Why You Should Start With Yoga Poses For Beginners
For many newfound yogis, it can be tempting to try out inversions, arm balances, and other tricky poses you see on social media right from the get-go. But those postures require some serious strength and balance training, which is why Ashley Rideaux, a YogaWorks-certified teacher trainer in Los Angeles, recommends newbies stick with a handful of basic sitting and standing postures. “The bread and butter of a beginner’s practice are your standing poses,” she says. “They build strength through a lot of the larger muscles of the body. They’re accessible to a lot of bodies and that makes them a great place, not just to find strength and flexibility, but also to build confidence in the work.” These two types of yoga poses for beginners also help you develop a sense of where your body is positioned in space without actually seeing it, says Rideaux.
And though popular culture makes it seem that props are reserved solely for older folks, Rideaux encourages everyone from beginners to yoga veterans to use them while practicing if they’re available. “Props are so helpful in creating clean alignment and helping you avoid injury,” she explains. “And a lot of times, as you find the proper alignment, it actually gives you a greater challenge.”
To kick off your journey to becoming a seasoned yogi and start building up the necessary strength, flexibility, and confidence, try flowing through these yoga poses for beginners.
Is Yoga Actually A Good Workout
A good workout is not all about the calorie burn. Yes, scientifically you do need more calories out than in to lose weight, but doing excessive cardio everyday is not going to get you long term results, or make getting to your goal any easier.
One of the most important things to ensure fat burn is building muscle, and fortunately yoga is great at building muscle! As explained above, you need to pick the right kind of yoga in order to build muscle, as well as the right kind of poses.
Poses like childs pose and pigeon pose are great poses to relax and improve flexibility, but you arent really creating any type of resistance with your body, so you will not build muscle with these poses.
But poses like chaturanga and warrior III are excellent for activating your core and challenging your body, so you will build muscle with these poses.
Warrior Two Or Virabhadrasana Ii
Lunge forward with one leg, positioning your thigh parallel to the ground. Your front foot and torso should be parallel to the mats edges, with your back foot facing outward to the side. Lean into the lunge to increase its intensity.
Stretch your arms parallel to the floor, and make sure your torso remains square over your hips. Gaze over your fingers in the direction of your lunge.
This pose increases stamina and stimulates the abdominal muscles. It also opens the groin, chest and shoulders.
Read Also: How Yoga Changed My Body Before And After
How Many Days A Week Should You Practice Yoga
A good starting point is committing to three days a week at the same time. They do NOT need to be hour long sessions- you can build up as you go! Just starting out with a 20 minute session will help you see results if you are consistent. If you are struggling maintaining a schedule check out this post on creating a habit out of your yoga practice.
Ancient But Not Foreign
Yoga is tied to ancient Indian philosophy, so yoga poses have both Sanskrit and English names adho mukha svanasana is more commonly known as downward-facing dog, for example and you may hear both in a class.
But even if you have never tried a yoga class, you may already be familiar with some yoga poses. Ever tried a plank? Youve done yoga.
Trainers and fitness classes around the world, not to mention college and professional sports teams, are including yoga into more traditional workouts as a potent form of mind-body conditioning, helping athletes to breathe better and increase their focus.
Don’t Miss: Heat Yoga Calories Burned
How Often Should I Do Yoga
If you can practice yoga 3 or more times per week, you will see significant improvements in your flexibility, range of motion, strength, balance, inner peace, and overall well being. Ideally, we recommend shorter and more frequent sessions, 20-45 minutes long, and for a total of 3-4 hours spread over several days. Practicing yoga less than this amount will still be beneficial, but you will see smaller improvements over a longer period of time. Like most things, the more time you can dedicate towards it, the more benefits you will receive.
Inner And Outer Benefits Of Yoga
Yoga has tons of benefits. Practicing yoga improves your digestion as it will allow you to become more regular and release any tension in your digestive organs.
It is also fantastic for improving your cardiovascular health, breathing, immunity, energy, concentration, flexibility and posture. It also relieves aches and creates calm.
Furthermore it aids weight loss and helps to tone and tighten every area of your body.
Also Check: How To Use Exercise Ball To Induce Labor
Childs Pose Or Balasana
Spread your knees wide in a V shape, with your big toes touching behind you. Rest your bottom on your heels. Lengthen your spine and stretch forward between your thighs. You can extend your arms or tuck them behind you.
This resting pose is a great way to slow your breath and calm your mind. Plus, it stretches your hips and thighs before class gets underway.
Bridge Or Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
Start by lying on the floor, facing the ceiling. Press your feet and arms into the floor and push your bottom and torso upward. Both your thighs and feet should be parallel. Knees should remain over your heels. You may want to clasp your hands beneath your torso.
This pose helps combat anxiety, headaches and fatigue. It also stretches the back, neck and spine.
Also Check: How To Hang A Yoga Swing
Tree Pose Vrksasana To Improve Your Balance
Start by standing straight for this pose. Bring your hands together in the prayer position and lift them over your head. Balance on your right leg. Bend your left knee out to the left side and press your left foot to the inner thigh of your right leg. Hold for 30 seconds. Switch legs and repeat.
“This pose helps to stretch the body long, from the heels to the tips of your fingers,” says Shea Vaughn, wellness and fitness expert and author of Breakthrough: The 5 Living Principles to Defeat Stress, Look Great, and Find Total Well-Being . It will also help you improve your balance.
Should You Warm Up Before Practicing Yoga
Yes! Never go into any type of physical activity without warming up. Although this routine has a few poses that can be modified to create a warm up, you want to make sure you do a few gentle poses that wake up you entire body to avoid injury and get you in the correct mindset.
We have an article here about why warming up before yoga is so important which comes with a free printable warm up for you to do before or after all your workouts.
Recommended Reading: Roku Yoga Channel
Medium Length Beginner Yoga Videos
These medium length videos will give you a good taste of what a longer yoga practice feels like both physically and energetically. These videos will also help you refine your skills to move you towards attending an hour-long class, and the videos at the end of this list will prepare you for a more athletic vinyasa or flow yoga practice.
How To Stay Motivated As An Overweight Yoga Beginner
Because you are making a long-term commitment and want to stay on course, you probably realize that motivation is very important. Nevertheless, most people would agree that beginning a new exercise program is relatively easy, but staying engaged and refusing to give up are sometimes quite challenging.
You May Like: Using Yoga Ball To Induce Labor
Child’s Pose Balasana To Help You Relax And Unwind
From Downward-Facing Dog, simply bend your knees and lower your butt to your heels as you bring your chest toward the floor over your knees. Lower your shoulders and head to the floor. Place your arms along your sides, palms down, or you can support your head by folding your arms under your forehead. Breathe and relax for as long as you need to.
Childs Pose is one of the most healing yoga poses, and its my favorite of them all, says Cullis. It awakens the connection between the breath and body and sends calming energy through all the muscles. Its an opportunity to get grounded, go inward, and to come out of your busy mind and into your body by awakening your breath from the inside out. Childs Pose is a great way to take a break and relax during your yoga practice, or anytime you feel tired or overwhelmed.
Want The Free Yoga For Beginners Pdf Printout Of This Routine
Its in our FREE Resource Library! If you dont already have the password, sign up with your email below to get instant access to the FREE PDF + TONS MORE:
Take it as slow as you want and do what feels right for you and your body. If you are not up to holding them for 15 seconds, that is okay! This is your practice. All that matters is you are moving, growing, and learning!
Some of these poses at first glance may feel too advanced for you. All the poses in this yoga sequence are beginner friendly, meaning you can easily modify them to suit your level. I picked these poses because they are dynamic and are all base poses you will need when building your yoga practice.
For modifications, I do suggest having a pair of yoga blocks and a strap- you can check out our yoga tools page for recommendations.
Also Check: Yam Hendersonville
Easy Yoga Poses For Beginners Free Printable
Alright, so heres the fun, free printable that will help you get started with yoga.
Just download your PDF here or your JPG here.
And thats it!
I think I got through all 20 poses in about 30 mintues.
Not that its a race or anything, but I had a few minutes where both my girls were calm and happy, so I took it on myself to try these out without involving them yet.
And it was fun.
So, I really look forward to tomorrowand including them a little, if theyre interested.
Let me know how it goes with these 20 Easy Yoga Poses for BeginnersId love to hear how you got your Halasana on! Heh.
Oh, and dont forget to pin this ridiculousness so you can find it again in a couple days when you forget what a Downward Dog really was meant to do .
Thank you for sharing!
Seated Wide Angle Straddle
Verywell / Ben Goldstein
Pose type: Seated
Opening your legs wide creates a slightly different stretch from Paschimottanasana. Though it may look like the mandate is to bring your chest to the floor, it’s really not about that. Rather, concentrate on keeping your back flat, rotating the pelvis forward instead of crunching forward through your spine, and keeping your feet flexed. If you do all three of these things, it really doesn’t matter how far forward you lean.
Don’t Miss: How To Use An Exercise Ball To Induce Labor
Join Online Communities Or Social Networks
You may also wish to consider joining an online community or social networking site where you can get support from other individuals who are trying to live healthier lifestyles and enhance their level of physical fitness. Research has proven that if you get this type of support, you are three times more likely to reach your goals.
Your First Yoga Practice
We recommend that you start with a short and straightforward yoga session and slowly build up from there. Once you feel comfortable with a few basic beginner yoga postures, you can incorporate them into a sequence and continue to add more challenging poses. Make sure you learn and follow the essential components of a yoga practice: breathing, meditation, intention, asanas, and relaxation.
Read Also: Is Hot Yoga Safe During Pregnancy
Low Lunge With A Backbend
From the low lunge position with your right foot forward, come upright by bringing your hands to your right thigh. First make your spine as straight as possible, ensuring that your ribs are over your hips. Avoid compressing your low back by leading the backbend movement from your upper back. To do this, pull your shoulders back to open your chest and continue to lift up and out of your lower back as you backbend.
Is Yoga Based On A Religion
You are truly mistaken if you think that Yoga is religion. It is a fact that it is a backed by scientific theories and facts. It has been since the Vedic age. Thus, It is a way of life, and the practice of the same includes the presence of Body, Mind, and soul. It has been the most natural way of being healthy, fit, and at peace.
Undoubtedly, you experience a healthy and positive body as well as mind. Yoga is known to cure many complex issues, and diseases like Asthma, Thyroid, and even the most common problems among women called PCOS , etc. It also provides you a calm and balanced mindset that helps you do what is right and choose what is needed.
As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “Health is not a mere absence of disease. It is a dynamic expression of life in terms of how joyful, loving, and enthusiastic you are.” Many benefits of Yoga assists the aspects of prioritizing Health and self, Some of them are
1. The best way to release stress
2. Best way to calm a disturbed mind
3. Focused and greater awareness that also helps improve relationships
4. Helps to elevate your intuitive ability and also boost energy
5. An all-rounder fitness regime that helps in weight loss and mindful eating
Also Check: Trapeze Rigging Pull Up Bar
How To Do A Upward Pose
1) Lie flat on your belly.
2) Bend your arms and rest your palms on the floor on either side of your chest.
3) Inhale and squeeze your shoulders up to your ears.
4) Exhale and press your hands down while straightening your arms, bringing your torso and legs up off the floor as if you were doing a half push-up.
5) Slide your hands against the floor closer towards your feet while keeping your hips high.
6) Lengthen the sides of your body and keep your neck long.
What Class Is Right For Me
There are many styles of yoga classes taught today. Some are very physically challenging and will leave you sweating others are gentle and restorative. Some teachers play music in class others dont. Some classes include references to yoga philosophy and spirituality others dont.
Here are a few types of classes your yoga studio or gym may offer:
Hatha: Most yoga styles being taught in America today are a form of hatha yoga, which is a general term that refers to the physical part of yoga, rather than yoga philosophy or meditation. A Hatha yoga class is likely to be a combination of poses and breathing exercises, but its hard to know whether it will be challenging or gentle. Check with the school or the teacher to find more about the level of classes that are described only as Hatha yoga.
Ashtanga Yoga: This is a challenging style of yoga that is centered around a progressive series of yoga sequences that, traditionally, students practice on their own under the guidance of a teacher. If you think that yoga is not a workout, you havent tried an Ashtanga class. Classes include advanced poses such as arm balances and inversions including headstands and shoulder stands. Beginner students are strongly advised to study with an experienced teacher. Ashtanga classes will also often include teachings in yoga philosophy.
Note: Its a good idea to try several yoga classes. How much you enjoy any class will come down to how much you like the teacher, not how its labeled.
Don’t Miss: Can I Walk After Botox
It Can Decrease Stress
Stress in our lives seems almost as inevitable as Monday following Sunday, so finding ways to manage and reduce it can be quite helpful. Yoga has been shown to influence our serotonin levels that help balance our mood, shares Howe. It can help link the brain and nervous system, that feeling of balance helps reduce cortisola stress hormone. Brodie shares that breathing through the poses helps clear the mind. Mental clarity brings awareness to how we view ourselves, the world, and others.”
How To Do A Lotus Pose
1) Start by sitting on the floor with legs out straight.
2) Bend the right knee and bring the foot across the body towards the left elbow.
3) If you can, hook your right foot in the left elbow and the right knee in the right elbow, bringing the hands together and creating a cradle for the leg and foot.
4) You can gently rock the leg back and forth to open the hip up a little more.
5) Bring the right foot down so the outside edge rests on the left groin.
6) Lean back slightly, lift the right leg off the ground and bend the left knee.
7) Bring the left foot across the body and into the right groin.
8) Firmly press your heels into your belly.
9) Sit tall, keeping your spine straight..
10) Rest your palms on your knees, facing up, down or pressed together in front of your chest.
11) Hold pose for up to 60 seconds.
12) Repeat step 1 to 11 now with the left knee bent in step 2.
Don’t Miss: Best Way To Clean Lululemon Yoga Mat
