Here are the top three things West says the rope wall can do for you and your yoga practice:

 

1. Lengthen your spine and open up your joints. “The weight of the body in relation to gravity opens up the joints,” says West. It also allows your spine to extend much further than in normal yoga poses, which will make you feel taller and will allow you to go deeper in other poses like backbends.

 

2. Strengthen hard-to-build muscles. As soon as you start to work with the ropes, you notice the amount of strength that’s required of your arms and core in every pose. And holding yourself up builds hard-to-reach muscles like your forearms, which will help with difficult balancing poses like headstand. Which brings us to…

 

3. Improve your inversions. In addition to building arm strength, you’ll also be able to get upside down more easily than on the mat. I have a personal fear of flipping my head toward the ground, and I was hanging happily after just a few minutes of instruction. Being in that position began to allay my fears, and West says it can teach you important things like how your head should feel on the floor in headstand. All of this will help when you attempt less-supported inversions on the mat.

Here’s a short video presentation showing various poses & techniques using ropes…