What is Passive vs Active Flexibility?
You may have heard your instructors mention passive flexibility or active flexibility at times throughout your yoga class. What do these phrases mean in your practice, and in your life?
Passive flexibility is our deepest range of motion. Your passive flexibility will always be higher than your active range of motion. In passive flexibility work, the muscles move into a relaxed and “lengthened” state. Generally your brain is sending messages to your body that you are in a safe space to let go of stuck tension and relax. Examples of passive flexibility are splits, half pigeon pose, yin yoga postures and any poses where you are letting gravity and/or props support you so you can deactivate your muscles. Passive flexibility can be a great practice to combat (some) muscle soreness, prevent the body from stiffening up after an intense workout and generally just feels really good!
Active flexibility on the other hand, refers to range of motion when your muscles are “turned on”. Most of a power yoga practice deals with active flexibility, as does your mobility practice. When working on active flexibility, we use our breath to send those same “safe” messages to our bodies, only this time it is while muscles are engaged. In other words, you are rewiring your brain to understand that you can be both active and mobile at the same time. Active flexibility/mobility is important in life for functional movement (lifting a heavy bag of groceries, getting down and up off the floor), athleticism and body awareness.
The long and short of it is, you need both! Hence why we have three different restorative formats on our schedule to serve you on the mat and in your everyday life. If you haven’t sampled them all, make it a goal to do so this week! Not a member? Try your first class FREE when you book here:
