10 Ways to Use a Blanket

This blog is about using a Blanket to support your yoga pose. You can buy specific yoga blankets, but any firm blanket will work.

In this blog I share a few ideas on how to use your blanket to support you in ten common yoga poses.

BKS Iyengar was credited with popularising the use of yoga props through his school of yoga. Over the years many yoga props and supports have been developed to support the spectrum of yoga poses but you can’t go wrong with the basics. Simple yoga props include: belts, bricks, blocks, blankets, chairs, bolsters, cushions and using a wall.

A blanket can be a useful support for any yoga student.

They can help you to support a yoga pose; find your way into a yoga pose more fully; and in restorative yoga, blankets can be really helpful to help hold or cover parts of the body so that the body can rest and enjoy the benefits of the pose without the effort of holding the pose.

Yoga props are useful, but not essential. Many styles of yoga don’t use props at all. But from experience of my own yoga practice and teaching over the past ten years, props can help students to feel the shape or essence of a pose better, especially if they are more restricted in their movement or flexibility. They can make poses more achievable, especially if you are a beginner. For the more advanced students they can help to find more nuance in poses.

So what poses can you do with a blanket? Here are just a few ideas…

Hands and Knees

If you find your knees are sore when kneeling (for any yoga pose), using a folded blanket will soften the floor beneath you - especially if it’s a hard or wooden floor. Often this is enough to make the pose more comfortable.

2. Sitting on the floor

Sitting on a folded blanket will help lift the hips, which helps the knees to descend a little more easily if you are in crossed legs. It can also help you to keep the lift in your spine, so you can use a blanket to sit on in any seated pose.

3. Seated Crossed legs

Do you find it hard to sit comfortably in crossed legs for longer periods of time? Try rolling the blanket and wrapping it around your ankles which gives a little more support to your lower legs and eases the ankles.

4. Low Lunge

Another pose where a folded blanket can help to make the knee more comfortable.

5. Janu Sirsasana Variations

In this pose the knee can experience some discomfort, and if it doesn’t reach the floor it can pull on the hip and thigh. A way to help this is to support the knee in position with a folded or rolled blanket.

When you have tried one side make sure to try the other.

6. Supported back bend

A rolled or folded blanket can help to elevate the upper back and open the chest in a back bend. Even a low blanket of a couple of inches can help to make space in the upper back if you hold the pose for a while.

You might take the arms overhead, or stretch them to the sides or down next to your body. Your legs can be bent or straight along the floor.

7. Viparita Kirani Legs up the Wall

To find your way into this pose sit with one side towards the wall, roll yourself down onto your back and roll the legs up the wall.

A blanket around your legs can help to keep you warm if you are resting here for a while, but can also hold the legs gently in place if you wrap the blanket around fairly tightly.

To get the blanket in place, get into position and then bend your knees, hook the blanket around your feet and as you lengthen your legs up the wall tuck the blanket well around the legs.

8. Childs Pose

In this positioning, the blanket is filling the gap between the front of the ankles and the floor, so it can ease discomfort in the feet and ankles by creating support.

Another option is a rolled or folded blanket between sit bones and heels can also help to support the seat to release back a little more.

9. Savasana

Keeping warm when you are resting is really important, so a nice cosy blanket is a must!

10. Head Bowl support

This is a neat way to support the head in neutral position when you are resting. It offers a lovely cosy support.

It can help to stop snoring as the head is less likely to relax to the side.

It does take a little practice to learn how to make the supportive bowl shape - check our Adelene Cheong’s great video to find out how https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr60X-dwRw0&ab_channel=AdeleneCheong