10 Surprising Ways to Use Yoga Blankets in Class

Of all the props you’ll use in a yoga studio, yoga blankets may be the most underrated. Yes, you already know that you can rely on a blanket for cushioning under your knees, for support during restorative yoga, and for warmth while practicing Savasana. However, these uses barely touch the potential of yoga blankets.

This is a shame. because propwhich are widely available in many studios, can actually enhance your practice in surprising ways. Whether you practice in a studio or at home, a simple yoga blanket can help subtly challenge your balance, target hard-to-reach muscles, strengthen your core, and even mind your habits. Here’s how to switch things up.

10 Surprising Ways to Use Yoga Blankets

With nothing more than a folded yoga blanket, you can change up your routine to include gliding, weight bearing, compression, support, and more.

sliding

If you practice yoga on hard floors, the slide you can create with a blanket can transform even the simplest poses. Without a stable foundation under your feet or hands, you’ll need to recruit extra strength from smaller, easily overlooked stabilizing muscles so you can maintain your posture.

The more resistance you create by squeezing the blanket, the stronger you get. Also, the farther your blanket moves, the greater the range of motion and stretch you will feel. So venture out!

1. Reach to the side while sitting

Draw your attention to easily overlooked muscles in your arm, shoulder, and side.

How to: Fold your mat in half and sit on the folded edge, resting on your left hip with your knees and feet bent toward the right. Place a folded blanket on the floor next to your left hip and place your left hand on top of it.

Move the blanket away from you, lengthening the left side of your body as you lower yourself toward the floor. Then press down on your left hand while pulling the blanket toward you to sit upright. Repeat for a few rounds on this side. Then switch sides.

2. Sliding Locust Pose (Salabhasana)

Feel the interaction of your back and side muscles. Then take this awareness to other situations.

How to: Lie face up with only your pelvis and legs on your mat. Extend your arms above your head on the floor with your hands on a folded blanket. Draw your pubic bone toward your navel and press down with your hands as you pull the blanket toward you, lifting your head and chest as much as feels comfortable as you do so. Locust situation. Draw your shoulder blades down your back.

Then slowly move the blanket back to the starting position and lower yourself to the floor. Take a few rounds before going down to rest.

3. Slippage

As you balance, you will target the muscles in the back of your front leg and the front of your back leg.

How to: Stand on your folded mat with your blanket placed a foot or two behind you on the floor. Shift your weight to your right foot and slide the ball of your left foot behind you and onto your blanket. Step your left foot back into the High Lunge, bending your right knee as much as you find comfortable, then press your legs toward each other to return to the starting position. Take a few rounds on that side, then switch to your other side. Keeping your hands on your chest instead of your head can help with balance.

4. Hover the table to the wooden slide

Learn how to challenge and strengthen your shoulders, chest, core and hip muscles simultaneously. Talk about efficiency.

How to: Start on a table with your hands and knees on your folded mat and the tops of your feet on your blanket. Tuck your toes and move your knees. Push your feet away from you until you are straight Plank positionThen bend your knees and press your feet toward your hands to return to the starting position. Take a few rounds.

Weight bearing

Unless you have to move piles of blankets in your yoga studio, you probably haven’t thought about how much this humble prop weighs. But hold one away from your body for a few breaths, and you’ll soon realize how much it holds and its ability to build strength. The farther the blanket is from your body, the heavier it will feel.

5. Circles of the Arm of the Gods

You’re used to the burning feeling in your legs while practicing goddesses. Distract yourself by sneaking in some upper body strengthening.

How to: Stand in Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana) and place a folded blanket on your left forearm. Reach your left fingertips and try to squeeze your arm muscles toward the bone. Stabilize the rest of your body as you draw small circles with your left arm.

Once you feel comfortable, change directions so that your arm rotates in the other direction. Continue until you feel a slow burn in your left shoulder muscles (not to mention your legs), then replace the blanket with your right arm.

6. Lateral leg lifts

Strengthen your outer hip even while adjusting to the stability provided by your arms and side body.

How to: Sit on your right hip with your upper left leg extended straight out. Cover your folded blanket over your left ankle. Then set up a Side Plank with your bottom knee on the mat and your right hand under or slightly in front of your right shoulder. Hug your right shoulder in its socket and lift your hip into a supportive position Side Plank (Vasisthasana). Keep your chest and hips square to the side wall as you slowly raise your left leg and then lower it toward the floor. Repeat the leg lift several times. Then slowly lower yourself to your mat and repeat on your other side.

7. Tabletop leg lifts

You’ll feel it along the back of your hip and thigh in your lifted leg. Not intense enough? Try it in a standing balance position.

How to: Set up on a table top with a folded blanket draped over the back of your left leg. Lift your left knee to straighten your leg. Without dropping your stomach or tilting your hips, lift your left leg, then slowly lower it back down to hover above the floor. Repeat several times. Then lower your knee to the mat and switch sides.

If this version sounds easy for you, up the ante by trying the same technique in Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III).

pressure or support

In yoga poses, we often focus on creating space, but pressure can be just as therapeutic. Closing off one area of ​​the body can open up another, not to mention creating the potential for a rebound effect once pressure is released and circulation returns. Blankets can also be used tactically to support one area of ​​the body and thus focus the effect of the pose elsewhere.

8. Abdominal compression

Here the blanket helps you explore the untapped potential of your breath while focusing it on your back body.

How to: Lie on your stomach with your rolled blanket under your abdomen between your lower ribs and the top of your pelvis. Find an acceptable amount of pressure that restricts the movement of your abdomen without causing discomfort. If the sensation is very intense, unfold your blanket partially and use the flat part of the blanket to pad your ribs or pelvis. With your abdomen restricted, feel your lower back and back ribs expanding with each inhale and releasing with each breath. Stay here for a minute or two. Then press back into tabletop or child’s pose. Stop here until you are ready to move on.

9. Release your calves and hamstrings

Eliminate tension in your calves and hamstrings with this simple trick.

How to: From the table top, place your rolled blanket behind your knees. Keep your desired weight on your hands as you tilt your hips back toward your heels until you find acceptable pressure between your calves and hamstrings. Either stay still or gently sway from side to side to transfer weight from one leg to the other.

After a few breaths here, move the blanket a few inches closer to the back of your ankles to explore sensation in a new area. If you don’t feel enough pressure sensation, move your right foot forward as if you were doing a unilateral low squat (Malasana) to focus all the sensation on your lower left leg.

When you’re ready, simply retrace your steps to switch sides.

10. Supported Camel (Ustrasana)

If the crunch at the back of your neck takes away the shine from the front body opening you might experience in Camel Pose, a blanket can make a big difference.

How to: Roll your blanket lengthwise so you have at least two feet to work with. Wrap your long blanket around your neck and over the front of your shoulders, tucking the free ends under your arms and at your sides. Kneel with your knees hip-width apart and your toes bent. Lean your entire body back until your hands or fingertips catch your heels. (If they’re not touching, place a block next to each foot and reach down.) Lengthen your sacrum and pull your shoulder blades back to lift your breastbone inward Camel pose. Place the base of your skull on the blanket roll, allowing it to bear some of the weight of your head so you can focus on lifting and lengthening your front body from the knees to your collarbones. Take a few wide breaths there before you retrace your way out of the situation.