Yoga promotes physical health and fitness by improving flexibility, building strength, enhancing stability, increasing endurance and boosting respiratory and cardiovascular function. It also improves sleep and reduces stress and anxiety.
Some styles of yoga, such as ashtanga and power yoga, are more physically intense. However, even gentle yoga exercises build strength and increase muscle endurance.
Tree Pose
Tree Pose (Vrkshasana) is a fundamental yoga pose that challenges balance, stability, and focus in one fluid motion. Typically, instructors cue this posture in the middle of a class, after students have warmed up and begun to synchronize their breath with movement.
This beginner-level balancing posture, when practiced consistently, helps strengthen the muscles in the legs, knees, and ankles. It also engages the core to support a balanced body weight, which can help develop a strong and healthy back and improve overall posture and gait.
Because this standing posture requires steady attention to maintain balance, it cultivates concentration and mindfulness. In addition, the balancing action of the weight-bearing leg encourages proprioception—the body’s ability to sense its position in space. This increased awareness can help you move more gracefully on and off the mat, building confidence in your abilities.
As you stand tall in Vrkshasana, remember to keep the foot pressing into the inner thigh or calf, never against the knee. Trying to balance while looking around can throw off your drishti, so it’s important to find a clear spot in front of you where you can focus your eyes and ground yourself. Practice regularly to build confidence and resilience in this beautiful yet challenging pose.
Down Dog Split
Downward-facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is a beautiful and challenging posture that works the entire body. It’s an excellent stretch for the lower back and shoulders and is also a great strength builder for the hands, wrists, arms and shoulder muscles. It can also help alleviate lower back pain.
When you’re practicing this pose, make sure your feet are firmly on the mat and that one foot is tucked underneath the other. If you are having trouble with stability in this pose, try practising Puppy Pose first or Child’s Pose to develop the core and hamstring strength required to support this posture.
The main focus of this posture should be on lengthening the spine from tailbone to neck. If your shoulders are weak, you may compensate by scrunching the chest up toward the ears. To prevent this, focus on externally rotating the upper arms and broadening through the collarbones.
Another tip to improve the form of this posture is to move the feet together before lifting the hips up. This will make it easier to distribute the weight of the body evenly between both feet. It will also be easier to push the lifted leg firmly into the ground and will add extra stability to this posture.
Warrior I
Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I) is a foundational standing pose that builds strength and balance in the body. It stretches the front side of the body and helps create stillness in the mind, building focus, power and stability. This is a great pose to practice at home or on the mat.
This is a powerful forward-bending posture that opens and strengthens the hips, legs, core, back, and shoulders. It also develops proprioception, or the body’s ability to sense its position in space, by asking you to distribute weight evenly on both feet and maintain a steady gaze. The wide lunging action in this pose helps to open the hip flexors and inner thighs, which can get tight from sitting at desks all day.
This posture is named after the fierce warrior Virabhadra, a mythological figure from Indian Classical stories that symbolizes our ability to overcome fear and ego. When you are practicing this posture, invoke the inner warrior and stay firm. You can increase the intensity of this pose by bending your front knee further so that your thigh is parallel with the floor. This can be uncomfortable for those with tight hips and adductor muscles, so work up to this. Holding this posture for several breaths requires a lot of stamina, making it ideal for increasing your yoga endurance.