Yoga Poses For Beginners

5 Yoga Poses For Beginners

Curious about yoga? These beginner yoga poses will help you get started as a "Yogi".

Bharadvaja's Twist

This pose is beneficial for your spine and abdominal organs.

Bharadvaja's Twist

Image Credit: Yoga Journal

How To Do Bharadvaja's Twist Step by Step:

1. Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you. Shift over onto your right buttock, bend your knees, and swing your legs to the left. Lay your feet on the floor outside your left hip, with the left ankle resting in the right arch. Move the left calf muscle out with the hand, creating space for the buttock to sit down

onto the earth beside the foot. (You may opt to prop up onto a block or blanket to help even out the hips and root the sit bones.

2. Inhale and lift through the top of the sternum to lengthen the front torso. Then exhale and twist your torso to the right, keeping the left buttock on or very close to the floor. Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor to keep the lower back long. Soften the belly.

3. Tuck your left hand under your right knee (or thigh) and bring your right hand to the floor just beside your right buttock, with the fingers pointing back. Pull your left shoulder back slightly, pressing your shoulder blades firmly against your back even as you continue to twist the chest to the right.

4. You can turn your head in one of two directions: continue the twist of the torso by turning it to the right; or counter the twist of the torso by turning it left and looking over the left shoulder at your feet. Sense the breath and an opening in the diaphragm and abdomen.

5. With every inhalation lift a little more through the sternum, using the push of the fingertips on the floor to help; with every exhalation twist a little more. Stay

for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then release with an exhalation, return to the starting position, and repeat to the left for the same length of time.

Setu Bandhasana

(Bridge Pose)

Bridge Pose

Image Credit: Yoga Journal

Benefits:

• Stretches the chest, neck, and spine

• Calms the brain and helps alleviate stress and mild depression

• Stimulates abdominal organs, lungs, and thyroid

• Rejuvenates tired legs

• Improves digestion

• Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause

• Relieves menstrual discomfort when done supported

• Reduces anxiety, fatigue, backache, headache, and insomnia

• Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and sinusitis

Contraindications/Cautions: Contraindications/Cautions: Neck injury: avoid this pose unless you are practicing under the supervision

How to do Setu Bandhasana ( Bridge Pose) Step by Step:

1. Lie supine on the floor, and if necessary, place a thickly folded blanket under your shoulders to protect your neck. Bend your knees and place the feet on the floor, hip-bone distance apart and about 6 inches in front of the buttocks (about a palms distance from the buttocks).

2. Walk the right shoulder up an inch. Walk the left shoulder up an inch. Roll both shoulder blades slightly in toward the spine, so that the weight of your back rests

on the upper arms. Scoop the tailbone up toward the knees, press the inner feet down into the earth and lift he hips to the ceiling. Keep the thighs and feet parallel,

and squeeze the inner thighs together as if there is a ball between the legs. Lightly firm (but don’t harden) the buttocks, keep lifting with the pelvis.

3. One at a time, roll each shoulder blade in toward the spine, and either extend the arms underneath you, palms face down, or clasp the hands below your pelvis, extending the arms toward the heels, keeping the arms and hands on the floor. Keep the weight of the torso suspended between the feet and the upper arms.

4. Lift your buttocks until the thighs are about parallel to the floor, with your knees directly above the heels. Extend the knees forward (away from the hips). Lengthen the tailbone toward the backs of the knees and lift the low belly (pubis toward the navel).

5. Lift your chin slightly away from the sternum and, firming the shoulder blades against your back, press the top of the sternum toward the chin. Firm the outer arms, broaden the shoulder blades, and try to lift the space between them at the base of the neck (where it's resting on the blanket) up into the torso.

6. Stay in the pose anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute. Release with an exhalation, rolling the spine slowly down onto the floor.

Beginner's Tip:

Once the shoulders are rolled under, be sure not to pull them forcefully down away from your ears, which tends to overstretch the neck. Instead, lift the tops of the shoulders slightly toward the ears and push the inner shoulder blades away from the spine.

Marjaryasana

(Cat Pose)

Cat Pose

Image Credit: Yoga Journal

Benefits:

• Stretches the back torso and neck

• Provides a gentle massage to the spine and belly organs

Contraindications and Cautions: With a neck injury, keep the head in line with the torso.

How To Do Marjaryasana (Cat pose) Step by Step:

1. Start on your hands and knees in a "tabletop" position. Make sure your knees are set directly below your hips and your wrists, elbows and shoulders are in line and perpendicular to the floor. Center your head in a neutral position, eyes looking at the floor.

2. Inhale, lightly lift the low belly. Exhale, scoop the tail bone under as you round the back toward the ceiling. Feel as though the center of your spine is being lifted to the ceiling and the space between each vertebra is opening. Release your head toward the floor, but don't force your chin to your chest.

