What is restorative yoga?

Some yoga postures will be more relaxing than others. The poses of restorative yoga are soothing, relaxing and well-supported. It gives the practitioner the opportunity to soak in the experience of the posture and enjoy the simplicity of it. The postures of restorative yoga will leave the practitioner well rested and well nourished. These yoga postures are done with props like blocks, blankets, balls and straps, and each pose is held for several minutes. As gentle and soothing as this form of yoga is, it can be intimidating to beginners. But with proper guidance and practice, restorative yoga can be really beneficial and calming.

When you begin restorative yoga, you should begin with gentle movements to warm yourself up. After that, you can settle down into postures that are typical of restorative yoga. Stretching exercises warm the muscles and help the body relax. These exercises will help your body become calmer and help set the pace for stillness.

You should also use your props while doing restorative yoga. Pillows, eye bags, sandbags, walls, chairs, towels, balls, blankets, straps and blocks – to support yourself while doing restorative yoga. When your body will be well-supported, then you will feel more relaxed and will be able to surrender yourself to the posture. You also need to get into every pose with ease and practice using your props. You need to know when and how much to adjust your props to get comfortable. The difference between feeling uncomfortable and very comfortable can be as less as an inch. You need to be creative with your props and let your body tell you what’s comfortable and what’s not.

You can incorporate restorative postures in your yoga practice, slowly and steadily. You can combine restorative postures with usual yoga postures in your practice, or work exclusively on restorative yoga postures. Restorative yoga might look very easy. But these poses can be challenging for beginners.

Benefits: There are several health benefits of restorative yoga and the poses work in a different way.

Restorative yoga is done with props and this can provide a relaxing atmosphere, and help the practitioner unwind. The sequences in restorative yoga are designed to help move the spine in several directions. Restorative yoga believes in the crux of yoga – that a healthy spine is necessary for good health. Backbends and forward bends are some of the exercises that work the spine. Restorative yoga also includes inverted postures that can reverse the effect of gravity.

Submitted by A on July 1, 2010 at 05:11

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