Dirk Bennewitz and Andrea Kubasch talk about why this yoga prop is wheely good (we couldn’t help ourselves!). Here they explain the many benefits ahead of their three-day immersion happening from 22nd – 24th August 2019 in Camden.
At triyoga, we run regular wheel yoga classes. Click here to view our wheel yoga class schedule.
What is a yoga wheel and what is it used for?
The yoga wheel is a new therapeutic tool to deepen your yoga practice and take it to a new level.
You don’t need any special prerequisites to successfully practice with it. It helps to reduce tension and renew fascia/connective tissue.
what are the benefits of using a yoga wheel?
1. It helps to do difficult stretches more safely
Backbends and inversions are challenging postures and many of us avoid them.
The yoga wheel is a simple and safe way to ease people into these types of asana.
2. It can prevent injury
The yoga wheel keeps you upright and gives you the support that traditional poses cannot offer with traditional props or with no props.
3. It improves your flexibility
If you add the yoga wheel to your yoga routine you will have more confidence to stretch further.
It improves the mobility of your hip flexors which are important to master backbends and inversions. This will give you in a very short period of time a lot of breakthroughs.
4. It gives you dynamic support and better breathing
The yoga wheel allows simultaneous extension and flexion of the spine. Due to the comparatively large contact surface, your spine experiences guided extension and stable support in backbends. This contributes immensely to the preservation and promotion of a healthy spine.
The Western lifestyle, with long periods of sitting still, often results in a sunken posture. The body always gets better at what it does. This means that the mobility of the spine to the rear decreases and the body structures at the front become firmer and immovable.
With the yoga wheel you will extend a healthy radius of movement backwards and at the same time open the front of your body. You will also improve your ability to breathe because your diaphragm can perform better.
5. It makes you stronger
The yoga wheel will build up your strength and stamina. In a very short time of practising with the yoga wheel you will feel much stronger and healthier.
6. It gives you more variety in yoga poses
When we practice on our mat, we normally work in closed systems. Both feet and hands are on the mat and do not slip. If we change that geometry and put the yoga wheel under one leg, a lot more muscle groups need to be active to hold the position. A closed system has now become an open system, requiring more power, balance and coordination. The practice becomes more intense and has greater variety.
7. It stimulates your fascia/connective tissue
Fascial tissue is mechanically stimulated by tension and pressure. Regeneration processes are triggered and the structures repair themselves to a certain extent. This requires moderate stimulation, which you will learn to do in a safe way in our course. Relieve your tensions and knots in the tissue. The secret is in massaging and activating the neck area and the lumbar area, areas that are known to be the most strained and most susceptible to injury.
about the instructors
Andrea and Dirk run two yoga centres in Hamburg, Germany, and offer workshops, teacher training, retreats and conferences worldwide. Their goal is to bring yoga closer to people in their cultural context and to make the therapeutic benefits of exercise and the yoga mindset tangible to as many people as possible. The yoga wheel is an effective tool to improve the health and effectiveness of yoga practice.
