Strengthening Yoga Poses For Beginners

This pose strengthens ankles, feet, thighs and calves while also stretching the lower back. It’s a great pose to do before a strenuous workout, and it helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression.

Start on all fours, toes touching, knees below shoulders and palms pressed into mat. Slowly straighten arms and draw shoulder blades down and away from ears, relaxing neck. Hold for 1-3 minutes.

Cobbler’s Pose

Cobbler’s Pose, or Baddha Konasana, is a great hip opener that also strengthens the inner thighs and core muscles. It is an excellent posture to practice after sitting for long periods of time and can help alleviate fatigue. It also stimulates your digestive system and can improve abdominal discomfort.

While practicing this seated pose, it is important to keep your back straight. If you round your back, you will put too much pressure on the groin and inner knee muscles. This can lead to injury. Instead, try to stretch and hold the pose for as long as possible without putting too much strain on your knees and back.

This pose helps in balancing the emotions by activating the Muladhara Chakra, Swadisthana and Manipura chakras. It can also increase your lung capacity by extending the spine and elongating the chest. In addition, it can help to cure back pain by providing a deep stretch to the hip joints and spinal muscles.

Tree Pose

Tree Pose (Vrksasana) challenges practitioners to balance on one leg while engaging the core and focusing on a point of focus. It builds strength, balance and confidence in the yogi while cultivating concentration and presence. It also strengthens the ankle and calf of the standing leg and tones the hip and buttocks on that side.

As practitioners become more comfortable with the posture, they can explore advanced variations. One such variation is Extended Tree Pose, in which the arms are brought together overhead in a prayer position or extended straight up. This version increases the difficulty of the pose while enhancing balance and strengthening the upper body.

Students who are struggling to find stability in the pose may want to consider incorporating a chair into their practice. By placing the chair a few inches away from the standing leg, it is easy to hold the pose and provides support should anyone fall out of the posture.

Seated Forward Fold

Seated Forward Fold (paschimottanasana) stretches the back body including the hamstrings. It is a powerful forward fold that helps strengthen the back and can help relieve lower back pain.

This posture can be intense for beginners and it is important to learn how to get into the pose safely. It is recommended to move into the pose slowly and ease into it over a few breaths. To reduce the intensity and make the pose more accessible, beginners can use a strap around their feet to create more space at the hips or bend the knees to ease the pressure on the hamstrings.

The seated forward fold can also be used in partner yoga to add variety to the practice and enhance its benefits. The partners can practice the pose together and then switch so that one partner is doing a seated forward fold while the other is doing a supported backbend. Practicing this pose with a partner helps to improve balance, concentration and coordination while building a deeper connection with the other person.

Seated Side Bend

This seated side bend is a good pose for beginners to use to stretch the hips and improve posture, and also as a gentle backbend for students who may be experiencing back pain. However, this pose should not be used by those with foot, ankle, knee, arm or shoulder injuries, since it involves deep stretching of the upper and lower body.

This pose stretches the quadriceps muscles on one side of the body and the pelvic floor muscles on the other, while the psoas muscle is stretched in the front of the hips. In addition, this pose lengthens the intercostal muscles, improving rib cage mobility.

Energeticly, Parsva Sukhasana helps to calm the mind and reduce stress while awakening the heart. This pose is particularly helpful for Vata types, as it brings a rooted energy to the low body while also strengthening core muscles and encouraging regular bowel movements. Pitta types can also benefit from this pose, as it slows down the pace of life and cultivates waves of calm and bliss within the body and mind.