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The Bendy Blog: Flexibility Training Articles
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How to Use Neck Engagement for a Deeper Cobra Pose
If you’re working for a backbendier cobra, especially if you’re working on your toes-to-head King Cobra, learning how to comfortably add more neck flexibility can be a big help. In this post, we’ll explore a couple of different options for “engaging” the neck to see how they affect the comfort (and depth) of your backbend.
4 Bird Dog Variations for Bendier Backbends
“Bird dog” is a common flow/exercise from yoga that has been adopted by other fitness disciplines because it’s a great (and gentle) exercise for core control. Despite not looking terribly bendy (the goal is generally to keep a neutral spine), this drill can still be quite beneficial for folks looking to deepen their back flexibility. Let’s look at four different variations of Bird Dog that can help us target different areas of the backbending chain, so you can understand how to apply them all to deepen your backbending practice!
Pincha (Forearm Stand) Tips to Balance Like an Instagram Yogi
Being able to hurl your entire bodyweight over your shoulders/forearms in a forearm stand is a formidable task to begin with, let alone try to balance yourself in that position! Thankfully once you learn to properly engage your muscles (and stop being a darn wet noodle), finding - and holding - your balance becomes much more achievable! With practice, you too can be busting out fancy forearm stand balances like a fancy Instagram yogi influencer (#yogisofinstagram).
3 Ways to Get into a Wall-Supported Forearm Stand (Pincha Pose)
Forearm stands are one of my favorite contortion shapes (because they are so fun to balance and there are lots of “options” for styling with your legs!) - but they can be daunting to try to tackle if you’ve never trained them before. That’s where learning some safe progressions can help build up your shoulder strength and flexibility, and your own confidence with supporting your body weight in this pose. These are 3 variations of forearm stands I like to work on with “begintermediate” students who are starting to work on forearm stands (similar to pincha mayurasana in yoga) for the first time.
How To Get Your Leg Higher in Three-Legged Downward Dog
Feel like your lifting leg is a dead weight in Three Leg Down Dog (Tri Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana)? Does trying to lift your leg higher make your calves and hamstrings burn like the dickens? Then this post is for you!
6 Cat-Cow Variations for Spinal and Shoulder Mobility
These are some of my favorite variations of the Cat/Cow exercise that help get a different stretch in your back and shoulders than the "traditional" version.
Working Towards King Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)
Being able to touch your foot to your head in Pigeon pose (aka King Pigeon, or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana for you yogis) is a great goal for intermediate and advanced students who are interested in working their full body flexibility because it really does require your full body. Also obviously it looks pretty damn cool, which is also a totally appropriate reason to want to be able to do a pose. Below are some suggested variations and drills to help your progress towards a backbend-ier Pigeon.
5 Puppy Pose Variations for Open Shoulders
One of my favorite stretches to work shoulder flexibility - especially if you’re trying to open up your shoulders in your bridge - is puppy pose. And just like with any flexibility work, it’s helpful to work on both your passive and active stretching, so here’s a short sequence to help you do both, utilizing different variations of the classic puppy pose.