How To Use The Cork Yoga Wheel
The Cork Yoga Wheel has taken the yoga scene with storm recently, and with good reason.
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The Cork Yoga Wheel is a functional Yoga Prop Created To Encourage Movement – Even For The Areas of The Body That Are Notoriously Hard to Stretch.
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The yoga wheel provides so many new opportunities for enhancing your yoga practice. You can use a yoga wheel to gain flexibility and mobility, strength and balance – and its perfect for enhancing any of your other fitness routines too.
The Yoga Wheel Is An Excellent Tool For Increasing Flexibility, created to enhance your experience in Yoga & stretching with new and fun ways of increasing flexibility in the hips, shoulders, and back. The Cork Yoga Wheel can encourage better movement, develop our core and stability, as well as give our balance a little boost too.
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We all know the amazing benefits of yoga for the body, mind, and soul. When we incorporate a yoga wheel into our practice, we can take these benefits to the next level. Yoga wheels can help to deepen your yoga practice and here are 5 ways you can take benefit of this excellent yoga prop:
1. Spinal Massage & Mobility with the Cork Yoga Wheel
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With the support from the Cork Yoga Wheel, it can be easier to access movements, such as backbends. The Cork Yoga Wheel is particularly loved as a tool for backbends, as the curve of the yoga wheel fits nicely with the curve of the spine, letting you roll gently over the wheel – And don’t worry, it comes with a 5mm cushion on top of the wheel, so it feels comfortable to your body.
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Give your spine some love with a yoga wheel! Have you ever used a block or a bolster beneath your spine for a supported heart opener? Take that great feeling, and then multiply it with a yoga wheel that’s round and can move with the contours of your spine.
From a seated position, bring the yoga wheel to the base of your spine and keep your feet planted as you gently begin to roll your spine up and onto the wheel.
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From here, you can play around with slowly rolling forward and back to get the full effects of a spinal massage.
You can massage the spine by rolling the cork yoga wheel up and down the length of your spinal column.
You can massage the spine by rolling the cork yoga wheel up and down the length of your spinal column.
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Or, if you’re looking more for a backbend, find a static hold with the mid back positioned on the wheel. This stretch is particularly good for those spending most of their days behind a desk in a sedentary fashion.
2. Back & shoulder release:
The same position featured in number 1 can be the foundation for other uses too. From there, roll the wheel onto the upper spine and then reach the hands up and back to grab onto the wheel behind your head.
2. Back & shoulder release:
The same position featured in number 1 can be the foundation for other uses too. From there, roll the wheel onto the upper spine and then reach the hands up and back to grab onto the wheel behind your head.
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This is a great way to stretch and open the shoulders, as well as release tension in the head, neck, and upper spine.
3. Core strength:
This is a lovely & effective exercise to strengthen the core. You can definitely feel your core activating during this exercise.
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The key is to come into place your hands in front of you on the mat and come into a plank position with your feet on the yoga wheel, find your balance on the wheel, and slowly use your feet to roll the yoga wheel towards you. You will then move from a plank position to a downward facing down, whilst keeping your balance on the wheel. From here, slowly roll the yoga wheel backward until you are in a plank position again. Repeat. Yep, this truly is an effective exercise :p
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A great variation of this exercise is to stay in plank position with the feet up on the cork yoga wheel and bring your knee up to the elbow:
4. Lunge & twist
This is one of my favorites. Not only is it great for releasing tension in the back and hips, but it also helps increase your balance.
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You can access this movement by coming into a high lunge, place the cork yoga wheel under your left back foot, find stability here, and place your left elbow/triceps on the outside of your right knee. Gently twist your spine to feel your back release. Look up to the sky, if this feels comfortable for you.
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5. Balance & Play
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’s all about a little play now and again. I love having fun with my yoga wheel and one way to have fun with the yoga wheel is to use it for forearm stands with backbends and balance movements.
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This one is slightly more advanced, where the strength and flexibility for this movement may take some time to develop.
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We love encouraging movement & we adore props that can help us achieve greater flexibility and let go of tension. Our Cork Yoga Wheel is designed to be used and loved – we hope to inspire you to find greater flexibility & balance with variety, fun and new movements.
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Hope you’ve found some good inspiration on how to use your Cork Yoga Wheel as a great tool for deepening your yoga practice. The cork yoga wheel combines strength and flexibility for a full mind-body challenge – and workout. We would love the hear your experience with the yoga wheel at our yoga community on Instagram at @theasanasyoga. Leave us a comment on your experience <3
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Get creative and explore the ways you can incorporate a yoga wheel into your favorite yoga poses, stretches, and exercises. If you’d like some more inspo, see our cork yoga wheel video here:
