If you’re not fully aware of restorative yoga, you may have wondered who invented restorative yoga and what is restorative yoga. Restorative yoga focuses on relaxation and giving your body the time it needs to heal from strenuous activity or stress.
Poses are held for extended periods to facilitate deep relaxation and improve flexibility with this type of yoga. To learn more about restorative yoga, read on!
What is Restorative Yoga and its Definition?
There are several types of yoga—i.e., Hatha, Power, Ashtanga—but restorative yoga might be one of your favorites if you’re looking for a style that helps your body relax and improves your flexibility.
During restorative yoga poses, we don’t typically hold our breath or engage in traditional power positions but instead hold poses (called rests) in order to stretch our muscles and joints while allowing ourselves to decompress mentally.
When you practice restorative yoga, a skilled instructor will help guide you through these longer-than-average stretches using props like blocks, bolsters, straps, and blankets to deepen each pose safely.
In the next section, you will learn who invented restorative yoga and why.
Who Invented Restorative Yoga?
A question arises Who Invented Restorative Yoga Poses? It was the teachings of B.K.S. Iyengar when his disciple Judith Lasater introduced restorative yoga to the world in the 1970s. The aim behind the invention of restorative yoga was to develop a yoga that requires no pain and strain.
How is Restorative Yoga Different From Yin Yoga?
Let’s take a closer look at restorative yoga. People often confuse it with Yin yoga. However, restorative yoga and Yin yoga are very different from each other, although they both incorporate many of the same techniques.
The primary difference between both types of yoga is that in restorative yoga, you don’t hold poses for long periods; instead, you use props to support your body while you relax into stretches.
As a result, your body will feel more energized after practicing restorative yoga than after practicing Yin yoga.
So if you’re looking for an alternative to slow-paced stretching or meditation that will leave you feeling rejuvenated rather than drained, try out some restorative poses today!
What are the feelings of Restorative Pose?
Many yoga practitioners are familiar with restorative poses—they lie on their backs or stomachs, sink into a supportive prop like a bolster or blanket, close their eyes, and breathe deeply.
But not everyone knows what those resting poses actually do for your body. Here are four facts about how restorative yoga can help improve your mental health:
- It’s a perfect antidote to stress
- It promotes relaxation
- It enables you to sleep better
- And even if you’re really flexible, it can still be good for you
5 Benefits from Restorative Poses
Restorative yoga, which involves extended periods of stillness and calmness, may be one of the most restful forms of exercise.
It’s great to incorporate into your yoga practice if you have a hard time letting go of stress or are looking to gain more energy throughout the day.
Let’s take a look at some of the many benefits that can come from restorative yoga.
1. Helps You Manage Stress
Because you’re lying down, your body is in a completely different position than inactive yoga poses. Your breathing is relaxed and passive, your blood pressure is reduced, and it’s easy to close your eyes and just be.
Restorative yoga relaxes you physically, but it also helps you manage stress.
It has even been found to be more effective at reducing insomnia and depression than gentle movement like walking!
2. Calm Your Mind
Most people out there are so busy these days that they often forget to rest. Many also feel it’s a waste of time, but what happens when you don’t take a moment to rest?
You might feel anxious, stressed, and having trouble focusing on anything other than your worries. It’s quite difficult to reach our full potential when we can’t turn off our brains at night.
Fortunately, there is a great way to calm down quickly before heading into bed – try doing some restorative yoga poses while lying down!
These poses are designed specifically for people who want to unwind, relax, and prepare their bodies for sleep.
Each stretch will help you focus on relaxing each part of your body, allowing you to fall asleep easier.
3. Releases Muscle Tension
Muscle tension plays a role in causing stress, anxiety, and headaches, so after spending some time in a restorative yoga pose like Legs up the Wall, you’ll emerge with a calm mind and relaxed body.
You should also notice decreased muscle soreness from working out or from daily wear-and-tear since yoga increases blood flow to muscles.
Yoga can also improve sleep quality and hormone regulation because it eases depression and reduces stress hormones like cortisol.
4. Increase Flexibility
One of yoga’s greatest advantages is its ability to increase flexibility. When performed regularly, practitioners can stretch their muscles and improve their range of motion.
