3 New Ways to Use a Yoga Wheel
Try these fun new ways to incorporate a yoga wheel into your practice.
Are you looking to start using a yoga wheel in your daily yoga routine? Or maybe you purchased a yoga wheel a while back but now it’s just sitting in the back of your closet collecting dust? Either way, we’ve got the perfect yoga moves that will add your yoga wheel into your practice in new ways.
Check out the three yoga poses below. Each one incorporates your yoga wheel and each one varies in level of difficulty. Remember to be patient and work your way up to the more difficult poses to avoid injury.
1. Yoga Wheel for a Headstand or Forearm Stand
What you’ll want to do here is position the yoga wheel against your head for a headstand, or set up your arms for forearm stand and grab hold. You need a bit of traction happening through your forearms in order to feel stable here, so imagine that you are trying to pull yourself forward. That active intention to pull will help you to feel concrete here. Then, use the wheel like a mini wall for your head, and then tip toe your feet forward until your pelvis is over your head. Then, lift one leg, stabilize, and hop off the bottom foot (do not kick with the top foot!), and try to find your balance overhead. This is probably best to do if you’re someone who can get up and hold against the wall, and you’re looking for a way to move away from the wall but still have a prop as a crutch.
2. Yoga Wheel for Deep Backbend
This is definitely something you’ll want to do when you are very warmed up, and have practiced wheel pose and are ready for a deeper backbend. The alignment details are important and you can find a comprehensive run down in my book Namaslay, but when using the wheel the key points are: picture your body like an upside down letter U (not an upside down V), keep your knees stacked over your ankles and press into your heels, and breathe space through your entire front body, especially your chest.
3. Supermans with the Yoga Wheel
Here’s a fun way to build strength through the posterior chain. This is a lot harder than it looks and if you’re having trouble balancing, you could modify by bringing your hands down to the ground and just lifting and squeezing you legs before the releasing (and then repeat 5 – 10 times).
All images courtesy of YogaByCandace.com.
