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Originally Posted by crcossel
So those of you who do yoga....I really want too but I have real trouble when I do. I am extremely inflexible and the downward dog makes my arms and shoulders hurt (and I don't mean burn, I mean hurt). Any suggestions where to start?
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Flexibility is one of those things that you lose as you get older, and if you don't practice it, you lose it even more. But, don't fret! You can get it back.
You're going to have take baby steps. I suggest getting a yoga strap and/or a yoga block if you're serious. Of course, you can use a phone book and a long towel or scarf as a block and strap, so you can start right now. These things will help you get more into stretches, increasing your flexibility.
As for downward dog, you don't have to go so far into the stretch. You can start in just a v pose, wherever you can go. Use the block or phonebook for your hands until you can get to where you need to be.
If you keep practicing, it WILL get easier, I promise. The comcast on demand workouts have some good beginner yoga on them. Or, search YouTube, there are a TON of beginner yoga workouts. Find one you can do, and do it everyday (they are only like 10 minutes long) and eventually you will be able to do harder poses.