How To Choose A Yoga Block
Every practice can be enhanced by the best yoga blocks available. Kakaos yoga blocks in foam, wood and c materials are designed and made for yoga, Let us help you find and purchase the correct yoga block for your yoga practice.
Best Practice:
Start with a certified yoga instructor. Yoga instructors have gone to school to learn the correct way to teach and practice yoga safely. Search your local community for a yoga studio, YMCA or fitness studio, these facilities instructors maintain a high level of certification, and with hands-on training you know you’re learning the correct way.
The uses of Yoga Blocks have become so popular and so varied that one can't possibly cover the use on all of them. But we will give a good starting point.
Yoga blocks are most often used as an extension of one's hands, but are also used to support the back, head and hips, and to deepen awareness of alignment
Blocks help us maintain anatomical integrity in poses. Placing your hand on a block in standing poses such as Triangle or Side Angle can make the difference between a pose that feels uncomfortable, or a pose that feels natural.
The practice of Yoga is about steadying the mind and body. Yoga Blocks, are one of the best yoga props to help us realize the most important aim of practice.
Using blocks can help us maintain integrity, alignment and strength through our joints and are essential tools for Restorative Yoga practice, like Baddhakonasana, and Supta.
EVA Foam: 3-Inch, 4-Inch, EVA foam is a non-toxic, recyclable material commonly used in the sports industry, art and crafts and children's costumes .
Recycled Foam: Recycled Foam Yoga Blocks. Recycled Foam is made from recycling the excess foam generated during the production of new blocks .
Cork: Cork Yoga Blocks. Harvested from the bark of the Cork Oak tree, cork is solid, impermeable, stable and recyclable. Cork trees continue to grow even after their bark has been harvested. Cork trees can live up to 200 years. The cork oak grows only in seven Mediterranean countries. Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Over 300,000 tons are harvested (stripped) each year and more than 100,000 people are employed in cork harvesting. The cork surface has natural friction. This makes it easy to remain stable when you use these blocks under your hands. These blocks are exceptionally popular!
Bamboo: Bamboo Yoga Blocks. Bamboo is a fast-growing, easily replenished, exceptionally hard and sturdy type of wood.
3-Inch Foam Yoga Blocks: At 3" x 6" x 9," these 3-Inch Yoga Blocks are great for practitioners with smaller frames. The 4-Inch Foam Blocks are too wide for some people's frames, especially when using them as a spacer between the thighs in Chair Pose and Mountain Pose. It's nice to have some of these at your studio as an option for smaller-framed practitioners. They're also useful in Restorative Yoga, where more height options are really helpful for customizing the practice. These blocks are the most economical choice available.
4-Inch Foam, Recycled Foam, Cork, Bamboo, Wood Yoga Blocks: For general use, 4-Inch Yoga Blocks are the standard. The dimensions (4" x 6" x 9") have been found to be the most universally useful for average practitioners. These blocks are studio staples.
Yoga Blocks are also essential tools for Restorative Yoga practice. In Baddhakonasana, Supta , for example, blocks placed under the head end of the Yoga Bolster orients the bolster on a slant, allowing for a more neutral, relaxed spine.
Here's a rundown of the choices, based on qualities you might be looking for when you're buying blocks:
Stability
Not all Yoga Blocks are made from high-quality materials. With the growth of yoga, come the imitations and the poor quality knock-offs. These low cost alternatives can do more bad then good, made from low density squishy foam they can collapse to the side during certain poses?especially standing poses.
Price
All blocks will give many years of use, some blocks like wood and Bamboo will give you the longest, Cork yoga blocks will give many years of service, but will eventually start to break down and crumble. Foam blocks which are used the most of all yoga blocks are a porous material and overtime will become dingy and un-cleanable.
If quality and stability is your most important concern, we recommend yoga blocks from some of the top suppliers, they know their yoga blocks will meet and beat any expectaions.