Do You Have to Be Flexible to Do Yoga? No, and Here’s Why

Practicing yoga means putting your body in positions that it generally doesn’t get into on a regular basis. This can cause concern for someone who is interested in developing a yoga practice but doesn’t have the best flexibility. Is flexibility a requirement for doing yoga?

Do You Have to Be Flexible to Do Yoga?

The answer to this question is unequivocally no. People of all flexibility levels can engage in a yoga practice. Plus, not all poses require a high level of physical flexibility. And those that do can either be skipped or modified.

While some people do yoga strictly to stay in good physical shape, for others, it’s more about improving the health of their minds. Yoga is a form of meditation or a way to achieve spiritual growth. It is more so in Western cultures that a yoga practice is more about the body than the mind.

Yoga can be whatever you want it to be as a practitioner. It’s more about what you want to get out of it than your level of flexibility. Your results are not limited by how far you can stretch your body. 

How to Get Into (and Even Enjoy) Yoga If You’re Not a Flexible Person

If you want to practice yoga but aren’t too flexible, the most important thing to remember is that anyone can do yoga. Walk into any yoga studio and you will see people of all shapes and sizes. You’ll also see people with varying levels of strength, balance, and flexibility. This should help reinforce that yoga is a practice for everyone.

Second, don’t compare yourself to others. Some people make yoga look incredibly easy. They transition from one pose to the next effortlessly, holding each posture with great balance. If you compare yourself to them, you likely won’t practice yoga long. Everyone is on their own yoga journey. Pay more attention to your journey versus focusing on the journey of others.

It’s also helpful to be aware of where you may lack flexibility. Do you have less flexibility in your legs than in your arms, for instance? If so, this helps you identify which poses you may have more trouble getting into. Share this information with your instructor. They may suggest poses that might feel better to you, potentially even incorporating a few of them into your class.

If you’re new to yoga and not very flexible, you might find a lot of benefits in taking a beginner’s class. This type of class would be more likely to include poses for students with limited flexibility, especially when compared to a more advanced yoga class.

And if you take a class and encounter a challenging pose, ask the instructor how to modify it. Some poses can be made easier with small postural adjustments. Certain props can also help students with limited flexibility. This includes blankets, wedges, and yoga bolsters. Props such as these can reposition your body so the muscles and soft tissues don’t have to stretch so far.

Perhaps the best thing you can do to get into yoga when you have limited flexibility is to stick with it. Develop a consistent yoga practice. With regular practice comes increased flexibility. Before you know it, you will be moving through the sequence like an experienced practitioner.

12 Yoga Postures That Require Less Flexibility

Some yoga postures or poses require the human body to be less flexible than others. Adding these to your practice enables you to do yoga without constantly thinking about any flexibility limitations. It can also help your mind relax, giving you more of the mental and spiritual benefits of a yoga practice.

Here are 12 yoga poses that don’t require as much flexibility as some of the others:

• Bridge pose

• Chair pose

• Child’s pose

• Corpse pose

• Eagle pose

• Forward Bend pose

• Legs-Up-the-Wall pose

• Locust pose

• Mountain pose

• Plank pose

• Tree pose

• Warrior II pose

But If You Want Greater Flexibility, Yoga Can Help 

Yoga is great for improving flexibility. So, if you’re not flexible now but want to be, think of yoga as a form of flexibility training. 

Yoga helps boost flexibility in several ways. One is by easing muscle tension. You might have tight hamstrings, for instance. Do poses good for stretching this muscle group and the tension will start to release. As it releases, your flexibility will improve. 

Yoga also improves flexibility by increasing muscle strength. If your muscles are weak, you may find it difficult to get into positions that require more flexibility. Weak muscles may also make it harder to hold a pose long enough to get a good stretch. 

Here’s the good news: yoga is a good form of strength training. So, if you want to increase your muscle strength, you can do so with a yoga strength training routine.

Another way that yoga helps improve flexibility is through its effect on balance. In addition to strength, you need balance to hold a lot of yoga poses. When you practice yoga regularly, your balance improves. Improve your balance and you can stay in postures long enough to get a good stretch. This leads to better flexibility.

If your reduced flexibility is due to a chronic pain condition, yoga can help with that too. One 2019 study involved 40 people with chronic pain  (1). After doing yoga, participants reported lower pain levels. Their anxiety decreased too.

How long does it take to become more flexible with a yoga practice? Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. It depends on where your flexibility is now, as well as your body structure. Other factors that can affect how quickly you gain flexibility include:

• your age

• your gender

• your level of physical activity 

• how much muscle you have

• how well your joints move (the range of motion in your joints)

• if you have a condition that causes joint pain, such as arthritis

• if you have a condition that causes muscle pain

Keep in mind that none of these are barriers to flexibility. It just means that some people develop flexibility faster than others. And some people develop more flexibility than others. Again, everyone has their own yoga journey. Enjoy yours for what it is, and do yoga for what it offers you.

How Do You Build Flexibility with Yoga?

One of the best ways to become more flexible with yoga is by developing a consistent practice. With a regular yoga practice, you repeatedly stretch your muscles and other soft tissues. This makes them more pliable over time. According to a 2021 survey, two out of three yogis practice at least three times a week (2). Just over 14% practice yoga every day.

Also, do poses that stretch tight areas. This can help you address the areas that are hindering your flexibility the most. If your flexibility is limited due to muscle tightness in the back of the leg, for example, Downward Facing Dog can help stretch this area of the body. If your muscle tightness is in the hips, Pigeon pose provides a good stretch.

The style of yoga that you do can also affect how well you build flexibility. Yin yoga is more passive and you hold the poses longer. This helps stretch your body more, which can make you more flexible. Hot yoga is another option to consider. Doing yoga in a heated environment allows your muscles and other soft tissues to get warmer faster. This contributes to greater flexibility. 

Ways to Address Flexibility Concerns as a Yoga Teacher

There are pros and cons to being a yoga instructor. One of the cons is that you’ve likely heard “I’m not flexible enough to do yoga” more times than you can count. When you hear this statement, it’s an opportunity to educate your students. Talk to them about how to modify poses if flexibility is an issue. Show them how to use props to reduce the amount of stretch on their body.

You may even design a yoga class specifically for inflexible people. This makes it incredibly clear that you don’t have to be flexible to do yoga. It can also make your students feel more comfortable since they know that everyone else in the class will be like them.

At a minimum, when going through your poses, explain which muscles they stretch and how this contributes to flexibility development. If you’re unsure which poses are good for stretching which muscles, yoga teacher training can help. 

In this type of training course, you learn about each yoga pose and how it impacts various muscles or muscle groups. You also learn how to modify a yoga asana for students with limited flexibility.

You can get this type of training with the ISSA Yoga & Wellness Academy’s Yoga 200 course. This online yoga teacher certification course is approved by the Yoga Alliance. This makes you eligible to apply to become a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) upon its completion.

References

1. Uebelacker, L. A., Van Noppen, D., Tremont, G., Bailey, G., Abrantes, A., & Stein, M. (2019). A pilot study assessing acceptability and feasibility of hatha yoga for chronic pain in people receiving opioid agonist therapy for opioid use disorder. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 105, 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2019.07.015 

2. The global yoga survey 2021: How and why people practice yoga. DoYou. (2022, April 12). https://www.doyou.com/yoga-survey/