Yoga For Every Size - Yoga Poses for Plus Size Curvy Women
Have you RSVP'd yet for our FREE online Curvy Girl Yoga session: Yoga for Self Love? It's Wednesday, 10/22/14 8pm ET, hosted by me and our Curvy Girl of the Month, Dana A. Smith? All you need is Internet access and a yoga mat. Speaking of Yoga mats…
Yoga according to an 8 year old
I took my 8 year old nephew on an errand with me this weekend and when he saw my yoga mat in the car, he said "What is that?" I explained it was a yoga mat, so of course, that prompted another question, "What's yoga?" I showed him a few pictures of various yoga poses and he said "that looks painful." LOL Kids, speak their mind! I told him it wasn't painful and it take times to train your body to comfortably stretch into certain yoga poses.
It occurred to me that my 8 year old nephew isn't the only one who makes assumptions about yoga. There are many people, women, and men, that make assumptions about their ability to excel at Yoga or even doubt their ability to take a beginners class. You'll hear, It looks hard, I can't do that, My body is too big for that, I need to lose weight first. etc. The one thing I hate to hear is someone putting off something beneficial because of their weight.
Yoga Benefits
So I was glad to find that Alight.com published a guide to plus size yoga with an amazing and helpful infographic "Yoga for Every Size." YES!! This is timely. The infographic goes over health benefits, such as yoga may:
reduce high blood pressure,
ease arthritis,
lower cardiovascular risk factors.
The infographic also touches on how yoga integrates the Physical, Emotional, Intellectual and Spiritual.
Alternative Yoga Poses
My favorite part of the infographic, besides showing illustrated women who have hips and curves like me, is Alight.com shows ways to alter some poses depending on your curves. As someone who's blessed with extra helpings in the mammary department, (btw, not complaining, thank God for these Curves!) my breasts constantly threaten to suffocate me in some of these yoga poses, I can relate to making slight alterations to the pose to make room for my curves.
Check out Alight.com's infographic and please take time for yourself this Wednesday and join Curvy Girl Chronicles and Dana A. Smith for our live FREE online yoga class!