I'm building a little stretching station. Gonna have a mat and some other accessories. It would be a big game changer for me in terms of enjoyment and comfort if I could get it to work with the below. I sometimes stretch my legs on a bed in a 130 degree (since I'm not very flexible) front or slides split position while leaning my upper body on stacks of pillows/letting my entire upper body waist up go limp. But pillows sometimes fall from the heap/I have to make the pile of pillows and overall.. ....there seems like there should be other household squishy/comfortable items that are taller, stable, and could do the same job as a stack of pillows in supporting my upper body/arms. Could you help me kick around some ideas for some cheap, squishy, comfy household objects that could do the trick? Some kind of giant beanie bag with some height and structure to it maybe? By upper body going limp, imagine sitting a chair, resting your head /chest/arms on a desk and falling asleep. No muscle above your waist is tensing- you're completely supported. I have attempted doing these stretching positions on a mat using desks and boxes to hold up my upper body but ran into these - Desk edge/box edge uncomfortable against belly - I tried putting blankets over box/desk, but still a bit uncomfortable - box/table not really that comfortable to rest your face on. You could put a pillow on the table, but it can slide easily off the table Yes I can just stretch in more conventional stances/hold up my own weight. And yes I acknowledge that kinetic stretching is better than static stretching for many things. And yes I know that what I'm doing is not best for doing splits because you also need to build the strength to hold your body up- But my goal has nothing to do with any of these things. This whole post is about this little pet setup project- it's for fun / enjoyment and I just happen to like these positions for stretching/meditating - no athletic or functional goal here.
here are some ideas - a Pilates ball could be lovely for this, if you could find a way to wedge it somehow, so it doesn't roll around (yoga blocks? books?) - buy a few second hand sofa cushions as they would be firmer than pillows? (But they might take up a lot of space?) - stuff some pillow cases full, with something firmer and more substantial than pillows, such as folded blankets or clothes. - buy a bean bag and then stuff it really full with something extra (old clothes, blankets, rolled up newspaper etc) so that it becomes quite firm - In yoga, if you are not flexible enough to do a forward bend to rest your head on the floor (I'm not, which is how I know this!), you can support your forehead on a chair - with one or more pillows if needed. You put the chair in front of you, and take hold of its legs, then just relax. Here's a picture I just found on google to show you, although she is not holding the chair legs, as I was shown to do: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--t6y2H77m...ylNluNgYA/s1600/seated-forward-bend-chair.jpg (plus it is not actually a chair!)
