Yoga Props: How to choose the best yoga bolster for you | Restorative & Yin Yoga Props & Support

Transcript

[Music] hi I'm Avery Walker from the yoga Ranger studio and today's video is to give you a little bit of information about bolsters now in an average practice bolster can be extremely helpful in a yen practice they are immensely helpful and in a restorative practice they are integral to the practice so if you are looking around looking at bolsters and you have no idea which bolster to buy this will give you a little bit information on some of the different varieties of bolsters that you can get so we're going to start with some of the simpler ones really start with a round bolster know lots of people really love these bolsters they love that they can use it for different postures they can stick it underneath their knees they can put it underneath their hips they can lay face down forward on it this is a smaller one that I bought early on in my restorative career I guess and this is a great bolster I find there's only one issue with this in terms for restorative practice this is great for under the knees because it's perfect from my height because I have shorter legs but when it comes to restorative supporting myself I want a little bit more support across my chest and I feel like this doesn't really give me as much support as I would like so this is a little bit skinnier I believe this is a six inch around by 24 inch in fact I'm pretty sure that is this 6 by 24 so that's one choice what I like to buy all my vultures with is cotton batting inside cotton batting is probably the firmest and most consistently firm and if you want a bolster you want it to be a certain texture or certain firms and you want to stay that way long term the first bolster I ever bought was a rectangular bolster this is my favorite bolster of all time it's extremely firm but it's also not very tall so I find that very comfortable for me because my practice has sort of come to that point where I don't need as much support this is kind of served me really well and obviously it's still very firm and in a great shape and I use this for video for myself for a little bit of everything this is about four inches tall by a I believe it's 11 inches wide by once again the 24 inch length so if you're looking for a bolster trying to find something it's about 24 inches because that's about the length of a normal torso so that your head doesn't fall off or you don't fall off and you have the support that you need so this is my first one cotton batting once again and now I'm going back to round this is when I bought later after I bought the skinnier one this is much much bigger this is about 11 inches around if you can see that at all this is quite a bit heavier the batting is not as firm in this one as it is in my original one and I bought it from the same company which is sort of interesting they sort of change their product a little bit I love this one for restorative I like it because it lifts me off really far and I'm really comfortable that way it's very a little bit squishy so when I'm having a day where I want something a little bit more comfortable a little bit more give to it this is the bolster I sort of turn to this is great for for restorative particularly I love that you can do like a side line shavasana and wrap yourself around this and it feels really good because it's round and it's comfortable and it has a certain release level this once again I believe a little bit longer than a 24 actually I believe this one is more about 28 so it is longer so if you were taller go looking for bolsters that are a little bit longer in length so you can be fully supported on there a little bit later about the same time I bought this bigger green bolster I bought some more of these rectangular bolsters in an attempt to get the one that I bought previously and I thought that's what I was getting these are a little bit taller they're a little bit mushy err they still have the cotton batting but there is not as much cotton batting in them so they have a little bit more give if you are someone who is using these for restorative or your Pratt home practice and you have some kind of situation in which it is painful to lay on something very firm or flat these are great bolster options to go to and I will put the link down below for where these came from and you can you take a look at all their bolsheviks these are all very reasonably priced I only buy from a company that has a very reasonably pricing because I want people to have access to these both to run anywhere from about 30 to 120 so in my mind you should be going down toward the 30 because if you want to have it you won't have a home practice you want to have something reasonably cost price this one it once again is a little bit thicker they said it was still a six inch tall or for assault this looks to me more like an 8 or 9 inch height but it gives so much that maybe it kind of squishes down to that by the way these all have handles on the end so that you can carry them around which makes it very convenient if you buy a bolter without a handle you can easily sell one in there but if they you're choosing between bolsters and wanting to handle a public took that over the other one once again and this was for the width I'm show you side by side for the width it's a little bit more supportive so if you have a wider torso a longer torso you might go looking for something a little bit more wide look for your whip to be a little wider too because you want to fill your chest completely support it on the bolster and that is probably my issue with the round vultures I don't feel like that's the case last but not least in our bolster venture is what they call a pranayama bolster this is a breathing regulation for you to practice your breathing laying down um I got this as a gift I don't know that I necessarily would have bought one because you can make this very easily out of blankets and I find blankets to be much easier to work with and stack taller or shorter and adjust to fit me so my investment probably in blankets first and foremost but this is very comfortable you lay it down your back and you lay on top of it and it opens your chest in your shoulders so if you're someone who spends a lot of time in an office bent over electronics or a computer desk or you feel like you really need that opening in the chest this would be a great investment for you can take a blanket and roll it up to make something similar to this I believe this is about 20 so it's not it's not a bad price and you give these on sale - at the end of the year so taking a look three different rectangular tight bolsters of varying sizes different body types I'd say probably the ones I would invest in the most would probably be this big one here this is probably going to give you the most bang for your buck in a restorative yoga class or we started yoga practice at home it's going to be the most supportive for you your entire body and torso and head as well as wide it will give you that support that you need and you can work with this really easily if you don't like how firmly is about it or you want it more firmly batted you can unzip it these all come with zippers the covers come off you can stuff it more or take some of the stuffing out so you can adjust that stuffing if you need to I have found that they seem to come okay for me some of them I have taken a little stuffing out because they were a little too stuffed so your choice to make once again down below I will put the link to the company I usually buy in fact I bought all of these from the exact same company so I'll put that link down below and give you a couple of measurements for some of these bolsters so that you have an idea of what to buy once again you're taller you want to go longer you want to go a little wider more comfortable a little bit more support but if you have and you can buy a couple of these I would go ahead and buy a rectangular and a circular other than that I think that's all you would need blankets included so take a look at these online let me know what you thought today please don't forget to like and comment below and please always remember to if you enjoyed this video or if you enjoy my practice videos I would appreciate it I really would thank you so much for watching and I hope this answers a few questions about bolsters that you might have [Music]