A Yoga Strap: Do You Really Need One?
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Regardless of if you are a beginner, or if you have been doing yoga for years, using a yoga strap is a great way to improve the effectiveness of your practice. Adding props can assist in building increased strength, improving flexibility, and deepening poses. Props should be viewed as a set of essential tools.
Yoga straps are one of the first tools you should think about purchasing. They are extremely inexpensive and will do so much for your practice by improving your alignment and flexibility.
How a Yoga Strap Can Help You
1. Lengthen Reach
Yoga straps allow you to lengthen your reach in order to keep proper posture. Often when we aren’t flexible enough we compromise posture and correct form to get into a pose. When this is the case we end up rounding our back and tensing our shoulders to desperately try to contort into a pose. Forward fold is a great example of a pose where a strap can help maintain a relaxed form in the pose.
Straps also help lengthen our reach in poses where we need to bind our arms. If you lack flexibility in your shoulders it can make binding poses completely inaccessible. Using a strap in this instance will allow you to gradually build flexibility in order to eventually be able to get into your arm bind on your own.
Seated Forward Fold
Cow Face Arms
2. Aid In Alignment
A strap can be very helpful in correcting your alignment. In poses like chaturanga, down dog, crow, forearm stand, and handstand it’s important to keep your elbows tucked in close to the body. To help remind your body to keep your elbows tucked, and increase proprioception, you can form a loop and place it around your arms.
Chaturanga
Crow Pose