Yoga for Beginners – A complete guide of 8 basic yoga poses

Yoga for beginners is a guide to untie the knots of your body and mind with yoga. It is a holistic approach to step into a much healthy lifestyle. In fact, scientific data has confirmed that yoga is the total workout of body and mind. The countless physical benefits combined with the mental gains make yoga a perfect package for leading a stress-free healthy life. Not only this, but yoga is also used as a therapeutic tool to induce positive effects on mental health. Here, we shall discuss the various poses of yoga for beginners and its numerous positive impacts on life.

Before bringing out the yoga mats, it is important to know a few things. A complete yoga workout requires a peaceful setting. It is supposed to lower the stress levels of your body and work on the central nervous system. Start with soothing music in a peaceful setting where there are no distractions. Remember it is spiritual and the purpose of basic yoga is to detach you from the ruckus of the materialistic world and bring harmony to your mind by connecting to the spiritual world.

Why yoga is important in modern-day to day life?

• The modern way of living involves a lot of stress and a mandatory busy schedule to keep up regularly. Yoga, if nothing, will definitely bring some peace of mind in this hectic modern-day lifestyle. In other words, it will help to introduce a certain balance in both the mental and physical realms of life and bring about a positive change in the immune system.
• If you want to strengthen your muscles, regularly practicing yoga is the perfect way to achieve that. The process of losing muscle mass will accelerate as we age. Practicing different yoga poses every day will hinder the process, add strength to the muscles and let us rely on our own body for more years.
• Draining energy is one of the most crucial problems. The stressful lives of modern women always detect low energy levels at the end of the day. Regularly practicing different yoga poses will put an end to the fluctuating nature of energy levels in your body.
• A flexible body is a healthy body- it is a known and preached fact. Women who have less flexibility in muscles and bones usually end up having a bad posture. Therefore, the benefits of yoga can be stated here also. It will develop your core strength and help you sit straight and stand “tall” effortlessly.
• This might be a surprising fact but certain yoga poses target specific glands that regulate the endocrine system and help lots of women fight the hormonal imbalance within the body. As a result of this, the risk of catching various diseases are minimized.

The basic of yoga is maintaining a particular asana while breathing in the correct way. This will help you take the edge off and get connected to the spiritual world. However, before that one needs to warm-up the body to prevent any form of injury.

Here are some techniques to warm-up your body before starting with asana

• Stretch out your legs to bring about flexibility in the body. Try to lift them perpendicularly and maintain the position. This is for the sole purpose of stretching out the hamstrings, feet, ankles, and calves to become more comfortable while practicing the yoga asana.
• Twist your body easily to loosen up. This works excellent for increasing the stamina to hold the yoga poses for long. Sitting in an easy pose with back straight, you can twist your body to the right and left by keeping the hands intact.
• Your warm-up routine will be more effective with the child’s pose. Prepare your body by stretching out the hips and thighs with this posture. Sit on your heels and keep the back straight. As you rest your head on the mat, slowly exhale.

Stretching and warming up is extremely important before any form of physical exercise. Why? Because it helps to loosen the stiff and cold muscles. Otherwise, you stand the risk of injuring yourself while maintaining the yoga poses.

You don’t have to be a professional yogi to do the basic yoga poses. Yoga for beginners constitutes extremely simple positions that can be performed by anyone.

Here are 8 simple yoga poses for beginners

Tadasana or the Mountain Pose

If you’re getting started with the basic yoga, the Tadasana is perfect. Firstly, place your entire body weight on the feet and stand, keeping your toes together. Then, tuck your hips underneath and keep your shoulders relaxed. Finally, raise your arms while taking small deep breaths during the process. Try to hold the pose for about 3 to 5 breaths.

Virabhadrasana or the Warrior Pose

Keep one foot forward in a perpendicular position, keeping a huge gap with the hind leg. After, that stretch out your arms, forming a straight line and keeping it parallel to the floor. Now, by maintaining a straight posture, keep your head high and look forward (towards the direction of the 90-degree angled front leg). Keep the position for about 5 breaths.

Kumbhakasana or the Plank Pose

This is one of the easiest and basic yoga poses, having striking similarities with the plank position. At first, get down on all fours, keeping your knees under the hips and palms flat on the yoga mat. Then, slowly lift the knees off of the floor to extend them behind your back. This forms a somewhat high plank position where the bodyweight is supported on palms and toes. Lastly, look down at the mat and keeping your core engaged, maintain the position for about 3 to 5 breaths.

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana or the Upward-Facing Dog Pose

If you are looking for poses of yoga for beginners, this is perfect to get you started. At first, drop your body down on the mat from the plank pose by flipping the toes over. Now, taking a deep breath, push your chest up by keeping your core firm. Then, pull back your shoulders by squeezing the shoulder blades and raise your head upwards to look at the ceiling. After 2 to 3 breaths, you can drop the knees down so that the knots in the lower back are untied smoothly.

Vrksasana or the Tree Position

This is one of the basic yoga postures to improve your balance and work on body stamina. This is a modified version of the mountain position. Start with the basic mountain position and slowly bring one foot to the inner thigh of another. Remember that the knee of the raised leg must be facing outwards, towards the ground. Keep your hands in the prayer position near your chest, by keeping the balance and of course, back straight. You can switch sides after holding for 5 breaths.

Natarajasana or the Dancer Pose

This indeed is the most graceful basic yoga poses that demand a certain amount of acquired flexibility in the body. Keep your feet together and stand tall. Slowly, raise one of the legs to form an arch behind your back. Hold that foot with one hand and try to raise it towards the ceiling. Keeping that position intact, raise one arm towards the ceiling. Open your chest as the bodyweight falls on the one foot that is on the mat. However, it is very important to state here that the goal is to keep the hips at one level and avoid overextension of the leg.

Adho Mukha Svanasana or the Downward-Facing Dog

Indeed, one of the simplest and most popular poses of yoga for beginners. Get down on the mat on your hands and knees, keeping the latter under your hips. Spread your hands on the mat, maintaining a huge gap, and make sure to press the index fingers and thumb. Now, draw your hips towards the ceiling by keeping the legs straight. It is important to press the heels on the mat so that the entire body weight falls upon them. With your head between the arms facing the knees and the hips raised- maintain that position for 5 breaths and release.

Savasana or the Corpse Pose

Also known as the final relaxation pose, yoga workout sessions usually end with this. In other words, after a long session, this pose will help you to meditate and relax the body as well as mind. Loosen up your core muscles and lie on the mat by facing the ceiling. Rest your arms by keeping them a few inches apart from the body and breathe in and out for as long as you can.

An amazing way to destress yourself and take a step towards a healthier life, the above-mentioned poses of yoga for beginners are quite easy to perform. As a modern-day woman, I cannot stress enough how yoga changed my life by lowering my stress and anxiety levels, increasing muscle flexibility, and helping me stay composed while keeping up with the fast pacing urban lifestyle.

Ready to start? Here are Amazons best selling Yoga Mats to start with: