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Yoga for your flexibility in Asheville
Lengthen, soften and breathe into space.
Flexibility gathers classes that lengthen the body: yin, stretch-focused flows, hatha, Iyengar and dedicated stretching or mobility classes. Long holds and patient breathing give the body time to soften into each shape.
4 classes coming up at 1 studio.
What Flexibility does for you
You get time to ease into shapes rather than force them. Long holds with slow breathing let muscles settle and the stretch deepen gradually. Many people describe feeling longer, lighter and more spacious afterward. Over weeks, poses that once felt out of reach often come closer.
It suits you if
- you feel tight from sitting, running or cycling
- you would like to touch your toes or sit cross-legged more easily
- you enjoy slow, patient practice
- you want to balance out strength training
Read the full guide to FlexibilityWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes run 60 to 90 minutes. Expect forward folds, side bends, twists, hip openers and hamstring work, held from 30 seconds to several minutes, with props to support you at your current range. Some classes add active flexibility, using your own strength to move deeper, alongside passive holds. Facilitators usually remind you not to push. The space is often warm, and you will not sweat much unless the class is heated.
Your first time
- Wear stretchy clothes and bring a layer to stay warm during long holds.
- Use every prop you are offered; they let you stay longer and more comfortably in a pose.
- Compare yourself only with yourself last week, not with the person on the next mat.
Good to know
- If you are very flexible or hypermobile, focus on control and strength rather than going further, and tell the facilitator.
- A stretch should feel strong but never sharp; back off if you feel pinching or pain in a joint.
- During pregnancy the hormone relaxin loosens the joints, so stay inside a comfortable range and check with your midwife or doctor.
Where it comes from
Flexibility was not always the point of yoga. Medieval hatha yoga texts describe relatively few postures, mostly seated, and many of the deep backbends and splits now associated with yoga entered practice in the 20th century. The historian Mark Singleton has traced how modern posture practice drew on European gymnastics and physical culture, which prized suppleness alongside strength.
B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga (1966) showed around two hundred postures in photographs and set a visual standard for many practitioners. Separately, sports science looked closely at stretching, distinguishing passive, active and dynamic forms, and debates about how and when to stretch continue.
Yin yoga, developed from the late 1970s and named in the 1990s, made long passive holds a style of its own. In Berlin, flexibility-focused classes range from yin and stretching courses to workshops on splits and backbends, and they are popular with dancers, climbers and runners.
Words you will hear
- Paschimottanasana
- Seated forward fold over straight legs.
- Hanumanasana
- The splits, named after the monkey god Hanuman's great leap.
- Active flexibility
- Moving into a stretch using your own muscle strength.
- Passive stretch
- A stretch where gravity or props do the work while you relax.
- Hypermobility
- Joints that move further than usual, which calls for extra control.