Yoga Poses For Beginners
Photo by Brodie Vissers from Burst
As with most things, yoga is a practice where you build knowledge and expertise gradually. You start with the most comfortable things and slowly progress and increase the difficulty as you get better.
Before you know it, people will regard you as a yoga expert and will say things like, “I could never do the poses you do.” And “You make it look seem so easy.”
But, as the old saying goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Before you can run, you first have to walk.
We’ve put together this list of nine fantastic yoga poses for beginners. To make things even easier for you, we’ve also added instructional videos for each.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
1. Mountain Pose
The mountain pose is arguably the most important one every aspiring yogi needs to master as it lays down the foundation for everything else.
While it may seem overly-simplistic, the mountain pose gives you a real sense of balance and mindfulness. It helps you take the first steps to merge the physical and spiritual into one.
What’s more, the mountain pose helps you improve your posture and align yourself better. It sets the foundation for every other standing pose you will ever do in yoga.
And the best part is that this pose is far from intimidating, which makes it even better for beginners interested in getting started.
Here is a video of how to do it:
2. Tree Pose
Like the previous one, this pose is also beginner-friendly and teaches new practitioners one crucial skill: balancing themselves on one leg.
Though it may seem unimportant, the tree pose is vital because it lays down the foundation for many practices down the road.
Plus, this pose is incredibly beneficial because it brings about calmness and teaches one how to relax and breathe deeply to keep themselves upright on one leg.
Here is a video of how to do it:
3. Seated Forward Bend
Aside from balance and mindfulness, flexibility is another vital component of yoga. Incorporating bending poses is vital because they work on our flexibility and allow us to master much more sophisticated poses later.
The seated forward bend, in particular, is crucial because it stretches the hamstrings and back. This pose is fantastic for beginners because you can get started with it no matter how flexible you are. Even if you can barely bend forward, you can still do this pose and make small progress every week.
This pose is also important for breathing as it forces you to inhale in a less than favorable position, thus improving your overall breathing ability.
Here is a video of how to do it:
4. Child’s Pose
Much like the previous poses on our list, the child’s pose is also a fundamental part of yoga as it works on our flexibility, breathing, and mindfulness.
Unlike some yoga poses, this one is easier because the primary purpose here is rest, relaxation, and focus on breathing. It’s a perfect way to wrap up a yoga session for people of all levels.
This pose is also fantastic because it helps release tension in the back, neck, and shoulders.
Here is a video of how to do it:
5. Bridge Pose
The bridge pose is more popular because the movement pattern exists in numerous types of physical activity. For example, the glute bridge exercise is similar to the bridge pose, and many gym-goers use it to strengthen their posterior chain.
In the context of yoga, the bridge pose also improves your physical strength (particularly your glutes and abdominals), which is important for mastering more physically-demanding yoga poses down the road.
Here is a video of how to do it:
6. Plank Pose
The plank is another fantastic pose that helps lay down the foundation for many other practices down the road. This pose recruits your entire body and forces many different muscle groups to work together. This improves your balance and intermuscular coordination.
What’s more, because this pose requires balance, it strengthens your core and tones your entire body - shoulders, chest, back, arms, glutes, and thighs.
If you’re looking for a beginner pose that will challenge you and strengthen your entire body, you should not look further than the plank pose.
Here is a video of how to do it:
7. Downward Facing Dog
Once you’ve dabbled with the plank pose for a while, it’s time to kick it up a notch and introduce the downward facing dog.
This pose is similar to the plank and boasts many of the same benefits. But here, you need even more strength and balance to keep yourself stable.
For this pose, you need to bring your buttocks high toward the ceiling, which engages your glutes even more and also helps stretch your hamstrings, glutes, and back muscles.
Here is a video of how to do it:
8. Warrior One
As their name suggests, the warrior poses are not easy but are vital for becoming a great yoga practitioner.
For one, the warrior poses help build physical strength, endurance, and outstanding balance. The warrior one pose, in particular, is fantastic for strengthening your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and back. This pose is also excellent for opening up the hips and stretching your hip flexors.
Here is a video of how to do it:
9. Warrior Two
The warrior two pose is similar in many ways to the other version, but it offers some distinct advantages. Instead of mostly working on your front and back thigh muscles, warrior two emphasizes your inner thighs more and strengthens your adductors.
This is a crucial pose to practice as a beginner because it contributes to your overall balance and helps you develop the necessary skills for side postures such as the half-moon pose.
Aside from that, the pose also helps open up your hips more, which is incredibly beneficial for mastering more advanced poses down the road.
Here is a video of how to do it: