As a yogi, you must keep your mind and body nimble. Throughout a routine, you may be bending into downward dog, curling into child’s pose and flowing into warrior II — all movements that require a balance of strength, flexibility and mental resilience.
Tight muscles can hinder your practice and lead to discomfort, making it challenging to reach your full potential on the mat.
Fortunately, incorporating CBD into your mindfulness routine may help loosen your joints, achieve improved flexibility and relax your mind. Read on to explore how to improve flexibility with yoga.
The Many Movements of Yoga
Yoga is an all-encompassing practice, targeting your upper body, lower body, core and glutes, as well as your mind.
And it’s incredibly diverse.
Hatha yoga practices are slow, steady and focus on foundational postures, while Vinyasa flows emphasize breath-synchronized movement, creating a dynamic and energizing experience. Whether you’re working on strength training through Ashtanga or seeking deep relaxation in Yin yoga, each style offers unique benefits.
Accordingly, yoga impacts the whole body. Specifically:
- Core– Engaging your core during various poses helps improve overall stability and balance. Proper core strength enhances your ability to hold poses, promotes improved posture and allows for deeper, more controlled movements, leading to improved flexibility in transitions between poses.
- Arms– Many yoga postures, such as downward dog and plank, require arm muscle strength and flexibility. Regular practice can act as both strength training and stretching exercises for the muscles in the arms, promoting a better range of motion and reducing tension in the shoulders, which can lead to increased flexibility in overhead movements and everyday activities.
- Legs– Through poses like warrior and pigeon, yoga improves muscle strength and stretch in the legs, including the hamstrings, quadriceps and calves. This targeted strength and flexibility training helps alleviate muscle strain and tightness and enhances flexibility, allowing for deeper lunges and more fluid movements.
- Back – Twisting and bending movements in yoga, such as in seated spinal twists and forward folds, work as strength exercises and flexibility exercises for the spine. This can alleviate muscle tension in the back, promote better alignment and increase overall mobility, making it easier to navigate daily tasks throughout the day.
- Glutes – Many yoga poses, such as bridge and figure four, engage the glute muscles while also increasing flexibility in the hips. This dual focus helps relieve tightness in the glutes and hip flexors, enhancing overall lower body flexibility and stability, which is crucial for maintaining balance and preventing injury.
How to Incorporate CBD into Your Yoga Practice
Your journey on the mat is as much about mental resilience as it is about physical fitness and flexibility training.
In the pursuit of achieving balance in both realms, incorporating CBD can be incredibly helpful. This versatile compound, derived from hemp, may aid in muscle strain recovery and can also enhance mental clarity and relaxation, helping to create a holistic approach to your practice.
CBD’s Role in Muscle Relaxation
Achieving true flexibility requires a relaxed state, both physically and mentally.
The combination of deep breathing and mindfulness is essential in yoga, but sometimes external factors can create tension and distractions. A CBD yoga combination can help dissolve these physical fitness barriers, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in your practice.
Consider incorporating CBD into your pre-yoga ritual. Whether it’s sipping on a CBD tea or enjoying a gummy, this can help set a peaceful tone before you step onto the mat.
Once you’re practicing, you may find that the calming effects of CBD help you connect more deeply with your breath, facilitating a more profound release in each pose. To deepen this relaxation, experiment with restorative practices that focus on gentle stretching exercises, meditation and breathwork.
As you unwind, notice how the combination of yoga and CBD enhances your body’s ability to release tension, making it easier to explore a deeper stretch and range of movement.
CBD’s Role in Muscle Recovery
After an invigorating yoga session, your muscles may feel tight and fatigued.
Fortunately, research suggests that CBD has anti-inflammatory properties that can help alleviate soreness and speed up recovery. By reducing inflammation, CBD allows you to maintain your flexibility and prevents stiffness that can arise from muscle tension.
To incorporate CBD for muscle recovery, consider using CBD-infused topicals. Applying a soothing balm or cream to sore areas post-practice can provide targeted relief and promote healing.
Alternatively, CBD oils or tablets taken after your routine can help relax your muscles from within, allowing for a deeper stretch and increasing flexibility over time.
CBD’s Role in Mental Resilience
Yoga is not just about the physical; it’s a mental practice that encourages flexibility of the mind.
Incorporating CBD can support this aspect by promoting a sense of calm and focus, helping you navigate challenging poses and mental barriers. Specifically, CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system, which plays a crucial role in regulating mood and stress levels.
To harness the benefits of CBD and yoga for mental health and resilience, consider taking a dose of CBD oil or a CBD gummy before your practice. This can help reduce any tension and promote a focused mindset, allowing you to engage fully with your breath and movements.
As you feel mentally agile, you can approach each pose with a sense of openness, willingness and determination, enhancing your practice and your mental flow.
Zebra CBD: CBD For Yogis
How to improve flexibility with CBD comes down to the same principles taught by yoga itself: balance, mindfulness and the harmonious integration of body and mind. Just as yoga invites practitioners to explore their limits and embrace the present moment, CBD offers a complementary approach that enhances flexibility in both physical and mental realms.
To move more freely and fully in your body and on the mat, consider integrating Zebra CBD into your yoga routine.
Meticulously crafted with premium hemp extract, Zebra CBD products maintain a balance of potency and purity for a high-quality dose that harmonizes your mind and body on the mat. Hone in on mental clarity with our CBD gummies for sale like the CBD Mood & Calm Gummies; ease sore muscles with CBD topicals the CBD Roll On Cooling Gel; and relax the body with our full-spectrum CBD hemp oil for sale.
With Zebra CBD, flexibility isn’t just a skill, it’s a state of being. Shop our collection of CBD for yogis today.
Sources:
- WebMD. Yoga. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/a-z/yoga-workouts
- CBDMD. CBD for Muscle Recovery. https://www.cbdmd.com/blogs/posts/cbd-and-muscle-recovery
- Frontiers. Cannabidiol and brain function: current knowledge and future perspectives. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2023.1328885/full
- Healthline. 6 Health Benefits of CBD Oil — and a Look at Side Effects. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cbd-oil-benefits