Yoga is a practice that promotes physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced practitioner, incorporating a variety of yoga poses into your routine can enhance your flexibility, strength, and overall health. Here is a list of essential yoga poses that are suitable for everyone.
Mountain Pose
Sanskrit: Tadasana
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet together or hip-width apart.
- Ground down through the four corners of your feet.
- Roll your shoulders away from your ears, draw your shoulder blades down your back, and lift the crown of your head.
- Engage your thighs, draw your belly button in, and lengthen up through the spine.
- Turn your palms facing the front of the room.
- Relax your jaw and unfurrow your brow.
- Breathe easy.
Benefits: Mountain Pose is the blueprint for all other poses. It promotes balance and directs your attention to the present moment, making it an excellent starting point for your practice.
Chair Pose
Sanskrit: Utkatasana
How to do it:
- Start in Mountain Pose.
- Inhale and raise your arms, spreading your fingers, and reaching up through your fingertips.
- Exhale and sit back and down as if sitting into a chair.
- Shift your weight toward the heels and lengthen up through the spine.
- Inhale, lift and lengthen through your arms.
- Exhale, sit deeper into the pose.
Benefits: This heating standing pose strengthens your legs, upper back, and shoulders. It also provides an opportunity to practice patience as your thighs work hard.
Down Dog on a Chair
Sanskrit: Uttana Shishosana
How to do it:
- Place your hands on the back of a chair with palms shoulder-distance apart.
- Step your feet back until they align under your hips, creating a right angle with your body, spine parallel with the floor.
- Ground through your feet and lift through your thighs.
- Reach hips away from your hands to lengthen the sides of your torso.
- Firm your outer arms in and lengthen through the crown of your head.
Benefits: This modification of Downward-Facing Dog stretches the hamstrings, opens the shoulders, and creates length in the spine without putting weight on your upper body.
Downward-Facing Dog
Sanskrit: Adho Mukha Svanasana
How to do it:
- From all fours, walk your hands 6 inches in front of you.
- Tuck your toes and lift your hips up and back to lengthen your spine.
- If your hamstrings are tight, keep your knees bent to bring your weight back into your legs.
- Spread your fingers wide, press into your hands, and rotate your arms so that your biceps face toward one another.
- Press your thighs back toward the wall behind you.
Warrior II
Sanskrit: Virabhadrasana II
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet wide, 3–4 feet apart.
- Shift your right heel out so your toes point slightly inward. Turn your left foot out 90 degrees.
- Line up your left heel with the arch of your right foot.
- Bend your left knee to a 90-degree angle, keeping the knee in line with the second toe.
- Stretch through your straight back leg and ground down into the back foot.
- Inhale, bring your arms to a T at shoulder height.
- Draw your shoulder blades down the back.
- Spread your fingers and keep palms facedown.
- Gaze over the front fingers.
- Exhale, sink deeper into the stretch.
Benefits: This pose strengthens your legs and ankles while increasing stamina. It also helps calm and steady your mind.
Triangle Pose
Sanskrit: Trikonasana
How to do it:
- Stand with your feet wide, 3–4 feet apart.
- Shift your right heel out so your toes point slightly inward. Turn your left foot out 90 degrees.
- Line up your left heel with the arch of your right foot.
- Keeping both legs straight, ground through your feet.
- Lift your arms into a T at shoulder height.
- Reach forward with your front arm, then hinge at the front hip.
- Bring your front arm down to your shin, a foam block, or the ground.
- Lift your back arm up toward the sky and spread your fingers.
- Take your gaze down to the floor or up toward your lifted hand.
Benefits: Triangle Pose promotes balance, stretches the hamstrings and inner thighs, and creates a feeling of expansion in the body.
Tree Pose
Sanskrit: Vrksasana
How to do it:
- Start in Mountain Pose.
- Find a fixed point in front of you and stare at it to help balance.
- Inhale, shift the weight into your left foot and lift your right foot an inch off the floor.
- Using your right hand, bring the foot to your shin or inner thigh.
- Avoid placing your foot directly on the knee.
- Exhale, ground through the standing leg and lengthen through the crown of your head.
- Bring your palms to touch in front of your sternum into prayer hands.
Benefits: This pose improves concentration and balance by strengthening the arches of the feet and the outer hips.
Bridge Pose
Sanskrit: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
How to do it:
- Lie faceup with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, and arms at your sides with palms facedown.
- Keep your feet parallel and hip-width apart, heels stacked under knees.
- Inhale, activate through the legs and the glutes.
- Press the floor away with your feet and lift the hips off the floor toward the sky.
- For more leverage, hold the sides of your yoga mat or interlace your fingers underneath your “bridge” and shimmy your shoulders under the chest.
- When ready to come down, lift your heels up and slowly lower your hips back to the ground, one vertebra at a time.
Benefits: This energizing backbend opens your chest and stretches your neck and spine. It can calm the mind, reduce anxiety, and help improve digestion.
Bound Ankle Pose
Sanskrit: Baddha Konsana
How to do it:
- Sit on the floor, bend knees, and open them out to the side like a book.
- Join the soles of your feet together while sitting upright.
- Place fingertips on the floor directly behind you and lengthen up through the spine.
- You can also hold onto your ankles and hinge forward at the hips.
Seated Forward Fold
Sanskrit: Paschimottanasana
How to do it:
- Sit and straighten your legs out in front of you, grounding your thighs into the floor.
- Hinge at the hips to elongate your torso over your thighs.
- Grab hold of the outer edges of your feet.
Benefits: This feel-good fold elongates the back of your body, lengthens your spine, and stretches your hamstrings.
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