The benefits of yoga are seemingly limitless. For beginners, yoga poses can seem daunting and intimidating. Can I really bend like that? You can, but you don’t have to. At least not right away. Here are some super easy yoga poses for all you beginners out there.
1. Cat & Cow Yoga Poses
You all know what a cat looks like, when it stretches. Do that. It’s called cat pose. Go from that into cow pose, where you arch your back the other way. Flow back and forth between the two multiple times. It’s a really great way to open up the spine, warm it up and break up any tight spots and release a lot of tension.
2. Forward Fold
Stand up, feed shoulder distance apart. Slowly fall forward, as if you were trying to touch your toes. But don’t touch your toes. Instead, fall forward to your own degree and then grasp opposite elbows, then just hang. Let whatever’s going on in your day just roll off your back. It’s a great way to stretch out the entire back side of your body. And let go of whatever you’ve got going on in your day.
3. Sun Salutation Series A & B
Sun salutation (series A & B) is about as simple and easy as yoga poses get. There are more impressive looking yoga poses out there, but in terms of effectiveness, it’s hard to beat the sun salutation series. Start with Series A and then work up to series up. There are many yoga teachers out there who feel that if you do Sun Salutation Series B every day, that’s all you need. And by “do it everyday” I mean “do it 108 times per day, every day.”
Don’t worry, it’s not nearly as daunting as it sounds. That being said if famous yoga teachers feel this strongly about the yoga poses Sun series A & B, then they are more than worth your time. And more importantly, you won’t find better yoga poses (or in this case a yoga sequence) for beginners, because it covers everything you’ll want to stretch, lengthen and tone and yet is simple enough to get the handle on within just your first few yoga classes or first few times praciting.
4. Legs Up The Wall Pose
Yes, this pose has a fancy Sanskrit name. But we are talking about easy yoga poses for you, the beginner, so we won’t bore you with that. To do legs up the wall pose, lay parallel to the wall, right up against it. Then rotate, so your butt is touching up against the wall. Run your legs up the wall. And stay there, for a good five to ten minutes. This yoga pose is as healing and therapeutic as it is simple.
Why so beneficial? When your legs are up the wall, the blood flow is reversed and all that blood from your feet, legs, knees and ankles go back to where it came from. This is one of the yoga poses that is incredibly detoxifying and is good for reducing and dealing with the daily stresses of your life. We all have some amount of on going stress, even if it’s just fighting traffic or the insanity often displayed in the grocery store.
5. Plank Pose
You all know plank pose, even if you’ve never done yoga. You know what a push up is? Good. Hold the top of the push up, as long as you can. That’s plank pose. The trick to plank pose is to use your core (code= for abs) to hold you up. It’s not about your arms, though you might think the opposite. Don’t believe me. Try it. See if you can hold it for a minute.
YRG (Yoga For Regular Guys)
Diamond Dallas Page is a retired pro wrestler. Yes, really. His career was sidelined with a serious neck injury that not only was going to end his career but require neck surgery. Desperate to continue his career and avoid surgery, he turned to yoga. Long story short, he healed his neck, avoided surgery and resumed his career, eventually retiring, but on his terms, not a doctor’s using yoga poses. He’s not a hippy or new agey type, so when he became a yoga devotee, he partnered with a yoga instructor to come up with YRG (Yoga for regular guys). It’s a highly Americanized version of Ashtanga yoga (aka ‘power’ yoga).
IF you’re new to yoga or intimidated by yoga classes and the spiritual bent that many yoga classes are known for, consider YRG. It’s full of easy yoga poses for beginners. And it’s done in a very user friendly, non threatening way, with ways to make it easy enough for beginners and challenging enough for experienced yogis.