton of knowledge and opinions to share with the development community.

Other than the applications themselves, the most valuable assets developed during the project have been our opinions on what defines a RESTful architecture. Even months into the project, we found ourselves in long debates that led to redefining our views of RESTful architecture. Each of these cycles triggered new breakthroughs and pitfalls in our implementation. Even now, months after the launch, we still find ourselves re-evaluating past decisions and making significant changes in our implementation to align with the newest visions. The pieces of that newest vision were collected together into a presentation named "What Is RESTful?" that was used multiple times internally to achieve a common base understanding from which the more interesting conversations around implementation grew. Even this presentation has gone under multiple revisions and has recently achieved the SemVer status of 2.0.0. This 2.0.0 version was recently presented at the Bodybuilding.com Fall 2015 Tech Talk and is now available for online viewing. We expect to use this presentation in future posts and presentations as a launching point to dive deep into the finer aspects of our implementation and the software technology that grew from our vision. It is certain that we have not gotten everything right, and we encourage feedback, both constructive and critical, in order to develop the 3.0.0 version of this vision.

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It's Complicated: Moving Toward Equanimity

by Beth

“It’s complicated.” That was our tour guide speaking from the front of the bus as it rumbled toward La Habana (Havana). She was describing the history, politics, and economics of Cuba. On day one of my 10-day cultural trip to Cuba with Global Arts/Media, I learned that in spite of certain guarantees from the Cuban government—free housing, education, health care and a monthly ration of food for each family—life is hard. Living in poverty is a daily reality for many Cubans, who supplement their meager salaries by selling whatever they can offer. Many simply beg and American tourists are the new target audience. 

When approached by Cubans selling books, CDs, caricature sketches, or food, or simply asking directly for money, our guide informed us that the appropriate response for refusal was “No, gracias,” and that we could expect to repeat that phrase many times as once would not be enough for those who wanted our dollars or CUCs (special tourist pesos). 

How true that turned out to be.

Dealing with the street vendors was easy. Because there was a concrete exchange involved, my answer always came after a few seconds of conscious thought. Dealing with begging was different. I’d seen examples of begging on television travel shows but I’d never experienced it up close and personal. Before leaving on this trip, I did what I do every December, sifting through the pile of solicitation letters from non-profit organizations and writing out checks to those that help feed, clothe, provide medical care for the poor and help children. But give money to people who walked up, looked me in the eye and asked for money directly with an open expectant hand? That was unnerving and I said, “No, gracias.” As an introvert, I felt really uncomfortable. And that feeling was later complicated by an emotional residue of guilt and “maybe I should have.” 

Then two things happened. 

I was standing outside Artesanos Cubanos, an artists’ collective, looking at my purchases, a necklace and a beautiful hand carved box with an OM symbol on the lid. I heard two sounds, a tapping and a clinking. When I looked up, I saw him. His blind eyes were filmed over and unblinking. The cane in his left hand tapped the cobblestones. His right hand shook a can with coins in it. He made his way carefully past me and continued down Obispo Street. Immediately, without a single conscious thought, I wove my way through the throng of tourists and locals to drop a handful of coins into his can. “Gracias,” he said.

“Por nada,” I replied.

The next day, again, spontaneously, without a conscious thought, I gave money to a one-legged man in a wheelchair who silently held out his hat as he sat by the fence at Plaza de Armas where our tour bus dropped us off. 

Back home the phrase, “It’s complicated” filled most of my mind time. After thinking, mulling, and pondering for a couple of weeks I came up with three questions I wanted to answer in order to put my experience with begging in a context that would allow me to find some measure of peace with the emotional residue of guilt and “maybe I should have.” 

1. Why was I so focused on this aspect of the trip as opposed to the artists and musicians I met and the culture I experienced?

This answer to this one was, thankfully, uncomplicated and twofold. First, I needed to understand the “why” behind my emotional response to direct begging. And, second, at this stage of life being free-tired,’ (I prefer the word “free-tired” to “retired”), I find myself blessed with time and a strong inclination to ponder how best to apply the tools of yoga to healthy aging. 

,

2. What factors, conscious and unconscious, influenced my responses? 

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is my first go-to source for insight. I wasn’t sure where to begin, so I started from the beginning. My plan was to go one by one until I found what I was looking for. Turns out I didn’t have to go very far. I hit pay dirt at 1.7. I used The Unadorned Thread of Yoga (Salvatore Sambita) to survey 12 translations and then turned to the translation and commentary by I. K. Taimni, The Science of Yoga, which states: 

(Facts of) right knowledge (are based on) direct cognition, inference or testimony. 

My observation of the two men I gave money to offered direct cognition of their situation. One was clearly blind. If he had worn sunglasses, I might not have been able to deduce that fact. The other clearly had one leg. They did not directly ask for money so my “discomfort button” did not get pushed.

The other begging situations felt complicated. Although I had some general background on poverty in Cuba, I could not determine from observation or inference what their personal stories might have been, and since I did not speak the language, first-hand testimony was not possible. And as an introvert, I would not have asked.

3. Did I respond appropriately from a yogic perspective?

This one got really complicated for me. It took more thinking, pondering, and reflecting until I had my answer. In Sutra 1.33, I. K. Taimni states: 

The mind becomes clarified by cultivating attitudes of friendliness, compassion, gladness and indifference respectively toward happiness, misery, virtue and vice.

