From blocks and straps to towels, there are plenty of yoga accessories designed to help you flow with stability, comfort, and confidence. A yoga wheel promises benefits for deepening your practice by providing a smooth, curved surface to support your back, hips, and legs in back-bending poses.
While many brands sell a standard 12-inch wheel, Chirp yoga wheels come in a variety of sizes and are designed to relieve back pain and tension from stiff muscles and bad posture. But do you really need to add a yoga wheel—or a few—to your accessory lineup? If you already own a yoga block or a foam roller, probably not. But those with consistently sore backs may want to consider Chirp’s lineup.
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About Chirp yoga wheels
A featured company on “Shark Tank,” Chirp offers yoga wheels in diameters of 4, 6, 10, and 12 inches. Like most yoga wheels, each Chirp product is a large ring made of 5-inch-wide plastic that’s covered in foam for comfort when you’re draping your body over it.
Chirp’s wheels also feature a narrow groove in the center, a design element intended to eliminate additional pressure on your spinal canal. The company states the wheels provide “the world’s simplest back and neck pain relief”—a bold claim that would be hard to substantiate.
In addition to the traditional wheels, Chirp sells an “XR” lineup, which feature textured foam to target pressure points as you roll. The XR three-pack includes a 4-, 6-, and 10-inch wheel, each with their own texture pattern, as well as the brand’s signature cutout for your spine.
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Depending on the size, they range from $30 to $60 each, but you can also buy a bundle starting at $90 for three wheels. For comparison, you can find individual yoga wheels for as little as $15 elsewhere.
What are the benefits of using a yoga wheel?
Like a yoga block or strap, a wheel can help you deepen your stretches and help beginners reach poses like a forward fold or backbend more easily. It’s particularly helpful during backbends, and can open your chest in addition to stretching your back, shoulders, and neck. Some teachers advocate for using yoga wheels to improve posture and alleviate pain, though the same could be said about any back stretch or strengthening activity.
“A yoga wheel is better adept [at] enhancing heart-opening backbend poses, such as fish pose or wheel pose, whereas blocks are better at providing stability, alignment, and accessibility to balancing and standing postures such as triangle pose, half split pose, warrior three pose, and half moon pose,” says yoga instructor Maria Andrews.
While it’s possible to use a yoga block to tailor your flow to your abilities, you may find a yoga wheel to be more comfortable. You can also use a wheel to roll out your back or legs, similar to a foam roller, which you can’t do with a block.
What we like about Chirp yoga wheels
The foam padding is comfortable
With its rubbery foam cushioning and thoughtfully designed groove to relieve pressure from directly on the spine, Chirp’s yoga wheels are comfortable to lie over. The wheels we tested—4, 6, 10, and 12 inches in diameter—fit snugly between my shoulder blades, making it easy to roll up and down my yoga mat. (For context, I’m a petite, 5-foot-3 female, though I would think they’ll work fine for folks of any size.)
The XR wheels offer excellent pressure relief
I enjoyed using the XR wheels more than the original Chirp wheels because of the added pressure relief. The textured foam feels much more massage-like and leaves my muscles feeling looser and more relaxed than the original wheels. The larger two wheels are excellent for rolling out the knots in my back and the pressure points on the smallest wheel help alleviate any pain I get from the dreaded “tech neck.” A few minutes with the XR wheels each day left me feeling rejuvenated and standing taller—perhaps only figuratively, but still.
They’re supportive and relaxing to use
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I started with the 12-inch wheel and worked my way down to the 4-inch wheel, as Chirp says the larger wheels provide a gentler stretch and the smaller wheels a more intense sensation. Using the yoga wheel to roll out my back muscles, a form of deep-tissue massage, left me feeling relaxed, though I can’t say if they would relieve back pain as claimed, because I don’t suffer from it.
I can attest to the wheels’ effectiveness in letting me hold backbends for a longer period of time, while opening my chest more deeply. When stretching, I particularly liked placing the wheel under my hip during lunges for support and using it to roll out the area after—it offers a great way to combine stretching and massage.
What we don’t we like about Chirp yoga wheels
They’re no better than other props I already use
Though I enjoyed using Chirp’s yoga wheels, they weren’t innovative enough to make me reach for one instead of a foam roller or traditional yoga block. With a diameter of 5¾ inches and a length of 18 inches, my foam roller provides more versatility to use on all of my muscles—including my back—and I prefer the sensation of rolling on top of a block of foam compared to foam-coated plastic.
Fish pose with a yoga block between my shoulder blades is already a favorite pose of mine, and replacing the block with a wheel didn’t make the stretch any deeper or more comfortable (though I’m not bothered by the pressure points of the block’s square edges), nor did the wheel feel like it was a better “posture corrector.”
Are Chirp yoga wheels worth it?
Maybe, if you don’t already use other yoga props
In general, yoga wheels can make a great addition to your practice, particularly if you don’t have a yoga block or find its square edges uncomfortable to lie over. Chirp’s yoga wheels are comfortable and easy to add to your current routine. Their various sizes make it easy to find one that fits your specific needs, and I enjoyed using them in my practice.
However, Chirp’s offerings cost double or more than similar yoga wheels on Amazon, albeit those ones don’t have the spinal-contouring groove. That said, if you’re already satisfied with your assortment of yoga props, you can probably skip the wheels entirely and treat yourself to an extra yoga class or two or a trendy piece of yoga apparel, instead.
Source: https://t-tees.com
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