Saturday, July 18, 2009

Factors that influence flexibility














During my most recent teacher training session my asana teacher discussed things that may affect one's flexibility in yoga besides tightness of muscles. They included:
* bone structure (differs slightly person to person)
* gender (as a general rule women tend to be more flexible overall)
* time of day (ie in the morning we tend to be stiffer)
* temperature of the room/body
* amount of sleep one has had
* foods recently ingested - the more toxins, the less flexibility

I hadn't truly realised the effect of food on flexibility. This awareness may help me to curb my chocolate and coffee addictions!

Can anyone add to this list?

4 comments:

  1. great list : ) so true! I'm going to add this to my blog!

    I am so glad you also mentioned bone structure as your first point - so often students get frustrated at their lack of power here and more often than not it is bone structure.. (along with the other points)

    thanks x

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  2. yes it came as a big surprise to me that variation in bone structure could be a factor. it's definitely something I'll mention to my students (when I have some!) to try to help them relax and be comfortable with what their body can do.

    thanks for reading!

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  3. I am interested in the food aspect of flexibility. Did your teacher give you a list of foods that makes you more/less flexible?
    thanx

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  4. Mangotree, no unfortunately we haven't covered that yet, but when we do I will post about it. I did a google search about it, but most of the sites that came up were just advertising health products that claim to increase flexibility, rather than discussing foods.

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