When it comes to health and fitness, then it’s time to roll out your yoga mat and discover the combination of physical and mental exercises that have hooked yoga practitioners around the globe for thousands of years. You don’t need to be a yogi or yogini to take the benefits of yoga. No matters if you are young or old, overweight or fit, yoga has the power to calm the mind and strengthen the body. Never be intimidated by yoga terminology, fancy yoga studios, and complicated poses.
Yoga is for everyone.
10 Yoga Poses that Everyone should Know
The building block of yoga is a pose. A pose is good for learning when you do regular yoga practice.
The 10 Yoga poses we’re gonna talk about in this article are complete yoga workouts. We’ll move slowly through each pose, remembering to breathe as you move. Pause for a while if you find any pose challenging, Especially if you are short of breath, and then start again when your breathing returns to normal. For more benefits, hold each pose for a few, slow breaths before moving on to the next one.
Child’s Pose – “Balasana”
Child’s Pose (Balansana) is the best resting posture and a nice way to gently stretch various parts of the body such as the Lower Back, Hips, Thighs, Knees, Ankles, and relaxes your Spine, Shoulder, and Neck. This calming pose is also a good pause position. You can use the child’s pose after every pose to rest and refocus before continuing to your next pose.
When to Do: You should do this pose when you want to get a nice gentle stretch through your neck spine and hips.
When to Skip: You should skip this pose if you have knee injuries or ankle problems. Also if you have high blood pressure or are pregnant.
While doing this pose just focus on relaxing the muscles of the spine and lower back as you breathe.
Downward-Facing Dog – “Adho Mukha Svanasana”
Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is the poster pose for yoga. The reason it has become the popular-known asana is that it’s so important in contemporary practice. It may be the first pose you learn as you begin a yoga practice. It is one of the Sun Salutation sequence poses. Downward-facing dog strengthens the arms, shoulders, and back while stretching the hamstrings, calves, and arches of your feet. It can also help relieve back pain.
When to do: You should do this pose if you have back pain.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have carpal tunnel syndrome or other wrist problems, have high blood pressure, or are in the late stages of pregnancy.
Focus on distributing the weight evenly through your palms and lifting your hips up and back, away from your shoulders.
Cobra Pose – “Bhujangasana”
Cobra is most often done as part of a Sun Salutation. It is also the alternative to Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Shvanasana) in the Vinyasa sequence for beginners. But it is also a powerful backbend in its own right, so it’s worth taking some time to work on this pose in isolation. Cobra done with the arms bent is sometimes called Baby Cobra. If you straighten your arms, that’s Full Cobra, but don’t be in a hurry to graduate to this. This back-bending pose can help strengthen the back muscles, increase spinal flexibility, and stretches the chest, shoulders, and abdomen.
When to do: You should do this pose to strengthen your back.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have arthritis in your spine or neck, a low-back injury, or carpal tunnel syndrome.
Try to keep your navel drawing up away from the floor as you hold this pose.
Four-Limbed Staff Pose “Chaturanga Dandasana”
This is quite difficult to perform at first, until your arms, back, and legs are strong enough to support you. From the Plank Pose, begin by lowering your knees to the floor and then, with an exhalation, lower your sternum to within an inch or two above the floor. This push-up variation follows the plank pose in a common yoga sequence known as the sun salutation. It is a good pose to learn if you want to eventually work on more advanced poses, such as arm balances or inversions.
When to do: You should do this pose to strengthen your arms and wrists and to tone the abdomen. Just like Plank.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have carpal tunnel syndrome, lower back pain, a shoulder injury, or are pregnant.
Press your palms evenly into the floor and lift your shoulders away from the floor as you hold this pose.
Plank Pose – “Kumbhakasan”
Plank pose a commonly seen exercise, which is an arm balancing yoga pose that tones the abdominal muscles while strengthening the arms and spine, in the core, shoulders, and legs.
When to do: You should do this pose if you are looking to tone your abs and build strength in your upper body.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. It can be hard on your wrists. You might also modify it if you have low back pain.
As you do a plank, imagine the back of your neck and spine lengthening.
Seated Half-Spinal Twist Pose – “Ardha Matsyendrasana”
This is the version of the pose, in which the opposite-side arm is wrapped around the outside of the raised-leg upper thigh. This may be impractical, and potentially harmful, to beginners. Be sure to sit up well on blanket support and for the time being just wrap your arm around the raised leg and hug the thigh to your torso. This twisting pose can increase the flexibility in your back while stretching the shoulders, hips, and chest. It can also help relieve tension in the middle of your back.
When to do: You should do this pose to release tight muscles around the shoulders and upper and lower back.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have a back injury.
Lift your torso with each inhale, and twist as you exhale.
Corpse Pose – “Shavasana”
Like life, yoga classes typically end with this pose. It allows for a moment of relaxation, but some people find it difficult to stay still in this pose. However, the more you try this pose, the easier it is to sink into a relaxing, meditative state.
Everyone should do this pose Always!
When to skip: There is no reason here to skip this pose.
Feel the weight of your body sinking into your mat one part at a time.
Tree Pose – “Vrksasana”
This posture replicates the graceful, steady stance of a tree. Unlike most yoga poses, the Tree Pose requires keeping our eyes open to maintain body balance. Beyond helping improve your balance, it can also strengthen your core, ankles, calves, thighs, and spine.
When to do: You should do this pose to balance and posture.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have low blood pressure or any medical conditions that affect your balance.
Focus on your breath in and out as you hold this pose.
Triangle Pose – “Utthita Trikonasana”
Triangle, which is a part of many yoga sequences helps build strength in the legs and stretches the hips, spine, chest, shoulders, groins, hamstrings, and calves. It can also help increase mobility in the hips and neck.
When to do: You should do this pose for building strength and endurance.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have a headache or low blood pressure.
Keep lifting your raised arm toward the ceiling. It helps keep the pose buoyant.
Bridge Pose – “Setu Bandha Sarvāṅgāsana”
This is a back-bending pose that stretches the muscles of the chest, back, and neck. It also builds strength in the back and hamstring muscles.
When to do: You should do this pose if you sit most of the day, this pose will help you open your upper chest.
When to skip: You should skip this pose if you have a neck injury.
While holding this pose, try to keep your chest lifted and your sternum toward your chin.
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