The Path Into Monkey Pose Is Built From Props, Not Flexibility

Full Splits, or Monkey Pose (Hanumanasana), looks like a gift reserved for the naturally bendy. We assume we either have the flexibility or we never will. The reality is far more hopeful. The path into this pose is built from patient practice and smart support, not from flexibility you are born with. With blocks and time, Hanumanasana opens to almost anyone willing to take the gradual road.

How Props Open the Door to Monkey Pose

The guiding idea is simple and kind: bring the floor up to meet you. With a block under each hand at its tallest setting, you lower into the split shape only as far as your body welcomes today, which may be quite shallow at first. That is exactly right. A bolster or folded blanket under your front thigh lets you rest in a supported version, so your muscles can release slowly rather than brace against a drop. Each supported hold teaches your hamstrings and hip flexors a little more length. The props are not a substitute for the pose; they are the very road into it.

What Natasha Covers in This Practice

In this tutorial, Natasha Rizopoulos guides you through the progressive stages of working toward Splits. You will warm thoroughly first, through poses like Low Lunge and Half Splits, so the tissues are ready. She then teaches the alignment that keeps the pose safe: your back-leg hip rotating forward rather than rolling open, your hips staying square, and your front heel pressing forward to create length. Natasha makes a point worth remembering, that time spent in a well-supported Half Splits often serves you better than forcing the full shape. Her guidance is patient throughout, never about conquering the body.

Progress You Can Trust

This is the heart of it. Deep flexibility is the result of consistent, gentle work, measured in months and seasons, not single sessions. When you meet your body where it is and support it well, you make steady progress without injury. The supported version gives you every benefit along the way. You are not waiting to be flexible enough for the pose; you are already practicing it, and the opening you seek is being built with each patient breath.

Watch Natasha Rizopoulos guide you through the full tutorial below.

Curious where patient practice can take you? Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more flexibility tutorials that value steady, sustainable progress over impressive shapes.