I hear it all the time. “Oh I could never do yoga I’m not flexible enough”. I don’t have the data to support this but I’d wager this is the number one myth that stops people from giving yoga a try. It’s not completely ludicrous, yoga is certainly related to flexibility, if you practice yoga you will almost certainly become more flexible. But the idea that you have to be flexible to even give it a try is total nonsense, and it’s a problem.

This particular misconception is personal to me because much of my body is very flexible, and it’s not actually a good thing. I am hypermobile, which is a fancy way of saying that some of my joints are more flexible than they should be. Combine that with a childhood spent dancing and doing gymnastics, and I am definitely more flexible than the average person. When I first started yoga this was great, I could slip into challenging poses easily, I felt like I was a better yoga student than the others around me, because I could “achieve” the poses. This is part of the reason why the myth of flexibility and yoga is so sticky, because there is a tiny kernel of truth to it – yoga helps you to become more flexible, so therefore if you are more flexible, doesn’t the logic flow that you’re a better yogi as a result?

*This is a pretty standard result to get when you do an image search for ‘yoga’.*

Years (and 200 hours of teacher training) later, I know this is not the case, but it took me a while to get here. Now I know not only how little flexibility has to do with being a “good yogi”, but also that pushing my already flexible body is actually potentially harmful to me. These days when I practice I am working against my natural flexibility more often than not. I have trained myself to do downward dog with what feels like bent arms, when in fact they are just not over-extended. I have to resist the temptation to drop fully into my shoulder joints, which feels incredibly satisfying, but is not good for me. Don’t get me wrong, I get a great deal of enjoyment and satisfaction out of my flexibility, but it is by no means what makes me a good yoga student, nor is it the focus of my yoga practice.

There is no such thing as a flexible/inflexible person

This myth relies on one big misconception in particular, that we have been labelled either flexible or inflexible, and that’s the end of the story.

Flexibility is dependent on so many factors, from the softness of the connective tissue around your joints, to the length of your muscles, even the shape of those joints and muscles. It can also depend on what kind exercise you have done recently, your age, your gender, your temperature, and even how stressed or relaxed you are. It would be foolish to assume that all of these variables remain constant throughout our lives. Of course our levels of flexibility will change over time, depending largely on how we use our bodies (i.e. whether we give yoga a try, or do lots of weight-lifting and never stretch).

Also we tend to assume that we are either universally flexible, or not at all. In reality one person can have very long hamstrings, and a stiff back. Or flexible hips, and barely any range of motion in the shoulders. This is one of the great things about the physical side of a yoga practice, it helps us to create balance in the body – building strength in the areas that are flexible, and increasing flexibility in those stiffer parts.

So if we can agree that our levels of flexibility will vary over time, and throughout our bodies, can we all agree that there is no such thing as a ‘flexible person’ or an ‘inflexible person’?

But Yoga is About Stretching Right?

When I say that you do not need to be flexible to do yoga, I feel I should address the instinctive response – ‘but isn’t yoga all about stretching?’. To this I say, only slightly. The physical aspect of a yoga practice (‘asana’ practice as it is called), is just one out of eight ‘limbs’ in the eight-fold path of yoga. The other seven limbs are dedicated to how to live a yogic life, meditation and spiritual enlightenment, none of these limbs has anything to do with the range of motion in your joints.

It is true that asana practice is focused on developing some flexibility. It is believed that this part of a yoga practice is there to prepare us to sit comfortably for long periods of time in meditation. This certainly requires some flexibility, but it does not at all require us to be able to put our legs behind our head.

*Illustration by Becky Luffman @beckyjluffman*

This is another reason why it’s hard to shake the “yoga requires me to be flexible” myth, because one of the goals of an asana practice is increased flexibility. However, thanks to influences from gymnastics, dance and even wrestling, many yoga practices have become overly focused on developing a level of flexibility that is not necessary to sit comfortably on the floor. Combine that with an emphasis via Instagram on a particular yoga aesthetic, and also the bizarre cultural notion that yoga is somehow a sexy thing (still can’t get my head round this, can anyone explain?!) and we’ve got a persistent cultural idea that to do yoga you have to be bendy (and slim, and tanned, with just the right amount of cute and spiritual tattoos). As a teacher I’m really conscious of how I contribute (deliberately or not) to our cultural perception of yoga. As I’ve said I’m pretty flexible, but I go out of my way not to show this on my Instagram, and to avoid demonstrating poses in class that I can do well because of my flexibility, I feel if I did this I would just become a part of the problem. Yet I can’t wash over the fact that the kind of yoga that I do, and that I teach (mainly vinyasa flow) does increase flexibility beyond what is required for a meditation practice.

In Defence of Flexibility

If you practice yoga in the west in the 21st century, chances are there will be some focus on flexibility, and you will most likely become more flexible. I don’t actually think this is a bad thing, in fact I encourage it. I think it’s ok for the asana practice to have evolved beyond what it was originally intended for thousands of years ago. Gradually and safely increasing your flexibility can improve your posture, reduce your propensity to become injured, even improve your mood, as well as giving you a motivating challenge to work towards. However it is absolutely not the case that you have to be flexible before you try yoga (how are you going to develop this flexibility in the first place I ask you?), nor should flexibility be the ultimate goal of your yoga practice, we need to focus on getting to know ourselves and our bodies better, not on achieving external validation from “achieving” a bendy pose. When it comes to a physical yoga practice, the best yogi is the one who is fully aware of their body and respects its limitations, not the one who posts the best looking images of their contortions on Instagram (especially not while using the hashtag #accessibleyoga, can we please stop doing this, please).

As for how to balance all of this within a yoga class. I think there is nothing wrong with improving our flexibility, but we should ensure that we are always developing our strength at the same rate, in order to give our joints the support they need to move healthily. In fact a lot of what I’m saying here relates also to building strength in yoga.

The bottom line for me is, if we practice yoga, our bodies will probably become more flexible and stronger, but there is absolutely no requirement to be either strong or flexible before we give yoga a try. And so please, I implore you, give it a go.

I’ve really just scratched the surface here, if you are interested in exploring this further, please take a look at the resources below.

Yoga Doesn’t Care How Flexible You Are

There is no such thing as a flexible/inflexible person

But Yoga is About Stretching Right?

In Defence of Flexibility

No Matter How Much Time You Have, You Can Do Some Yoga

How to Create a Mini-Sanctuary At Home