Not your typical flexibility question

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I know everyone hates the “I’m not flexible enough” excuse, but hear me out:

I’ve been doing yoga off and on for years, at least 10. My issue is, the longer I practice, the stiffer I get. I thought it might be a conditioning thing, so I took a six-month conditioning and flexibility class. We did measurements at the beginning, middle and end of our six months to see our progress. While everyone else gained inches in their reach, I was the only one who didn’t! I began the class able to reach past my toes in sitting forward fold and ended the six months not even able to touch them.

It definitely gets discouraging as I start building the strength to move into more difficult poses, but don’t have the reach to actually do them. I’m struggling with accepting that I might just not be able to gain the flexibility for a more in depth practice. It gets me even more down when I’m unable to do poses I used to do so well. Lizard? I can barely even do it on my hands now.

Am I missing something? What can I do to further my practice instead of diminish it? Do I just have to accept that I’m not able to?

#2

Since this is your first post, welcome. Thank you for engaging the community in this way.

There are too many generalities in your post, however. You’re talking about your practice as though we know you and the ins and outs of what you’re doing. And in today’s world there’s so many “practices” it’s just impossible to make any assumptions at all - especially ones where we’re asked to evaluate a something without having the something defined in any way, shape, or form.

Please consider telling us a bit about you the person (age, background, fitness, et al) and then a second stanza about your practice - the style, frequency, and direction on this topic provided by your current teacher.

gordon

#3

I guess that would be helpful! :slight_smile:

I am currently 28, active lifestyle- I bike to and from work everyday, walk when I’m not biking (I don’t own a car). I practice 5 days a week 30-60 minutes a session. I actually subscribe to yogaglo.com and take a new class daily, finding ones I like. I also use the yoga studio app which has more generalized classes (flexibility, relaxation, combination; levels 1-3) and rotate between combination and flexibility level two with that. I eat primarily vegetarian, but I am in the process of cleaning my diet up significantly.

This time around I am getting back into a regular practice as I just moved and had two months of upheaval and no room/time to practice. I’d say I’ve been back on a regular routine for 2 months now.

Hopefully that sheds some more light on my matter! Thanks again.

#4

First and foremost Yoga (“my practice”) is not designed as a flexibility practice. In fact even asana which is a sliver of the larger practice is not designed as a flexibility practice. Contortionism is a flexibility practice and “stretching” is a flexibility practice. But neither yoga nor asana are, by design, flexibility practices.

That having been said, your question stands - why am I getting less mobile from doing things I thought were designed to make me more mobile. Is that a fair paraphrasing?

Generally speaking there are only a limited number of answers. One is the doing, one is the approach, one is the environment, one is the nutrition, one is the thoughts/emotions/feelings. Which one it is for you, or which ONES I could not say without actually having contact hours teacher to student.

Could there be a limit to a person’s specific range of motion? Yes and no. Limits are there to protect the body and we know from yoga’s history that limitations are constantly being pierced and redefined, if not altogether disintegrated.

Since you’ve been practicing for a decade you’ve likely cultivated a strong student-teacher relationship and I’d encourage you to look there, to your teacher for guidance on the subject. This person knows your practice far better than I and is the person you’ve chosen to guide you on the path.

#5

I can relate to this.

I take weight training seriously and due to a reasonably high amount of muscle, I tend to be less flexible.