How to Modify Yoga Poses for Bigger Bodies

Transcript

if you have a bigger body and you have ever practiced yoga before you know that some of the poses the way they're traditionally taught don't work well for bigger bodies my name is zelinda I'm the owner of the yoga room in Round Rock Texas and today I'm going to show you three common poses that we practice in yoga classes that don't work well for bigger bodies and how to modify to make them work for you the first pose I want to tell you about is actually not so much a pose and more of a movement it's moving from downward facing dog to to a lunge which is something that we commonly do in the sun salutation Series so the common cue when we do um this movement is moving from downward facing dog and teachers talk about step through which means to step between your hands and if you have a belly or oftentimes even if you don't it's impossible to bring your foot through and step it to you know a position between your hands so what you can do instead this is my favorite modification is just walk your hand in a little bit so that when the teacher cues to step your foot forward you step it to the outside of the foot see how I've even come up on my fingertips to create more space and then set the foot down over here all right let's look at it one more time so walk the hand in a little bit lift the foot up lift your hip up a bit even maybe come up onto your fingertips and step your foot forward now you're in a lunge and then from here you can come up however you like to come up another frequently practiced pose that is challenging for people with bigger bodies is child's pose and the way this pose is traditionally taught and practiced is with the knees together and the body Reaching Forward so you can see here in my body that my knees are running into my belly this is really not comfortable at all um the main thing that I feel is belly running into legs rather than any other benefit um happening in my body so depending on the shape of your body there's different ways to modify this pose um what you know is pretty Universal tends to work for most people is taking the knees wider and you can see also for Comfort I've put a h folded blanket under my knees so the big toes are going to be really close to each other maybe even touching the knees can be wider and then you can start to walk forward you can see you know probably that this looks a whole lot more easeful um depending on the size of your chest and flexibility in your back this right here might be a comfortable version of the post for you so propped up on forearms head lifted spine lengthened for some people it's also Comfort comfortable to um go ahead and walk forward traditionally we put the forehead down on the mat but if that's not comfortable for you you can also maybe stack your hands and rest on your head on your hands sometimes I've seen people stack their fists and rest here or you could put a prop of any size here under your head like a block or another blanket or even a bolster so for my own body this is the version of child's pose that works best and I really would like to encourage you to find you know don't worry about what the traditional version of the posture is supposed to look like go ahead and experiment and find what works best for your own body the third pose I'd like to show you today is seated forward fold this POS is traditionally practice with the legs together and the feet together and then you know we fold forward and the problem in this pose is quite similar to what happens in child's pose my belly is running into my legs this is a pretty common thing so when my belly's running into my legs there's no work happening in the back side of my body I don't feel any stretching happening in my legs nor in my back all I feel is belly running into legs so what you can do instead is just take your feet out a little bit wider I'm going to bring mine to about matte width apart and then when you're ready to fold forward you have some space to fold forward into so there you've created some space for your belly and in this version of the pose I can you know move quite a bit deeper into it and start to actually get some benefit from the pose in regards to stretching happening in the backs of my legs and in my back um I've been practicing yoga a long time and so you know I'm quite flexible because of it but if you're a person who has not been practicing very long or a person who is less flexible you also can modify this pose by putting a folded blanket or another small prop under you and that will lift your hips up and you know just make this pose more comfortable um as you get started thank you for watching this video I hope it's been helpful for you if there are any other poses that cause you trouble in your practice I would love to help you with them please just go ahead and post a comment right below this video and I will make up a video for you to explain some modifications about how to make the pose work better for your bigger body I always do lots of silly things the [Laughter] [Music] beginning all right