How to Use a Rolled Blanket for Yoga (My 3 Favorite Ways)

Transcript

foreign [Music] hello yogis my name is April and today I want to show you my three favorite ways to use a rolled blanket now those that you've been with me for a while you know how much I love the rolled blanket for a variety of different things but there are three particular ones that I use all the time in my own practice and I always have a blanket on the mat with me so I can use it for these things so the first of them is to unroll your blanket just a little bit I have super tight hamstrings and super tight calves and so I love what they call a good calf smash so you're going to take that blanket rolled up really tight tuck it behind your knees all the way up and sit back on it now if you stay here for a couple of minutes in this section and then you'll slide it back a little bit stay a couple of minutes and then slide all the way to your ankle and stay a couple of minutes you'll find that if you have really tired calves or you're someone who's on your feet a lot or you have tight calves like myself or wear high heels that you will relieve some of that pressure back there and you will feel way more comfortable and it will really deepen your forward folds as well because that's going to be prohibitive to a deep forward fold another one of my favorite ways to roll that back up for digestion purposes I love the blanket roll the belly roll so taking your belly right on top of that right above the hip bones kind of making your way there and just letting yourself sit now you can come all the way down or you can stay up I love this especially if I'm having some digestive discomfort or my digestion is running a little bit weird this feels really good it's also a great way to really relax this area of the body that we hold a lot I mean a lot of us hold the space in so this kind of this kind of softens this space makes a little bit easier for the psoas muscle to move through on each side and be a little more comfortable which is in turn gonna release the lower back if you stay on the belly roll for about five minutes you'll find that your lower back all of a sudden you'll feel his point of release where your lower back just goes and you'll feel it really softening out this is your psoas releasing so it should feel really good my other favorite way which you all have seen me use a million times is in a supported fish pose now you can do this two ways you can run it down the center and I like this way this really helps open up the chest to the left and to the right so I like this one for kind of tucking my shoulder blades around that roll and really opening up the chest left and right sides this I will often follow by turning it the other way and doing the same thing this is going to open my back top and bottom so my upper back is going to open a little bit more I love to take my hands up overhead and let my shoulder blades hover above the floor if that's a lot for you you can move a little bit up and let your shoulder blades just touch the floor as much as you want this is a great way to open the upper back and the chest and the breath it's also by opening the upper back in those two blanket positions you're really helping feel energized connected you're also helping your lymphatic system a lot and helping your immune system boost so you might find that if you're just starting to get a cold doing those two poses holding them for a couple of minutes each turned lengthwise and sideways you will feel better it really does help to help you breathe a little bit more deeply so those are my top favorite ways to use the blanket those are the ones I use probably almost every day I hope you enjoyed this and test out these ways of doing them you don't have to do all of them your practice doesn't have to be super long it can be four minutes two minutes like this two minutes like this you can use the belly roll and do two more minutes on your belly and then you've got six minutes and you've hit some really tight spaces that could really use a little bit of release so really good thank you so much for joining me if you haven't subscribed please click the button below and join me on the mat for practices tips ideas meditations and more thank you so much for being a part of this community I appreciate you each and every one of you and I hope you have a wonderful day