Product Review: YogaFlexCo Yoga Wheel (GIVEAWAY)

***UPDATE: YogaFlexCo has expanded and become Breathe Life Yoga!  You can still get the same fantastic product from YogaFlexCo, but if you're near Tom's River NJ, you can also stop in to the new Breathe Life Yoga studio and meet the beautiful mind behind this great company!***

This past month I joined the Move More Yoga challenge on Instagram, and thoroughly enjoyed finding ways to work yoga into all of the many adventures I've been blessed with throughout September.  Organized by weekly themes, this challenge dared me to try some new things and bend in ways I didn't know my body even could!  I was most intimidated by the week of backbends, though.  I've had chronic back pain from an injury years ago, and my flexibility leaves a lot to be desired; needless to say, backbends don't always sound incredibly appealing to me!

But as I started following more and more yogis on Instagram, I started seeing photos of people with an interesting prop: the yoga wheel.  There are several companies making these wheels on the market, but the YogaFlex wheel in particular caught my eye.  With a wide variety of colors and padding thicknesses, and some of the best pricing available, these wheels seemed to be a great investment for advancing my yoga practice and finally overcoming some of the hesitations and fears I had about my body's abilities.

Disclaimer: I received one YogaFlex wheel free of charge in exchange for my review.  No additional compensation was provided.  All thoughts and opinions expressed herein are my own.

I was surprised and grateful to have received a new style of wheel: this model not only has thick mat padding around the exterior, but also has two strips of material on the inside, to provide better grip if you're holding on to the wheel mid-pose.  I found this especially helpful with poses like camel and one-legged bridge.  The padding is plush and soft, so resting on the wheel is very comfortable and allowed me to actually relax into some of the poses that otherwise would have strained my back painfully.  Backbends ended up being my favorite week of the challenge, now that I finally have the right equipment to help me learn and grow!  You can even see my progression in the photos below - by the time I took the bottom photo at the end of the week, I was MUCH more comfortable with backbends and with my wheel.

The yoga wheel is helpful for more than just backbends, though!  Any pose that needs additional support can benefit from a yoga wheel: forward bends, low lunges, goddess squats...  You can even use the wheel to make a pose a little more challenging, helping you push yourself past a plateau in your practice!  Try sticking a wheel under your feet in plank pose, for a little extra core work, or in wheel pose to really work those arms!  And of course, you can use the wheel for a better stretch and range of motion in restorative poses such as child's pose.

Especially for beginners, the yoga wheel should be a go-to piece of equipment in your yoga practice.  My wheel bolstered not only my back but also my confidence, which has helped me grow in leaps and bounds.  As I broke down barriers within my mind and body, as yoga is meant to do, I found myself more and more willing to try new things and push my boundaries in other practices.  I would highly recommend a wheel to anyone who is looking to build more yoga into their lives, and couldn't imagine a better wheel than the YogaFlex grippy wheel to get started!

Wanna see for yourself?  YogaFlexCo has generously offered to give away a yoga wheel to one of my readers!  Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below!  Giveaway ends October 6th at 11:59pm; winner must be willing to provide valid shipping address.  And even if you're not the lucky winner (or you just can't wait to find out if you won) you can still get 15% off with promo code FITNYX15 on the YogaFlexCo website!  With the holiday season approaching, yoga wheels make great gifts for the yogis in your life - and they even make yoga wheel ornaments too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Do you use props in your yoga practice?  What poses intimidate you, and how have you overcome those fears?  What's your favorite yoga pose?

Need another great gift idea for your beloved yogi?  Snag a promo code for the Sapphire Soul Mindful + Mystic subscription box from my review earlier this week!