From cushions, blankets, straps, to belts, there are now a host of accessories to aid your yoga practice. However, none of these is as important or beneficial as blocks for practising yoga. What are these blocks? What are their benefits? Continue reading to find out.
For a lot of beginners, yoga often appears to be easy and effortless. But try doing it, and you’ll know that it is one of the most challenging forms of physical practice. Even the easiest-looking poses can try your moving and stretching capacity in ways you’ve probably never imagined.
As a result, there are a host of props or accessories to help you get better at yoga, especially if you’re a beginner. There are now straps, belts, cushions, blankets, and more to provide some help to the practitioners. One of the best ways to get the much-needed help is using blocks for yoga.
Used by beginners as well as advanced practitioners, the blocks help you get into positions and postures that can be very difficult otherwise. If you’ve never used these blocks, these are some of the most important benefits you can experience with them-
- Improved Alignment
Caving-in of the knee during squats or bridge pose, problems with keeping your spine straight, or the difficulty experienced when holding the ankle and knee aligned during a standing pose, etc. are all issues that stem from poor alignment.
The blocks make it easier for the practitioners to properly engage their muscles, allowing them to achieve better knee, spine, and hip alignment.
- Help with Reaching the Floor
A lot of yoga postures require you to touch your hand to the floor without bending your knees while you remain standing. This is something that can only be achieved with regular practice.
Until the time you can do this without any help, the blocks can be a very helpful accessory. You can use the block horizontally or vertically to make up for the missing distance between your fingers and the floor.
- Stay in Postures for Longer Durations
To build stamina, flexibility, and strength, it is crucial to hold a lot of postures as long as you probably can. Moreover, some of the yoga postures are of the nature that you can only experience their benefits if you’re able to hold them for longer durations.
Blocks are excellent for providing the support and stability you’ll need for holding the posture.
- Sit Comfortably
A lot of beginners have tight hamstrings due to which they find it very difficult to sit on the floor with their legs crossed. Their spine hunches a little, and their knees generally remain in the air.
A block is a simple solution to eliminate this discomfort. Apart from sitting cross-legged, the block will also make it easier for you to sit in a hero pose of child’s pose with a straight spine.
- Deeper Stretches
When you place your hands on yoga blocks, you’ll get the support needed to go deeper into your poses. You can place the block under your hands, between your feet, back, shoulder blades, etc. for a variety of poses.
It can be used for making your lifts stronger and allowing you to understand the external and internal rotation of muscles better.
Experience the Best of Yoga and Get Maximum Benefits
Patience is the key when it comes to yoga. A lot of the poses and postures are almost impossible to do for beginners. If you’re new to yoga, start small and build your way up to get better and achieve the various mental, physical, and spiritual benefits this ancient science has to offer.
Use props like blocks to get better at yoga and with time, you can be the expert yogi that you always wanted to be.
