Myth busting: I can’t touch my toes

A frequent excuse for those who want to take a yoga class but feel inadequate to even start is that they are not flexible enough or that they cannot touch their toes. So we will start the year busting that myth!
flexibility-toe-touch

Flexibility is not required to begin or continue a yoga class.

At Rexburg yoga, our definition of yoga is to bring our minds fully into the physical body along with the breath, so all 3 happen together. We yoke together the mental/emotional body, with the physical body and the pranic breathing body. I have mentioned nothing about toe touching or flexibility. We use postures such as the forward fold to practice bringing mind/body/breath together, but its just the method, not the goal.

fold
This deep of a forward fold is not available for most adult bodies in Western countries. It looks inspiring in a magazine photo, but this is not a realistic expectation for average students.

Since yoga practice has come to the west, it has been enhanced with the western knowledge of kinesiology, anatomy, and physical therapy. Thus the common yoga practice of a forward fold or toe-touching is informed by this knowledge. We have more information and technique for touching toes and folding with proper alignment, skill, and with an eye to safely moving the joints and muscles. Increased flexibility is frequently an outcome, but still not the goal of a yoga practice.

Later on this year we will discuss more about flexibility, but for now just know that yoga postures can always be modified in many ways to accommodate the average, normal adult body whose hamstring flexibility does not allow for toe-touching. Come join us anyway.

yoga-bent-knee-forward-bend
Here’s an example of a modified forward fold that most students could expect to accomplish.

Photos come from Wagner-writer.com, stylecraze and harlingenyogacenter

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