The word "indifference" threw me. It can be so easily misconstrued as apathy or not caring, so I checked some of the other translations and chose the one by Georg Feuerstein: 

The projection of friendliness, compassion, gladness and equanimity towards objects – [be they] joyful, sorrowful, meritorious or demeritorious – [bring about] the pacification of consciousness. 

The word "equanimity" felt right. It means mental or emotional stability or composure, especially under tension or strain. 

My experience with the blind man and the man with one leg was peaceful. My response was immediate—there was no emotional charge, positive or negative. Equanimity was present. Even though I felt compassion toward those who asked directly for money, I did not experience equanimity, as my discomfort and the emotional residue of guilt and “maybe I should have” clearly demonstrated. I reacted instead of responding. If equanimity had been present, no matter my choice of action, there would not have been that strong emotional charge. 

This was the Aha! moment that uncomplicated my confusion and discomfort, and raised two more questions. How does one respond to both perceived joy and suffering with equanimity? Is it possible to experience life’s ups and downs in this five-senses material world without emotional charges, positive or negative? 

The answers, for me and for many of us, are both complicated and uncomplicated. It can feel complicated when we first confront and grapple with the concept of equanimity. It’s less complicated if we practice svadhyaya (self-study) and reach a point of understanding. It slowly becomes uncomplicated when that understanding filters through body, breath, and mind as we practice equanimity using the wisdom and tools of yoga. 

So, it looks like I have my work cut out for me. It’s been six weeks of thinking, mulling, and contemplation. With this new awareness I can begin practicing. I am sure that it will be a long slog. I will, no doubt, take one step forward and two steps back, and then repeat the process over and over again. The concept of equanimity is now “top of mind,” and will be a new aspect of my yoga practice, from asana to meditation. 

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The Top 5 Exercises For Massive Forearms

Forearm training isn't easy. It takes a long time to turn flimsy forearms into bulked-up boa constrictors. But it's possible.

This is The Top 5 Exercises For Massive Forearms

                                   1 - Forearm curls

                            2 - Reverse forearm curls

                        3 - Behind the back forearm curls

                           4 - Grip strength exercise

                                  5 - Reverse curls

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Flexibility Varies: Are You Tight or Flexible?

by Baxter

As you can see from these photos, anyone observing Nina and me practice Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) would immediately see that even though we’re both long-time practitioners, our ability to stretch the muscles in the backs of our legs varies greatly. Yes, it turns out that flexibility among people varies, and often quite a bit! Some people are naturally tight, some are naturally flexible, and others are overly flexible. 

There are three factors that influence our flexibility:

1. Joint stabilizing structures of the joint capsule and ligaments might have more or less flexibility. (You might detect this by sensing limitation or restrictions near to your joints.) 
2. Muscle length or fascial tightness. (You might detect this by sensing the limitation or restriction mid-muscle or along the length of a muscle group.) 
3. Disease processes that affect flexibility, like generalized arthritis or Parkinson’s disease, which can gradually decrease flexibility over the long haul. Certain rare conditions can have more extreme effects on flexibility, such as Ehler-Danlos Syndrome, which makes people hyper-mobile and scleroderma, which makes people severely restricted. 

When you practice for flexibility, you should take all of these factors into consideration. If you’re naturally tight or have average flexibility, we recommend you begin with dynamic poses to warm up and release your overnight tightness, and then practice static stretches that you hold for least 90 seconds, if possible, to increase your chances of increasing your resting muscle length and improving your range of motion. 

If you are overly flexible, attempting to become more flexible may actually be dangerous, as you risk of worsening the lax support your joints already have. So even though being more flexible would enable to do super bendy poses with greater ease, we recommend that you focus on strength instead. Include more strengthening poses in your practice, and use isometric contractions around your joints in all your poses (see Why and How to Activate Your Muscles in Yoga Poses), including your stretching poses. 

Although there is no official standard for “average flexibility” means, you can assess yourself by doing the following basic poses and comparing your range of motion and flexibility with those of fellow practitioners, or have your teacher watch you do them and ask for their feedback assessment:

• Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) 
• Crescent Moon pose 
• Triangle pose (Trikonasana) 
• Lunge pose (Vanarasana) 
• Bridge pose (Setubanda Sarvangasana)
• Cobbler's pose (Baddha Konasana)
• Easy Sitting Twist (Parsva Sukasana) 

Beware, however, that just as there is no set standard for “average flexibility” means, that within an individual, flexibility can vary quite a bit from joint to joint. For example, you might be flexible in the shoulders but tight in the hips or vice versa. So be careful not to label yourself as stiff or flexible without a good examination of your flexibility in all areas of your body. In addition, certain medical conditions can temporarily limit flexibility in specific areas of your body, such as frozen shoulder or acute shoulder bursitis, which would limit many of the movements of the shoulder joint. 

Once you have identified your tight areas, you might want to focus more attention on increasing flexibility those areas. For instance, due to being flexible in the hip muscles that allow me externally rotate my legs, poses such as Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana) and even Lotus pose are fairly easy for me. However, as you can see from the photo above, my hip muscles that allow forward bending (flexion), which is required for Standing Forward Bend are much more restricted. So, it behooves me to spend more time on lengthening the muscles that inhibit forward bending from my hips, rather than focusing on hip stretches for Lotus-like poses that I don’t need more flexibility to achieve. 

So, when thinking about how you can influence your own flexibility, be sure to take a good look at your body as well as your health history. This will enable you to design a customized practice that will benefit you as an individual and help keep you safe.

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