Optimizing Your Flow and Go Yoga Experience

You’ve done it! You’ve taken the plunge and I’m so proud of you for choosing yourself, your health, and your well-being!!

But now what? How do you optimize your at-home yoga practice? 

The good news is there are several ways!

The premise behind Flow and Go Yoga is to make it easy and accessible for you to show up, rock out a flow, and be consistent with it. Life is hard enough. Fitting a quick yoga flow into your day shouldn’t be one of those things. Our flows are all 20 minutes which is something you can do daily (or at least most days) and we offer more live times than any other yoga platform to help you stay consistent and accountable! 

Without further ado, here’s how to get the most out of Flow and Go Yoga:

#1. Use Yoga Props

I can’t say this enough: Use Props! In fact, just have them handy! You don’t need to have fancy ones but here’s what we recommend:

• Yoga Blocks (2) - You can use a couple of sturdy, hardcover books instead and in cases where you just want to bring the ground higher, you can even use soup cans or tall water bottles. These are used to bring the ground to you or to help you with passive stretching.

• Yoga Strap - You can use a belt, a hand towel, or a rolled-up towel. Usually used to lengthen your arm.

• A thick blanket - A thick towel or a cushion will also do just fine. This is used to help elevate the hips and provide cushioning for our knees in certain poses. 

Props are an absolutely amazing adjunct to your practice. Often, when just starting out, we tend to shy away from using props because our ego tells us we don’t need them. We want to show that we can do yoga! But here’s the secret that people don’t tell you about yoga: It’s not about the poses. It’s all about how it feels in your body! 

Every pose in yoga is really about opening, lengthening, or strengthening part of the body. Take, for example, a lunge. With one foot forward and one foot back, we’re opening the hips in the sagittal plane. But if you’re struggling to reach the ground, you aren’t focused on the hips at all. Chances are you’re feeling a bit unstable (or tippy) and you’re straining through the shoulders. 

The solution is to bring the ground up to you by using blocks. No more straining and all the love is going to the hips so you’re getting the most out of your yoga pose and your time on the mat. Who doesn’t want that? 

Similarly, in sukhasana, or easy, cross-legged pose, a lot of us round through our low back and it’s a strain to sit up for more than a few seconds. This is (usually) the result of hip flexors that need to be strengthened. If you sit upon a blanket, your hip flexors can engage more strongly and it will be easier to sit up. 

Have your props nearby to support your practice. While we often do our best to list required props in advance, we don’t always stick to the plan (yes, we literally embody Flow and Go at times!)! You’ll also notice that your body changes both throughout the day and from day to day so it’s good to have options nearby so you can flow with what feels best in each moment.  

2. Ask Your Instructor

Flow and Go is a service that we bring to you! It’s yoga for real people by real people. 

Because we do so many flows every week, we really encourage you to ask for what you need! 

Need a flow that focuses on low back health? Just ask! Need modifications for a new injury? Ask away! Want to do a live flow on a certain day at a certain time? Let us know!

Just like you, we’re flowing and going with it. If we can accommodate, then we absolutely will and if we can’t, we’ll find a way or another alternative that works for you!

The other reason I like this is that it fully encourages you to use your voice. Speaking up and speaking our truth is very much a practice of yoga. Plus we’re super friendly so ask away!

I can’t encourage this one enough either: If you’re unsure if you’re doing correctly or it doesn’t feel right and you want some help and guidance, please ask! One of us, usually myself, will hop on a video call and guide you through the pose. We’ll modify it if needed so that you can continue to flow in ways that feel good in your body. 

3. Have Fun

The reason we show up on our mat is to grow and create space either physically, mentally, or both but there’s not much point if we’re taking it super seriously. 

Let your inner child out, find a smile in your practice or make a funny face and be curious. The rest - the increased strength, the flexibility, the mindfulness, etc - will all come naturally. Things always flow better when we chill out and enjoy ourselves. So relax and flow with it. If we can do that on the mat, we can do that off the mat!