Living Yoga

There is one yogi who comes to my early morning classes religiously and is ever so stubborn about using his blocks to aid his yoga practice.  But I’ll get back to him in a moment because I want to explain the use of the blocks for those of you new to yoga.  Yoga blocks look like this:

And are used in certain postures to make you more comfortable.  I like to say that if you have less flexibility they “bring the floor to you” so to speak, like in this photo from yoga.about.com.

The use of blocks in practice is not to be taken as a sign of weakness or that you “can’t do” the postures correctly.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.  Using blocks actually allows you to be in the correct posture for your flexibility without putting strain on your body.  For example, attempting to reach the floor with your hands before you’re ready can pull out your back.

Now back to my story about my stubborn yogi, I’ll call him John.  John always has the blocks next to his mat, but NEVER uses them in forward bends even though he clearly should as he’s a long-legged man.  Last Monday I finally got fed up and grabbed the blocks, put them on either side of him, took his hands and placed them on the blocks.  This got a laugh from the class, but I mean, really!  John, did it need to come to that?  He retorted saying that he doesn’t like square objects, he prefers circular things.  Okay, good luck finding a circular block but for now use the square kind.

I highly encourage use of blocks and other props to enhance your yoga practice.  Check out yoga.com for supplies.  Maybe you can even find a circular one.