How to Use these Yoga Accessories to Modify your Yoga Postures

by Cosco India Leaders in Sports and Fitness Equipment

Yoga props help you bring balance and stability to any yogi’s practice, whether you’re a seasoned professional or a true beginner as struggle to getting to a place of “om” or teeter while trying to touch the ground in standing split, when you feel unstable in your yoga practice is hard.

Props help practitioners to modify yoga postures, or asana, to better fit their requirements and abilities. A prop can be any object that helps in balancing, stretching, relaxation, strengthening, or alignment. Using props in proper manner can benefit you in many ways and can improve your yoga practice as well.

Props come in a broad range of forms with different uses. Below are some most preferred props and how to use them.

BRICK

Bricks are used for support by bringing the floor closer to you. Brick’s support helps in lengthening and extending to deepen and soften poses. These are affordable, lightweight and easily available at stores.

How to use:

Brick can be placed in three positions, depending on the pose and level of support needed such as flat (lowest height), on end (tallest height) or on the edge (middle height). Flat offers the most stability, while end offers the least. Make sure to grip the block slightly for perfect stability.

Poses to try:

Bricks help to reach the floor in poses such as extended side angle, triangle, pyramid and half moon. Blocks can also help support the hips in supported bridge pose, hero pose and pigeon pose.

MATS

The base to any yoga practice is a good mat. Few elements must be considered when selecting the perfect mat: thickness, texture, material, stickiness. Standard mats are generally made of PVC, but there are many other eco friendly mat options such as organic, cotton, rubber etc.

How to use:

Open the roll flat and practice on top.

Poses to try:

All the good mats are helpful in balance poses, or in any pose where the knees come into contact with the floor and need some cushion.

BELTS

Yoga belts are effective for increasing muscle length and flexibility, especially when you want to touch the toes or binding the arms. Also, the use of belt can help stabilize or support any positions.

How to use:

Straps act as an extension of the arms or hands. For example, in seated forward fold, a strap placed around the balls of the feet can help deepen the pose for someone who can’t reach their toes on their own. Straps can also increase balance and strength, for example when used to provide a support structure to the upper arms in forearm stand.

Poses to try:

First, try using the strap as an extension of the hands in seated forward fold (when the hands cannot easily reach the feet), or reclined hand-to-big-toe pose. Loop the middle of the strap across the ball of the foot (or feet) and grab on to the strap on each side, using the strap for traction to lengthen the body and deepen the fold. Next, try using the strap for assistance with standing extended hand-to-big-toe pose (where you stand with one leg extended straight in front and then out to one side). If you want to incorporate binds to your practice but aren’t quite there, use a strap as the connection between your hands.

YOGA TOWEL

Towel can help you when your feet or hands slip on the mat. A yoga towel is much more helpful in sweatier practices such as power yoga.

How to use:

Lay flat over a yoga mat for decreased slippage and increased traction.

Poses to try:

It is for all the poses but a towel will especially improve poses such as downward dog, where the hands tend to slip.

Wearable Accessories

From clothes to gloves, socks, sleeves, there are all kinds of wearable toga accessories. There are a lot of great items especially if you tend to have slippery feet, arms or hands but none of them are really necessary to improve your practice.

In the end, No matter the props you use, the most important thing to remember is that they are all there to make yoga more accessible to each individual practitioner. COSCO makes available to its customers a large variety of sporting goods, health & fitness equipment of international quality. Buy the best quality yoga equipment’s from Cosco for a better game. For more information visit website http://www.cosco.in/