7 Yoga Poses for Beginners: Simple Poses…Powerful Results

Are you feeling stressed out, have no energy or simply want more strength and flexibility? 

Then these 7 yoga poses for beginners are an effortless and fun way to change your life immediately.

What are the Benefits of Yoga?

To the beginner’s eyes, yoga may appear fairly ineffective…but looks can be deceiving.

Yoga is proven to:

• Increase flexibility.
• Improve muscle strength and tone.
• Increase energy and vitality.
• Boost the metabolism.
• Melt away fat.

Related: 10 Surprising Benefits of Yoga

What is Yoga?

Yoga is designed to align and connect your body, mind, spirit, and breathe.

It opens energy channels within the body giving you a new sense of vitality.

Your body will become much more flexible by doing yoga…and so will your mind.

Practising yoga poses for beginners will leave you feeling like new, give you more energy and confidence, improve your physical appearance, and perhaps most importantly, give you peace of mind.

Related: 10 Yoga Poses to Relieve Stress

How Long do You Hold Each Pose?

Anyone can do the following yoga poses for beginners.

They’re easy to learn and the whole routine can take you as little as 10 minutes.

Hold each yoga pose for 10-12 breathes.  Direct your consciousness inside, listen to your body, and feel what works best for you.

Stay within your ability and keep everything slow and relaxed.

7 Yoga Poses for Beginners:

1. The Mountain Pose

Benefits:

• Deceptively simple but uses every muscle in the body
• Improves posture
• Tones abs, thighs and butt
• Relieves back ache and sciatica
• Strengthens knees and ankels

How to:

Stand tall with your feet hip width apart.  Be aware of distributing your weight equally on the four corners of the soles of your feet, then press.

Position your arms by your side with your palms either open or parallel.

Lift your toes, spread them apart and then place them back down firmly onto the mat.

Lift the arches of your feet and draw up through the legs by contracting your quadriceps but don’t lock your knees.

Engage your hips and butt and tuck in your tail bone lightly but without rounding your back.  Your hips, knees and ankles should be all be aligned.

Be very conscious of this stable foundation and drawing up through the feet.

As you inhale, open up your chest, lift your rib cage and allow your shoulders to fall rearwards.  Lift up through your neck, keep your dead directly over your shoulders and keep your gaze directly in front of you.

Tip: Quieten your mind, keep your body strong and firm and breathe gently.

Related: 11 Yoga Poses for Weight Loss

2. Downward Facing Dog.

Benefits:

• Builds strength in the hands and arms.
• Opens the shoulders and heart.
• Increases flexibility in the hamstrings and achilles tendon.
• Very calming.
• Good for your posture and alignment.

How to:

Come onto all fours with your hips above your knees.  Whenever your hands are the foundation, you want them to be slightly wider that your shoulders.

Then, spread your fingers and grip the mat with the tips of your fingers.  Walk your knees back slightly and curl your toes under onto the mat.

Next, exhale and lift your knees away from the floor.

It’s important to keep your back slightly arched rather than rounded, so if you have tight hamstrings, you’ll want to bend at the knees and heels lifted off the mat.

So, straight legs and rounded back ‘bad’, bent legs and straight back, good!

Ultimately, your goal is to be able to plant your heels firmly on the Earth with your legs straight.

Note: to determine exactly where to place your hands and feet, come into the plank position.  Your shoulders should be squarely stacked above your hands, heels above your toes.

Direct your shoulders outwards as this will help you to avoid tension in the neck.

Tip: a common misalignment is to throw your gaze back to your feet which encourages rounding of your back.

Rather, align your neck and head with the rest of your back, whilst keeping your muscles relaxed.

Take 10-12, slow, deep breaths.  Relax and enjoy the pose.

When you’re ready to release, return one knee back down to the mat and come back to all fours.

Related: 8 Yoga Poses for Depression

3. The Lizard Pose.

Benefits:

• Opens your hips, chest, shoulders and back
• Stretches the hip flexors, groin and hamstrings
• Stress buster
• Strengthens your thighs
• Calms body, mind and soul

How to:

Begin from the Downward Dog pose.  Exhale and draw your right knee towards your nose so that you position your right foot to the outside edge of you right hand.

Drop your back knee and ensure that your right knee is directly over your right ankle.

Move your pelvis low and drop hour hips down toward the Earth.  Open up your chest, drawing it forward and keep your chest long.

Tip: For a deeper stretch, gently move down onto your forearms.

Related: 10 Yoga Asanas for Strength

4. Triangle Pose.

Benefits:

The triangle pose is a great all-rounder.

It increases flexibility in your:

• Legs.
• Knees.
• Ankle joints.
• Hips.
• Groin muscles.
• Hamstrings.
• Calves,
• Shoulders.
• chest and spine.

That’s quite a list!  The triangle pose will also strengthen you legs, knees, ankles, abdominals, obliques and back.

How to:

Begin by standing tall and stretch your feet and arms out nice and wide.  Use a wrist and ankle ‘connection’ to determine the width of your stance.

Good foundations are an important part of yoga poses and help you to draw energy up from the Earth.

Next, spread your fingertips wide and lift up your heart and tuck in your tail bone so you’re nice and long in the spine.

