Best exercise for flexibility? Yoga?

[Champagnebrain]

Is there anything better than Yoga for increasing my flexibility?
I'm on a health kick. I'm an overweight menopausal mess but I used to be quite fit, although that was about 12 years ago.
I'm stiff and achy when getting up off the floor or sofa. I know weight loss will help. But I want to feel less old!

I haven't found anything better than yoga for flexibility _ i did Pilates for about a year but made more progress with yoga in half that time (although "progress" is a very un-yoga like concept!)

I went back to yoga at the start of the year and I'm feeling much better. I am far less achey and my back feels much better.

Yoga and body balance / Pilates should help

Yoga, but with the caveat that to start with, you should attend a class. There are lots of great home yoga videos on YouTube but you need a person there when you start to check your alignment so you don't hurt yourself. Also,don't try and force yourself into any posture to gain more flexibility - go with the flow and listen to what your body is saying, and the extra bendiness will come naturally and gently over time. Cranking yourself into twists etc is a recipe for hurting yourself!

It's great though, give it a go

I agree with going to a class. A pitfall of going to yoga to improve flexibility is that it's easy to over stretch with poor alignment e.g. you are aiming to touch your toes, but push your hips out to bend further down, or arch your back rather than hingjng from the hips. Real progress may actually be holding a higher position in the correct alignment. The flexibility will follow longer term when you can relax further into the correct positioning. That's hard to learn from a video.

I'm too rural to get to a class although I would like to but I have discovered Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube. She seems very sensible.
I am trying yoga for sciatica.
I have an exercise bike to help burn calories and increase general fitness.
Hopefully I will see an improvement by Easter.

Adrienne’s 30 day yoga’s are awesome (there is a thread somewhere started in early January about this years) but it gets harder the more that you complete iyswim? So the first couple of days are very gentle and it eases in to the trickier poses later on

Yoga with Adriene is great - come over to the yoga topic, we have a whole ongoing thread there!

Keep your eyes out for a class, they do pop up in unexpected places. There's one that runs in the pub in the next village to me, and a few in village halls and wotnot. You never know.