As a practice that provides many benefits for the mind, body, and spirit, yoga is a great way for us to achieve overall wellness. But when you find a pose uncomfortable, struggle to do a pose, or do a pose incorrectly, you may not be able to reap the benefits from it and you may also get a muscle strain or injury.
So it would help to have some tools that can assist you to do the yoga poses more easily and properly. These tools are called yoga props. They are very useful for practitioners of different levels.
Beginners and experienced practitioners alike can experience different challenges in doing yoga. Beginners who are still getting the hang of yoga can use yoga props to learn and perform the poses more easily and properly.
For experienced yogis, transitioning to more advanced poses can sometimes be challenging. However, with the use of yoga props, they can have assistance for easily and safely advancing their practice.
But the greatest of the benefits of yoga props is that even the physically impaired or weak would also be able to do it so they, too, can better their physical condition and overall health. With the support that yoga props can provide in performing yoga along with some modifications that can be applied to suit each practitioner’s abilities, yoga becomes accessible for people who are recovering from an injury, pregnant, elderly, or anyone with a physical limitation.
Overall, yoga props can help further enhance practitioners’ alignment, flexibility, balance, and strength while also allowing them to feel more at peace with themselves, be in deeper reflection, and receive yoga’s healing effect to fullest. A yoga props company that aims to help maximize yoga’s holistic benefits by providing high-quality yoga props, which can foster every practitioner’s heartfelt values and instill self-love in them is Bolstered. Two versatile yoga props they have that are highly recommendable for any yoga practice are their Inner Harmony Yoga Sandbag and Comfort Yoga Blanket.
If you are curious about yoga props and/or are looking to buy yoga props for your yoga support needs, this article can enlighten you. Here, you can learn what yoga props are, what are their benefits, and about Bolster and their helpful yoga props.
What Are Yoga Props and What Are Their Benefits?
Yoga props were developed by B.K.S. Iyengar, a yoga teacher from India who trained with one of the 20th century’s most influential yoga teachers also known as the Father of Yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya around the year 1930 to1940. Eventually, he created a yoga style of his own called Iyengar Yoga, where he introduced the use of yoga props.
He incorporated yoga props in his yoga style to allow anyone, no matter what flexibility, strength, physical limitation, or age they have, to be able to practice and benefit from yoga. The yoga props help practitioners to better achieve proper alignment and maximize the benefits they can get from each pose. The use of yoga props soon became popular in different styles of yoga.
There are a variety of yoga props you can use to help you in doing yoga poses, such as bolsters, sandbags, blocks, blankets, straps, etc. And there are many yoga props benefits you can get from using them.
- Improve Alignment
Proper alignment is the key to yoga. It allows you to fully receive the benefits of yoga while preventing muscle strains and injuries. With the use of yoga props, you will be able to have some support that can help you to optimally and safely position your body and achieve proper alignment.
- Maximize the Benefits of Yoga
As you get to achieve proper alignment with the help of yoga props, you also get to maximize the benefits of yoga. With proper alignment, you can do your poses more stably and more deeply, which results in deeper breathing and full relaxation. Moreover, yoga props would also let you benefit from a pose for longer when you use them to help you hold a pose longer.
- Allow More Freedom While Improving Flexibility and Strength
With the help of yoga props, you will be able to do poses that you normally couldn’t do on your own. They allow you to move with more freedom to achieve a pose correctly without challenges, which also results in improved flexibility. This also increases muscle engagement, which results in improved strength.
- Allow a Deeper Practice
Yoga props help you deepen your practice by allowing you to delve further into the yoga poses. With them, you can hold a yoga pose for longer and therefore increase the potential of your yoga practice. Being able to have a deeper practice also helps improve flexibility, balance, and strength.
- Advance Your Practice
When moving on to the more advanced yoga poses, some assistance would sometimes be necessary. Especially as they can be difficult and may even be potentially dangerous when done without any support. Yoga props can serve as a support for you to safely advance in your practice as you try the more challenging poses.
- Promote Deeper Relaxation and Rejuvenation
The support and stability that yoga props provide can promote deeper rejuvenation and relaxation. As they help you hold a pose much easier or deepen your stretch, you will be able to better focus without being bothered by any challenge or discomfort. As a result, you can relax more and fully enjoy yoga’s rejuvenation effects.
- Make Yoga Accessible to Anyone
Not only do yoga props serve as a support when doing yoga poses, but they also allow modifications for a safer yoga practice. So anyone with any level of flexibility and strength as well as any physical limitations and age can be able to do yoga with the use of yoga props.
Bolstered: Promoting Wisdom and Wellness Through Yoga Props
Founded by Kristen Hess, an experienced yogi, herself, Bolstered started from ideas that came to her mind when she began using yoga props in her practice. At that time, she experienced a significant personal loss, and as she coped through yoga with the incorporation of yoga props, she noticed its great impact on the facilitation of healing and the stimulation of deeper wisdom.
