Loot of people thing yoga is easy, but when they try it suddenly they change the perspective. So what are best yoga poses for beginners.
1.Mountain Pose
Mountain Pose is the base for all standing poses; it gives you a sense of how to ground in to your feet and feel the earth below you. Mountain pose may seem like "simply standing," but there is a ton going on.
How to do it: Start standing with your feet together. Press down through all ten toes as you spread them open. Engage your quadriceps to lift your kneecaps and lift up through the inner thighs. Draw your abdominals in and up as you lift your chest and press the tops of the shoulders down.
Feel your shoulder blades coming towards each other and open your chest; but keep your palms facing inwards towards the body. Imagine a string drawing the crown of the head up to the ceiling and breathe deeply in to the torso. Hold for 5-8 breaths.
2.Warrior
Stand with legs 3 to 4 feet apart, turning right foot out 90 degrees and left foot in slightly.
Bring your hands to your hips and relax your shoulders, then extend arms out to the sides, palms down.
Bend right knee 90 degrees, keeping knee over ankle; gaze out over right hand. Stay for 1 minute.
Switch sides and repeat.
3.Downward-Facing Dog/Adho Mukha Svanasana
Start on your hands and knees, with your hands stacked under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
Spread your hands wide and press your index finger and thumb into your mat.
Lift your tailbone and press your butt up and back, drawing your hips toward the ceiling. Straighten your legs as best as you can and press your heels gently toward the floor.
Your head should be between your arms, facing your knees, and your backs should be flat.
Hold for 5–10 breaths.
Peterson says that your focus should be on keeping your spine long—if that means you need to bend your knees, that's fine.
4.Extended Side Angle (Utthita Parvakonasana)
The accepted modification of extended side angle pose is to bring your forearm to your thigh instead of placing your hand on the floor. This enables you to keep your shoulders open.
If you reach toward the floor before you're ready, you may compromise the position of the torso, turning your chest toward the floor instead of toward the ceiling.
5.Plank
Plank teaches us how to balance on our hands while using the entire body to support us. It is a great way to strengthen the abdominals, and learn to use the breath to help us stay in a challenging pose.
How to do it: From all fours, tuck under your toes and lift your legs up off the mat. Slide your heels back enough until you feel you are one straight line of energy from your head to your feet.
Engage the lower abdominals, draw the shoulders down and away from the ears, pull your ribs together and breathe deeply for 8-10 breaths.
6.Tree Pose
Stand with arms at sides.
Shift weight onto left leg and place sole of right foot inside left thigh, keeping hips facing forward.
Once balanced, bring hands in front of you in prayer position, palms together.
On an inhalation, extend arms over shoulders, palms separated and facing each another. Stay for 30 seconds.
Lower and repeat on opposite side.
Make it easier: Bring your right foot to the inside of your left ankle, keeping your toes on the floor for balance. As you get stronger and develop better balance, move your foot to the inside of your left calf.
7.Upward-Facing Dog/Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
- From Low Plank/Chaturanga, drop your hips down to the floor and flip your toes over so the tops of your feet touch the floor.
- Tighten your core and straighten your arms to push your chest up. Pull your shoulders back, squeeze your shoulder blades, and tilt your head toward the ceiling, to open up your chest.
"Feel free to drop your knees down to reduce tension in your low back, or skip Upward-Facing Dog and hold High Plank instead," says Peterson.
8.Cat-Cow Stretch (Chakravakasana)
It's the best of both worlds: spinal extension followed by spinal flexion. Moving back and forth awakens and warms the back, improves body awareness, and is a basic introduction to how to do a vinyasa sequence by coordinating your movements to your breath.
Cat-cow may be the most important pose you learn when starting yoga, especially if you have back pain. Even if you never make it to more than a few yoga classes, continue doing this stretch on your own for your spinal health.
9.Seated Forward Bend
It’s important to incorporate a forward bend in yoga practice to stretch the hamstrings, lower and upper back and sides. Seated forward bend is the perfect fold for everyone to start to open up the body and learn to breathe through uncomfortable positions.
If you feel any sharp pain, you need to back off; but if you feel the tension when you fold forward and you can continue to breathe, you will slowly start to loosen up and let go. You can also keep your knees bent in the pose as long as the feet stay flexed and together.
How to do it: Start seated with your legs together, feet firmly flexed and not turning in or out, and your hands by your hips. Lift your chest and start to hinge forward from your waist. Engage your lower abdominals and imagine your belly button moving towards the top of your thighs.
Once you hit your maximum, stop and breathe for 8-10 breaths. Make sure your shoulders, head and neck are all released.
10.Bridge Pose
Stretches chest and thighs; extends spine
Lie on floor with knees bent and directly over heels.
Place arms at sides, palms down. Exhale, then press feet into floor as you lift hips.
Clasp hands under lower back and press arms down, lifting hips until thighs are parallel to floor, bringing chest toward chin. Hold for 1 minute.
Make it easier: Place a stack of pillows underneath your tailbone.
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Sources: www.doyouyoga.com, www.fitnessmagazine.com, www.self.com,
www.verywellfit.com
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