3. Initiating movement from your tailbone, inhale and uncoil the spine, coming back to neutral "tabletop" position.

4. This pose is often paired with Cow Pose on the inhale for a gentle, flowing Pose vinyasa.

Props: Place a blanket under knees for Props: added comfort.

Balasana

(Child's Pose)

Child's Pose

Image Credit: Gaia

Balasana is a restful pose that can be sequenced between more challenging asanas.

Benefits:

• Gently stretches the hips, thighs, and ankles

• Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and fatigue

• Relieves back and neck pain, when done with head and torso, supported

Contraindications:

• Diarrhea

• Pregnancy

• Knee injury: Avoid Balasana unless you have the supervision of an experienced teacher.

How To Do Balasana (Child Pose) Step by Step:

1. Kneel on the floor. Set your knees hip-width apart and touch your big toes together.

2. Exhale, draw the sit bones back toward the heels and bring your forehead to the floor (or block). Lay the tailbone heavy on the heels while you lift the base of your skull away from the back of your neck.

3. Extend the arms out in front of you, fingers spread wide, or lay your hands on the floor alongside your torso, palms facing up, releasing the fronts of your shoulders toward the floor. Feel how the weight of the front shoulders pulls the shoulder blades wide across your back.

4. Balasana is a resting pose. As you inhale, feel the belly expanding into the thighs and the lower back opening to space. Breathe into the space behind the heart and feel the upper back expanding. Imagine the back is shaped like a rainbow. Breathe into the rainbow shape and feel the space between each vertebrae opening.

5. Stay in Balasana anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes. To come up, draw the navel into the spine and roll up one vertebra at a time.

Beginner’s Tip: We usually don't breathe consciously and fully into the back of the torso. Balasana provides us with an excellent opportunity to do just that. Imagine that each inhalation is "doming" the back torso toward the ceiling, lengthening and widening the spine. Then with each exhalation release the torso a little more deeply into the fold. Beginners can also use Balasana to get a taste of a deep forward bend, where the torso rests on the thighs.

Bhujangasana

(Cobra Pose)

Cobra Pose

Image Credit: Yoga Journal

This posture promotes flexibility in the spine and encourages the chest to open.

Benefits:

• Strengthens the spine

• Stretches chest and lungs, shoulders,and abdomen

• Firms the buttocks

• Stimulates abdominal organs

• Helps relieve stress and fatigue

• Opens the heart and lungs

• Soothes sciatica

• Therapeutic for asthma

• Traditional texts say that

Bhujangasana increases body heat, destroys disease, and awakens kundalini.

Contraindications/Cautions:

• Back injury

• Carpal tunnel syndrome

• Headache

• Pregnancy

How to Do Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) Step by Step:

1. Lie prone on the floor (on your abdomen), with your forehead on the floor with your legs stretched back. Bring your hands underneath your shoulders, arms bent and fingers facing forward and spread wide. Roll the shoulder blades down the back, lightly lifting the shoulders off the floor and creating space around your neck. Draw the elbows back toward your heels and then hug them close into the body. (It will feel like you are pushing the elbows back with your hands).

2. Root the pubic bone to the floor, stretch the toes straight back so that the muscles of the legs engage (just the knees should rise slightly off the floor). Internally rotate the legs, lift the backs of the thighs toward the ceiling and then press the tailbone down to the pubis. Lightly press down through the tops of the feet as you lift the low belly (pubis to navel). Inhale, lift the shoulders and chest up off the floor to a comfortable height. Send the heart forward through the gate of the arms. Use the strength of the back muscles to lift. (Lift the hands off the floor for a moment to become aware of the muscles in the back that initiate the lift).

3. Keep the low back neutral (pubic bone grounded) and the buttocks soft. Lift and open the chest fully. Lengthen the back of the neck, as if it were an extension of the spine (the chin will drop slightly). Roll the shoulder blades down the back and distribute the backbend evenly throughout the entire spine.

4. Lift and lower several times, activating the back muscles as you lift, and softening them as you lower. Lengthen as you lift, moving the torso forward (through the

gate of the arms) and up. Some students may have the ability to rise up slightly higher than others, pressing down through the hands and straightening the arms. However, there is high potential here to jam the low back, if you do not have the necessary strength and flexibility. For most of us, it is safest to practice with the bent arms, and with a light lift to the torso. Lift only to the height where you can still maintain the connection of the pubic bone to the floor.

5. Find a place of softness in the pose and allow the mind to be absorbed in the energy of the heart. As the sensations in the pose expand, create space in the heart to hold them, breathing, sensing and feeling into the heart. Exhale to come down, releasing the forehead to the earth.

Beginner's Tip:

Don't overdo the backbend. To find the height at which you can work comfortably and avoid straining your back, take your hands off the floor for a moment so that the height you find will be through extension. Clenching the buttocks will aggravate the low back. You may keep the buttocks firm but do not clench.

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