9 Best Yoga Poses For Beginners
Roll out your yoga mat for some quick comfort if you're seeking for a cure for your computer neck and achy back—along with your mental health. You don't think of yourself as a yogi? No issue. Yoga positions, even the most basic ones, provide many advantages.
1. Corpse Pose | Savasana
Health benefit: Savasana is one of the best yoga postures for your general health and well-being, despite its appearance as more of a napping position than a yoga practice. You can release tension and possibly lower your heart rate by concentrating on your breath while letting your body relax, which will benefit both your body and mind. According to research, it can also aid in the control of diabetes.
Savasana is one of the greatest yoga poses for beginners. "If you can lie there, you can do it [corpse pose]
How to execute:
Relax by lying on your back with your head and limbs on the ground. flying on your side makes you more comfortable, locate a side-sleeping posture that is comfortable for you.When necessary, use objects like a blanket or a block.
2. Legs Up the Wall | Viparita Karani
Legs up the wall supports your circulatory system and encourages relaxation while extending your hamstrings. According to Dr. Mukai, elevating your legs above the level of your heart supports the flow of blood back to your heart, lessens any leg swelling, and/or relieves any sensations of exhaustion.
How to execute:
Place your right side against a wall while sitting.
Lay on your back with your heels against the wall while rotating and raising your legs up the wall while supporting your chest with your left elbow on the floor.
3. Cat-Cow Stretch | Marjaryasana-Bitilasana
Health benefit: Gary Soffer, M.D., an integrative medicine specialist at Yale Medicine, characterizes the cat-cow stretch as "a gentle but dynamic set of two poses that helps loosen all of the back muscles." It is one of the finest yoga poses for back pain and flexibility. By aiding in the mobilization of the spine's joints, it does this.
How to execute:
Put your neck in a neutral position and get down on your hands and knees.
Keep your knees beneath your hips, your wrists under your shoulders, and so on.
Upon entering cow pose, elevate your chest and chin while arching your back until your belly is close to the mat.
Draw your navel in, round your back, and let gravity pull your head closer your spine as you exhale into the cat stance.
4. Downward Facing Dog | Adho Mukha Shwanasana
One of the most adaptable introductory yoga poses available is downward facing dog, which has numerous health benefits. It encourages flexibility from head to toe as well as back pain relief and core strength. According to Dr. Mukai, it pulls the lower back into traction, relieving strain on the spine. Your calves and hamstrings are simultaneously stretched well.
How to execute:
Put your hands and knees on the ground to start.
Straighten your legs while pressing the soles of your feet firmly into the ground. Raise your hips to the ceiling while pressing your shoulders back and down. Keep an eye out not to overextend your knees.
To achieve a deeper stretch in your hamstrings and glutes, try bending one knee at a time.
5. Knees to Chest | Apanasana
Benefit to health: This basic yoga stance increases flexibility and relieves back pain by stretching your lumbar spine. Once you're seated, gently swaying from side to side helps massage the muscles in your lower back. According to Dr. Soffer, "this is a place where we often hold tension that can be at the root of back pain."
How to execute:
On your back, bend your knees and hips, and place your hands on your knees.
Draw your navel in toward your spine and exhale while clasping your knees to your chest.
Return to the beginning position when you take a breath.
6. Bridge Pose | Setu Bandha Sarvangasana
Benefit to health: Bridge position helps avoid back problems by strengthening the glutes and core. According to Dr. Soffer, "this pose simultaneously strengthens your lower back muscles and your core." Your back will work less if your core is stronger. Additionally helpful, this pose stretches the front of the hips, which can get tight from prolonged sitting.
How to execute:
With your arms at your sides, lie on your back.
Keep your feet flat on the floor under your knees while bending your knees with your feet about hip-width apart.
Raise your hips by contracting your glutes and core muscles so that your body is in a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.
7. Cobbler’s Pose | Baddha Konasana
Benefit to health: Bridge position helps avoid back problems by strengthening the glutes and core. According to Dr. Soffer, "this pose simultaneously strengthens your lower back muscles and your core." Your back will work less if your core is stronger. Additionally helpful, this pose stretches the front of the hips, which can get tight from prolonged sitting.
How to execute:
With your arms at your sides, lie on your back.
Keep your feet flat on the floor under your knees while bending your knees with your feet about hip-width apart.
Raise your hips by contracting your glutes and core muscles so that your body is in a straight line from your knees to your shoulders.
8. Chair Pose | Utkatasana
Health benefit: In this pose, you mimic sitting in a chair, as you hold a static squat with your feet together. Chair pose is “super” for developing both upper and lower body strength, particularly in your glute and back muscles, according to Rountree. It also helps with balance, especially if you lift your heels.
How to do it:
- Standing with your feet together, bend your knees and sink your hips back so that your thighs are as close to parallel to the floor as possible. Be mindful to keep your knees tracking behind your toes, really reaching your hips toward an invisible chair behind you.
- Keeping your chest lifted and your knees together, raise your arms up, pressing your shoulders down and away from your ears.
9. Locust Pose | Salabhasana
Benefit to health: According to Rountree, locust position is wonderful for flexibility and back problems. It acts as a remedy for the forward-bent posture we so frequently take in daily life.
How to execute:
Your arms should be by your sides, palms facing down, with your forehead on the carpet.
Lift your chest, arms, and legs off the ground while keeping your neck in a neutral position.
Stretch from your shoulders to your fingers while keeping your gaze forward and your neck long. Raise your arms so they are parallel to the floor.
After three to five breath cycles, hold this position and then shift back to the starting position.
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