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You, dear readers, are a diverse crowd.
Your varied personalities and approaches to the practice of yoga are pretty apparent in the articles you read and shared the most during the last twelve months. At a glance, it seems you’re an achy, stressed-out, kind, and curious lot who love the Beatles.
It also appears that you’re into reformation, education, and meditation, and the answers you seek veer from the practical to the aspirational. You turn to yoga to strengthen and stretch, to challenge and calm, to remind yourself of your potential and your patience, to escape from your current situation and also find ease in it. We dare say some of you even aspire to enlightenment. (Uh, we’re still working on that last one).
The thread throughout these varied topics is self-awareness—in all its many shapes and forms. These interests reiterate what so many of us appreciate about the practice of yoga, which is that it pretty much meets you wherever you are and whatever your situation.
12 most-read articles on Yoga Journal in 2022
1. 6 Essential Stretches for Tight Hamstrings and Hip Flexors
Nothing happens in isolation. Quantum physics explains this. Yoga embodies this. This means that when you complain about those achingly tight hamstrings, you need to ask if you’re also stretching hip flexors. These stretches show you how.
2. 6 Yoga Poses for High Blood Pressure
The line from this article that surprised our editors most? “According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, nearly half of adults have hypertension, yet many people don’t even know they have it.” Yoga can help. Here’s how—and the science behind it.
3. I Always Pause and Look at Students’ Feet Before I Teach Yoga. Here’s Why
The subtle and unexpected physical and emotional cues that one teacher reads as students settle onto their mats.
4. Former Tennis Pro Boris Becker is Taking—and Teaching—Yoga in Prison
When a German tabloid reported that the three-time Wimbledon champion was leading others in “a special type of yoga and meditation” at Huntercombe Prison, we became curious about the thread between the mental tenacity demanded by the tennis circuit and offered by yoga.
5. 6 Essential Stretches for (Intense) Lower Back Pain
Our instinct, when we experience breathtakingly intense lower back pain, is typically to remain still or pretend we can go about everyday life as usual. These are literally the worst things you can do. Here’s what you need to try instead.
6. 80-Year-Old Paul McCartney’s Yoga Practice May Be The Most Inspiring Thing I’ve Seen
Rock stars love yoga, too. Including octogenarian ones who are former members of the Beatles.
7. 12 Yoga Poses for Strong Legs
If you care to walk, run, hike, bike, ski, practice yoga, or otherwise fully engage with life, you need strong legs.
8. “I Thought I Was Just Keeping a Journal. I Was Actually Tapping Into My Higher Consciousness.”
What happens when writing and meditation merge?
9. The Best Stretches for When You’re Recovering From Low Back Pain
Able to move a little without grimacing? Good. These moves will help escort you all the way back to your usual self.
10. The 9 Best Yoga YouTube Channels
No more being frustrated by your studio’s limited class schedule or not knowing whose class to livestream.
11. 24 Cues for Legs Up the Wall That You’ve Probably Never Heard
Sometimes all it takes is a single uncommon cue to help you (or your students) truly settle into the magic of this trending restorative pose.
12. The Absolute Best Yoga Poses to Practice After Sitting All Day
Step away from your computer. And then turn to these stretches.
