Purple Room Yoga Blog

When it comes to practicing yoga, the difference between Flexibility and Mobility may seem like semantics, but in practice, the difference matters. According to Google, Flexibility is defined as "the quality of bending easily without breaking." This can mean many things when we practice yoga, but is often associated with poses that involve extreme stretching and require certain anatomical allowances, like being in a full split while touching the back foot to your head. When practicing yoga, Flexibility involves stretching the muscles to be able to get deeper and deeper into a pose. This is fine if you do so mindfully and by listening to your body. Some people are naturally flexible, often because they have joint and ligament laxity, where their joints naturally have significant movement just on their own. Other people work toward their flexibility by stretching frequently. Flexibility can be useful, but if you don't have the strength to support the flexibility, you can e...

Many yogis have a complicated relationship with using yoga props (blocks, blankets, straps, bolsters...). Some yogis have realized the benefit of props and use them freely and judiciously (yay!), but some people feel like the props are a crutch, or using them means we are weak, "not good enough" or "less than" in some way. In this blog post, I am mostly writing to anyone who finds themselves in the latter category. I am here to tell you that all of those feelings are based on stories in your head that aren't true. The main purpose of props is to support us during our practice so that we can experience the poses without unnecessary struggle or strain (props aren't judging you and neither is anyone else in your yoga class, in case you were wondering...). If certain muscles are tighter, or weaker, we may lack the range of motion or stability that allows us to create poses in our body that look like the teacher. First and foremost, looking like anyone else in th...