Originally Posted by
PeteHski
If I'm honest I struggle with many of the yoga poses too, but the idea is really to bend as much as you comfortably can rather than perfectly match the poses. Once you take that approach it's a lot less daunting. I think the benefit comes from making the effort to actually use all of your joints regularly. Daily routine and biking simply doesn't achieve that for me. Not consistently anyway. I don't actually think I'm getting any more flexible, but I have no aches, pains or stiffness in my joints and I haven't lost any flexibility over the years. Still can't touch my toes without bending my knees!
My understanding is use is more important than stretching in keeping joints healthy, and it sounds like you're combining both so who cares exactly how that mix works as long as it serves your purpose? It's all good.
I use an elliptical at high resistance with a lot of arm action, that works out pretty much all of the joints. I really haven't seen any reduction in flexibility over the years, still the non-stretchy guy I always have been. And, yeah, my knees bend for a reason. Why would I want to touch my toes without bending them? I have no idea why that's supposed to be a good or bad thing.