They might experience a more comfortable range of motion in everyday activities like turning their head or bending over to tie their shoes.
It’s also crucial for older people to stay flexible—slower-moving joints mean less mobility and more risk for injury.
Another benefit is that staying flexible will help you reduce pain from arthritis and joint problems like tendonitis, which typically manifests in tight muscles as opposed to inflamed joints themselves.
By increasing flexibility, you can help manage your pain symptoms.
5. Restorative Yoga Boost circulation
When you lie down, gravity helps blood and lymph flow. The gentle poses in restorative yoga help encourage blood flow, so you have brighter eyes and skin and a clearer mind.
That’s just one way that restorative yoga can improve your appearance. It’s also known to help relax facial muscles to reduce wrinkles and fine lines over time.
The idea is that resting in certain poses stretches out muscles more than normal yoga poses do, which may improve their firmness over time.
This is particularly effective for people who regularly work at a computer—the constant forward head posture places pressure on neck muscles, causing them to be less elastic than they otherwise would be if they were relaxed while at rest.
Repeated stretching can reduce these effects by improving muscle tone over time.
Restorative Yoga Poses
A great way to enhance your recovery from a stressful day, these poses restore both body and mind. Restorative yoga can help you feel physically and mentally rejuvenated when practiced regularly.
For some restorative poses like Legs up a Wall or Supported Shoulder stand, props are helpful; others require nothing more than a quiet room and an open mind.
Learn what pose is right for you to take time out each day to practice; who knows, it might just become your favorite activity!
Here is a list of some effective Restorative yoga poses.
| Poses Name | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Legs Up The Wall | Relaxes the whole body and disturbs the mind |
| Happy Baby Pose | Relieve the stress from the spine and groins |
| Corpse / Savasana | Keep the mind calm and stretch the muscles of the hip and thighs gently |
| Legs on a chair pose | Take off the stress from back and tiring legs |
| Child’s Pose | Keep us relaxed and gently stretch the muscles in the back. |
| Supported Bridge Pose | Keep us relaxed and gently stretches the muscles in the back. |
Some Final Thoughts on Restorative Yoga
For many yoga practitioners, lying on a comfortable surface and doing nothing may sound like a waste of time. But that’s not true.
Besides being an excellent way to give your body a rest, there are plenty of health benefits associated with restorative yoga. It can help you get into a deep state of relaxation.
As you breathe deeply, become mindful, and let go of stress, any tension in your muscles will begin to melt away.
In addition to easing stress and anxiety—which is huge in reducing chronic pain—the practice can also strengthen your immune system by increasing your production of antibodies.
This, in turn, helps fight infections and boost immune function over time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Restorative Yoga
Q. What is the definition of restorative yoga?
Ans. Restorative yoga is a kind of yoga that focuses on relaxing your body and stretching it to its maximum range. It’s great for eliminating chronic tension, improving flexibility, reducing pain and stress levels, calming anxiety, and improving sleep.
Q. What is restorative yoga, Judith Lasater?
Ans. The relation between restorative yoga and Judith Lasater is that he was the guy who took restorative yoga teaching from his teacher B.K.S. Iyengar and developed this in the United States in the 1970s.
Q. Is restorative yoga spiritual?
Ans. When you hear about restorative yoga, you might wonder if it’s a religious practice or if you have to be spiritual in some way to do it. Restorative yoga is simply a style of yoga that focuses on relaxing poses and gentle stretches with props such as blankets and blocks. Anyone can do it, regardless of their level of belief or spiritual leanings.
Q. Are yin and restorative yoga the same?
Ans. Many people assume that yin and restorative yoga are the same. However, these practices differ in many ways. For example, a restorative yoga class will use props like blankets and blocks to help you relax your body and provide support for various poses.
In contrast, a yin yoga class uses no props at all and typically focuses on very slow movements to help bring more flexibility to certain parts of your body.
The biggest difference between these two practices is their goal; while a restorative yoga practice will focus on strengthening the body as a whole, a yin yoga practice is more focused on strengthening deep connective tissues like your joints, fascia, ligaments, and bones.