The yoga props bolstered her practice by allowing her to take her practice at a slower pace, unraveling unnecessary tension, and providing stability to let her nervous system unwind. Ultimately, it revealed a reality that had to be acknowledged, deepened her connection to her inner world, and gave her a newfound sense of wisdom and wellness. In the process, she also acquired the wisdom that “Self-compassion inspires compassion for others, which ripples out to create a kinder world,” and this gave her the desire to promote self-love in everyone.
And so, she made that happen by combining her passion for yoga and expertise in product development, sourcing, and sustainability to establish Bolstered. Bolstered provides high-quality, exquisite, environmentally-friendly, ethically sourced yoga props.
Their yoga props come in one-of-a-kind, limited-edition designs created through a process involving stitching in Colorado and skillful handcrafting by artisans in Guatemala and Mexico. And with the protection of nature in mind, the company practices small batch or slow production with mindfully sourced materials such as upcycled or recycled textiles, regenerative fibers, and natural dyes.
Through Bolstered’s yoga props, practitioners can enjoy yoga’s benefits to the fullest with the reinforcement of support and personalization of their practice while fostering their values and developing compassion for themselves that can extend to others. Now let’s go into the details of their Inner Sanctuary Sandbag and Comfort Blanket.
Inner Sanctuary Sandbag
An 8-pound cotton bag measuring 17 inches by 9 inches containing sterilized play sand and lavender buds, the Inner Sanctuary Sandbag is an excellent yoga prop that can provide your needed support in any yoga practice with an additional soothing effect from the lavender buds. Providing a gentle weight, this yoga sandbag can help enhance your stability, promote proper alignment, deepen stretches, and provide support when doing challenging poses.
And it is not just the lavender buds that can soothe you, its pressure also serves as a soothing hug. The pressure can also promote relaxation, as it can activate the network of nerves responsible for relaxing the body after experiencing stress or danger, called the parasympathetic nervous system. It can also help lessen anxiety and sensory overload.
This yoga sandbag’s great features don’t end there, as it also provides additional features for convenience. One is the two handles on the outer cover of the sandbag. These help to make lifting and positioning the sandbag easier.
On its inner liner is a zipper that allows adjustments to the weight of the sandbag. With this feature, practitioners can customize the sandbag to suit their needs. Its inner liner also features a center stitch, which helps to balance the weight of the sandbag.
In efforts to protect nature while also providing high-quality yoga sandbags, the Inner Sanctuary Sandbags are produced in small batches involving the design process in Colorado and skillful handcrafting by artisans in Guatemala using recycled fabric. The sandbag covers’ material is 100% cotton with 60% or more from recycled jeans. And it is packaged for delivery using reusable, recycled, and/or compostable packaging.
Comfort Blanket
The yoga blanket is a versatile yoga prop that can be rolled, folded, or laid open to suit any need, which makes it great for any yoga practice and popular with practitioners. For Bolstered, their number 1 yoga prop recommendation for any yoga asana, pranayama, and meditation practice is the yoga blanket, which they also provide—introducing the Comfort Blanket!
Made with 50% Acrylic, 40% Polyester, and 10% Cotton; weighing 3 pounds; and measuring 76 inches by 45.5 inches, the Comfort Blanket is a soft, mid-weight blanket that is not only soothing but also very supportive of any yoga practice and meditation practice in many ways. It can:
- Provide support when performing yoga poses.
- Provide cushioning for seated poses.
- Help achieve proper alignment.
- Allow the modification of yoga poses to make yoga accessible for people with physical limitations or recovering from an injury.
- Help enhance flexibility.
- Prevent the body from getting strained or fatigued with its softness.
- Help lessen the strain on the joints and muscles with the soft support it provides.
- Keep practitioners warm during relaxation and meditation poses.
- Also serve as a decoration that can beautify and add warmth to your yoga space.
Like all of the Bolstered yoga props, this is made with recycled materials. Its fabric is made with repurposed yarn taken from recycled clothing. It is also handwoven using traditional wooden looms by skilled artisan weavers from Central Mexico. And it is environmentally friendly down to its packaging for delivery, as it would get packed using reusable, recycled, and/or compostable packaging.
Grab Your Yoga Props For a Bolstered Yoga Practice!
The development of yoga props made a great impact on yoga and meditation practices. Not only does it allow practitioners of different levels to get the most out of their practice, but it also allows those with physical limitations or recovering from an injury to also be able to practice and benefit from yoga.
If you wish to bolster your yoga practice too, take your pick from the two recommended yoga props and click on their designated product link above to make your purchase. Or better yet, buy both for double the boost.
