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Restorative yoga. Why you should practice?

Have you heard about restorative yoga?

Some people say this is an advanced practice. What do you think?

Restorative yoga involves spending from 3 to 8min in a “relatively” comfortable pose. The goal won’t be stretching, but it might be a consequence of the practice as long as no pain is involved.

Not all of us have the capacity to see the importance of taking quality downtime and allow your brain to stop controlling everything.

I used to think, that practicing restorative yoga or taking time to rest was a waste of time.

Yes, I always love training, and I used to push my self to the limits, most of the time
Maybe you are like me or maybe you have already a good understanding of how important is to take time to rest and recover

“Regardless of what are you training for, a good rest is essential to high-level performance, but many still overtrain and feel guilty when they take a day off. The body repairs and strengthens itself in the time between workouts, and continuous training can actually weaken the strongest athletes”.- Elizabeth Quinn- verywellfit.com

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological.
Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild, and strengthen. For recreational athletes, building in rest days can help maintain a better balance between home, work, and fitness goals.

When your life is racing full-speed ahead, so is your mind. Restorative yoga helps provide that physical and mental balance to prevent stress and anxiety, through the use of props (blankets, yoga blocks or pillows) that allow you to hold poses longer, giving you all the benefits of deep, passive stretching.

Here are some of the benefits of practicing Restorative Yoga:

🧘🏻‍♀️ It allows your muscles to recover with gentle moves.

Is not about the quantity is about the quality of staying still and present when performing poses

🧘🏻‍♀️It helps us to slow down and cultivate the skill of conscious relaxation.

Depending on you lifestyle, most of us are programmed to “do” a lot—it keeps us engaged and makes us feel productive and in control. But our habit of running around, conquering our to-do lists, and fueling ourselves with coffee and ambition can often be a way we avoid deep discomforts and unwelcome feelings in the body and mind.

Restorative yoga asks us to stop engaging in all the doing and face what we really need to look at about ourselves. To learn about, befriend, and care for the whole of ourselves in a way we are not used to. This is an essential step for health and healing, for true renewal. A lot of people think relaxing is about letting go, but rather than throwing out, we are trying to make space for what’s uncomfortable and to allow more space for the full experience of who we are.

🧘🏻‍♀️ It helps us discover where we are holding tension.
Once you come to this realization, you can make small changes in your everyday life to reduce the stress and tension you allow to build up in your body.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Enhance the flexibility
All forms of yoga help make you bendier, but regular use of restorative poses leads you to a passive flexibility session
However, Restorative yoga is not a stretching class and there is no end goal involved, like being able to touch your toes after 10 sessions. You are exploring what happens when you release the tension your body habitually holds.

🧘🏻‍♀️The slower pace and deep breathing that you get in a restorative yoga practice triggers the parasympathetic nervous system and helps us to reduce the level of stress. Optimizing energy flow to the organs, tissue renewal, and reduced “fight or flight” response.

Little Note:
Restorative Yoga is not the same as Yin Yoga, we will talk more about it in the next post.

Here I am sharing a video tutorial I have created for yo to give it a try and practice at home.

 

 

If you practice aerial acrobatics , pole dance or you are curious about how yoga can help you stay flexible and strong join the private facebook group “Yoga for every Acrobat”..

Where I am sharing yoga tutorial specific for keeping our body strong flexible and mobil.

 

 

 

Is Restorative Yoga class for you?

Are one of those person who are almost addicted to any kind of physical activity? Do you know when to stop?

I am here raising my hand, I am one of those.

I’ve been having a fairly active life style with up and downs since I am 5 years old; then is when all started with dancing lessons, then my mom signed me up to swimming lessons because she doesn’t know how to swim and she didn’t want me to be afraid of the water as she is.

Followed by gymnastics lessons, witch I loved it and I still do I just never felt comfortable with the competitive side of it. As a young adult more dancing arrive into my life and then is when I also started working as a professional/acrobat dancer. I saw the Cirque Du Soleil for the first time and I went crazy passionate about aerial circus acrobatics together with my university career in Physical Education + my Yoga Teacher Training and so on…

The thing is I was one of those person who care so much about learning and improving form the physical aspect of my career, that I used to think taking restorative/relaxing classes was a waste of time ..

I was so wrong!

Growing older I understand and I am more interested in how much do we need to slow down when we need it and by doing it we will have more energy for the future trainings as well as faster improvement, because we gave the time to our body and our mind to absorb all the information we are putting in each activity we perform.

Yoga for all levels

Yoga is truly the all-inclusive exercise. There’s a yoga class for everyone, regardless of your body type, health condition, or level of activity. 

There are 2 styles of yoga classes I prefer when I need to reset and recharge the body and the mind:

Hatha Yoga being my first approach to yoga, is a style I recommend to practice if you are an active person who shaving a hard time with slow flow classes because you are always running at 120% and also for beginner who would like to try yoga classes but you don’t know where to start

This school is considered the most traditional form of yoga practice. Ha means Sun, representing the heat and the masculine aspect. Tha means Moon, representing the coolness and the feminine aspect. In these classes we aim to balance “Ha” & “Tha“, soul and mind with a slow flow yoga sequence. We are still moving, but we move slowly and we hold the posture for a couple of minutes. Including 20-30 poses in each classes with the benefit of increasing flexibility, stability, balance and awareness on our movements.

Here I am sharing 3 postures you can practice any time:

PADMASANA OR LOTUS POSE
MARICHIASANA TWIST
UTTANASANA OR FOWARD BENDING POSE

The 2nd style I strongly suggest is Restorative Yoga, focusing on 5-6 postures only, holding each posture 5-10min; using props that will allow you to relax into the pose and hold it for longer periods of time (up to five minutes).

Restorative yoga classes are for all levels because it focus more on the meditative and healing aspects of yoga. Is great for improving:

  • Specific health conditions like chronic back or neck pain, anxiety and high blood pressure
  • Alignment between your body, breath and mind.

Sharing some postures you can practice any time

NECK STRETCH
SUPINE SPINAL TWIST
SOFT ROCKING SIDE TO SIDE HUGGING YOUR KNEES

Now there is a warning here, I know this might be a hard class to follow if you are a person who is used to super active, powerful classes and doesn’t know when to slow down.

If this is you, I suggest to start with Hatha and then as you are feeling comfortable with slow flows you can transition to Restorative. I am saying this because I used to be one of those who thought moving slow or staying still was a waste of time, not knowing when to shut down and not being able to appreciate the stillness, the observance of the self, so much needed.

We talk often about self care but how much do we actually do about it.

If you think yoga is not for you, give yourself some time, be aware there are other activities you can approach to restore, like meditation, Tai Chi, or something much more simple as a slow peace walk, reading a book or enjoying a cup of tea

So don’t wait any longer, either or, choose the style of yoga or the style of physical activity you feel comfortable with; we tend to postpone things even if we know there are good for us.

Go and get comfortable in your clothing, grab your yoga mat and let’s get started!

I love Manduka brand, if you don’t know it I am leaving here a link to some of my favourite leggings for yoga practice.

Oh, just one more thing I want to share

If you live in Cayman Islands or you are visiting feel free to stop by to one of classes I am currently teaching at Quintessential Movement Studio.

Remember to check with a certified instructor anytime is needed.

Namaste,

Renèe

Let’s keep in touch

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*Disclaimer: This post includes an affiliate link to the course. This is at no extra cost to you. I will receive a small commission of the sale if you decide to purchase the course. I do not endorse anything I have not read or used myself.