Flexibility and balance, without yoga!

[LittlePotOfCress]

I have practiced yoga for many years, but have come to enjoy it less and less. I have investigated the why's and whatnot, and whilst adding more challenges and variations hasn't helped, I am looking for something else. A kind of substitute?

I like pilates but know very little. I hear that it is more suitable for strength and posture than flexibility. Is this true?

I also hike, climb fells, cycle for an hour most days, a bit of strength focused stuff and am generally fit.

What might someone recommend to replace my yoga? I find a lot of the inversions uncomfortable and have injured my knees more than once over the years. Something gentle would be great.

dont think pilates is your answer. I do both and some of the lessons can be exactly the same moves.

Tai Chi.

Thanks.
I have been searchng videos and most results are about serving Christ

Your posture is probably fine after years of yoga and you're unlikely to start slouching now

Flexibility, you could look at martial arts. If you want a departure from yoga, that's a departure. I always found they were obsessed with flexibility.

dancing

Ballet or reformer pilates

I would try Pilates. compared to yoga, more controlled, flowing movement rather than holding poses. Big focus on body awareness, posture and control.

As a previous poster said, some instructors will do the same moves as yoga but frankly, most decent instructors would have a totally different approach.

If you try a class and don’t enjoy it, try another instructor. There are so many different styles.

Reformer is amazing if there is a studio near you.

Lots of mobility workout people on TikTok and YouTube. You could put together dozens of workouts for yourself.

I was going to suggest surfing, but it’s not gentle. (It is HUGE fun though)

Thanks everyone!
No reformers or surfing possibilities where I live.

I loved the flow of yoga but after a while the same old sequences bothered me. Such tension and demand from the knees in warrior, etc. I grew quite tired of it and seemed to stop getting anything out of it at all.
Every video or class is obsessed with downward dog, which is ok but just not that interesting again and again. I have searched for less typical yoga vids but not come up with much.

I would love to know if this happened to anyone else?
About 2 yrs ago i just suddenly never felt good after yoga. It was as if my body was telling me it was fed up with it. I got more aches and pains after it, regardless how much I practised. I began with solo teacher sessions and moved on to doing it at home alone. Local gym is only place here now, and it's awful.

No, I don't think Pilates would give you the mobility & balance you seek. Ballet would - proper ballet, not the "Barre class" abomination.

There is a really active adult beginner ballet movement. Most cities will have classes for people seeking to learn ballet. It's excellent for mobility and balance, breathing and learning to move with grace and musicality.

If you can give a vague idea where you are, I can probably point you to decent studios.

What about indoor climbing? Many indoor climbing facilities have beginners courses and women only sessions.

I do a lot of strength training and have done a bit of Pilates (good) and occasionally tried yoga (can't stand it, seemed to have loads of pointless reps).

What is it you want? Flexibility or mobility?

I do a bit of mobility work before and after my strength sessions as a warm up and to keep my range of motion and so on, but do very little in the way of static stretches and have seen no evidence they are of particular benefit. I've really improved my ROM for squats say just by doing a bit of practice before and after sessions, few minutes a day.

For balance, I don't do much at the moment but if I wanted to I would work specifically on that - bosu ball, one legged work, balance boards.....again just a few minutes at a time.

Pilates grew out of a rehab programme and I've done classes that are a combination of mobility and strength - there is a clear point to it all and yes it is bodyweight strength training but with progressions that mean you do quite high reps. I don't do much because I do strength training (high load, low reps) in a gym but if I was injured or something, that's what I'd do (and have done to rehab a shoulder injury).

So given you are generally active and your NHS cardio and strength boxes are probably ticked, I'd think about what it is you are trying to achieve (and what the evidence is certain things will help you do that) and what you enjoy. Maybe you don't need to replace it with anything, just tweak your strength warm ups and cool downs to include some mobility and balance work?

Like pp, I've tried martial arts - boxing in my case - which was a good combination of strength (high reps, conditioning), cardio and with stretching at the end (again, not seen evidence it really helps but does feel nice and I used more as mobility going in and out of holds and cooling down).

You could look at Livinleggings (yoga, but her special brand of strength yoga, about building strength and flexibility) and Elevate with Charlotte, which is about strength and mobility (not yoga). Both quite expensive for apps but Livinleggings does a 7 day free trial.