Then, with palms facing down, turn your toes our 90 degrees and let your left foot turn inwards almost 45 degrees.

Note: allow your left hip to rotate inwards with your left foot.  Keep your head, heart and pelvis nicely aligned.

Take a deep breathe, exhale and send your left hips back as you reach forward with your right hand.

Slowly start to bend at your right hip whilst keeping your heart high.

A common misalignment is to let the right side collapse inwards, so try to avoid this and preserve that beautiful straight line you built from your foundations.

Place your right hand on your shins but hold the pose with the strength of your core muscles rather than supporting your weight through your arm.

Use your left hand to gently guide your rib cage open and reach towards the sky, turning your head to look in the same direction.

When you’re ready, gently straighten up and repeat on your other side.

Here’s another video from Esther who has such a beautiful accent wouldn’t you agree?

Related: The 7 Best Yoga Poses for Lower Back Pain (and How I Avoided the Scalpel)

5. Warrior II Pose.

Benefits: The warrior II pose strengthens:

• Arms.
• Shoulders.
• Thighs.
• Back muscles.

It’s a great amongst yoga poses for beginners as it will also increase your self-confidence!

How T0:

First, stand with your feet one leg’s-length apart.  Then, turn the right toes to the right at 90 degrees and bend the right knee directly over the right ankle.

Next, turn the hips and the shoulders towards the front and reach out through the finger tips and gaze over your right hand.

Keeping the legs strong, sink your hips down towards the floor.  Allow an invisible cord to stretch up the crown of your head and lengthen your spine. Relax the shoulders down and back, pressing the chest forward.

Finally, hold for 8-10 breaths before straightening the right leg and turning your feet to the other side to repeat on left side.

Release your pose and repeat on your left side.

Related: 10 Yoga Poses for Flexibility

6. The Forward Fold.

Benefits:

• Exerts a massaging action on the internal organs.
• Opens up your back.
• Promotes total exhalation of air from the lungs.
• Helps calm your mind.

How To:

Maintaining straight legs makes for an effective hamstring stretch.  But I’d like you to keep your knees a little bent.  This allows for a greater lower back stretch.

Plus, if you’re new to yoga, bending your knees is a more comfortable position.

Let your hands and head hang over gently.  The goal is not to touch the ground with your hands but to open up your lower back.

So don’t be too concerned if your fingertips are hovering a few inches above the Earth.

Note: if you’re not sure what to do with your hands, simply grab your elbows.

Now, take time to breath.  Expand your lower back on the inhale whilst the exhale allows you to become super-relaxed and limp.

To come out of the pose, bend at the knees, bring your hand forward and once again come to all fours.

7. Child’s Pose.

Want an instant calming and soothing effect?

The child pose in not only great to finish your routine but, as a stand-alone pose, can be done whenever you’re stressed and want instant release!

I often finish any yoga routine with the child pose.

It’s nourishing and nurturing, can be held for long periods and is deceptively beneficial.

Benefits:

• Very calming and relaxing.
• Good for fixing digestion problems.
• Soothes, stretches and relieves lower back.
• Open up the hips.
• Exerts a calming effect on mind, body and spirit.

How To:

Begin in a kneeling position, with you knees almost as wide as your mat, big toes together.

Then, gently lean forward whilst supporting your weight on your hands.

Slowly exhale and allow your tail bone to relax over your heels, stretching out the length of your spine.

Next, rest your forehead on your ‘third eye’ place your arms backwards, palms facing upwards and allow the weight of your shoulders to gently spread your upper back.

Remember to keep breathing and simply hold this pose for as long as you like.

You can perform a variation of this pose by stretching your hands and arms out in front of you which gently stretches your back muscles.

I hope you found these 7 yoga poses for beginners useful?  Any questions or comments, get in touch and I’d be delighted to help.

Introducing: Yoga Burn for Women

If you’re really serious about improving your health with yoga and want a simple yoga strategy you can use in the comfort of your own home, then I highly recommend Zoe Bray-Cotton’s Yoga Burn for Women.

Yoga Burn for Women promises to help you:

• Shape and tone
• De-stress and relieve tension
• Manage your weight
• Gain flexibility
• Boost immunity and
• Generally become more happy and healthy

In fact, Zoe is so sure that you’ll love the results from Yoga Burn for Women that she offers a full, 60-day, no-questions-asked money back guarantee in the unlikely event that you’re not delighted with your results.

Not only do you get this RISK FREE money back guarantee, but if you act now, you’ll receive Zoe’s Limited Time Price Offer and access to her weekly BONUS videos designed to improve your overall experience and results with Yoga Burn for Women.

In this program, you’ll learn the secret to Yoga Burn for Women’s success – a technique known as Dynamic Sequencing.

This strategy forces your body to adapt, giving you a more shapely, feminine body that looks great.

What’s more, Yoga Burn for Women is designed exclusively for women from any walk of life who want to lose weight and get in shape, without trekking to the gym and spending countless hours performing fruitless cardio.

The program is specifically tailored to suit women of all fitness levels from the very new to advanced yoga students.

You’ll also learn how to optimize each pose to take advantage of your very own fitness levels.

Check out Yoga Burn for Women here!

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