Blocked? Try a Yoga Block

It was a long, frustrating day. Once in the safety of my home, I was able to scan and assess my body, state of mind and energy. One word: blocked.


For my half marathon training regimen, I ran four miles before leaving work for the day. The last thing I wanted to do was a vinyasa flow, but I'm been erring on the side of restorative yoga over the past couple of months. Depending on long holds in any given asana supported by bolsters, blankets and cushions to maintain flexibility, I have completely ignored building strength with standing postures, concentration with balancing postures and moving stagnant energy with a fluid vinyasa sequence.


It's the end of the day and I was still pining for a yin-like practice. I ascended the ladder into the studio and looked at my two cork blocks placed in the corner. Suddenly, inspiration hit: blocks? Use blocks!


Oftentimes I have observed in many studios that blocks get a negative wrap. I think many perceive blocks as a sign of a Level 1 or Beginning student, where the friendly bolster is a symbol of a restorative session. I decided to allow, in fact, force myself to use the blocks in nearly every asana (aside from seated) during my vinyasa flow.


Downward Dog: My hamstrings are flexible. In fact, they may compensate for less length in my calves and lower back muscles. In the past, down dog has been more of an arm strengthening forward bend/inversion for me. When I bring a little more cat tilt to my pelvis, I do experience a little more space between the vertebrae in my lumbar spine. Likewise, when I press firmly into my hands, I create a feeling of more opening between the discs of my thoracic spine. However, in just the standard posture (no tinkering), I don't regularly feel much sensation. Enter the placement of blocks under each hand. Space ... ahhh! In class, I might be a little hesitant to fuddle around with block placement for down dog, an asana that one would enter more times than they can count on their fingers and toes during a flow - but just simply rolling the blocks toward the edges of the mat seem to be less of a distraction than I had expected.


In addition, the posture can be held for a longer duration, as more weight is shifted to the stronger limbs.


Transition from Downward Dog to Standard Forward Fold: I have long legs. Seriously. I wear pants with a 35" inseam. I live in a world where no one else can do my laundry -- or I will have to buy a new wardrobe the next week. Although I have done the deed and jumped in transition from down dog to uttanasana, I never felt particularly graceful. In fact, I thought that one day I was going to succeed in kneeing myself in the face! More space = cleaner, smoother transition. Yum.


Transition from Three-Legged Downward Dog to High Lunge: Like the previous note, so much easier. With the space, I'm more likely to maintain integrity and equal weighting on both hands while I'm migrating to the high lunge position. This results in activating more abdominal muscles during the action than usual.


Vkrasana: I placed a block under my standing leg in vkrasana. It requires more concentration than expected.


Blocks can be used to lift the floor up to the hands in so many postures, such as trikonasana, standing side angle bend (parsvakonasana), ardha chandrasana, etc. Since these are fairly  standard adjustments, I won't explore them in this post.


Allowing myself to rely on the props during the vinyasa flow made something that might have required "muscling" through a little more "supportive" without the feeling of passively yielding to the posture. Mission accomplished.