9 Basic Yoga Poses For Everyone

 Yoga is an ancient practise that has become popular due to its numerous health benefits. From celebrities to your colleagues, everyone seems to be smitten by this form of physical exercise. Practising yoga regularly strengthens the body, improves flexibility & balance, and also helps to tone your body and lose weight. It promotes relaxation and helps to fight stress and depression. No doubt people are flocking to yoga classes both online and offline to avail its health benefits.

Here we guide you through some basic yoga poses to help you through the seemingly difficult postures and their Sanskrit names.

1. Mountain pose (Tadasana)

Mountain pose forms the basis of all standing yoga poses. Tadasana may look like you are just standing. But it is standing in an active way, keeping the body aligned. It’s one of the basic yoga poses providing benefits like improving posture, increasing awareness of your body and strengthening the legs.

1. Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

The chair pose begins from the mountain pose. In this pose, you sit back as if you’re in a chair. It helps to strengthen your legs, shoulders and upper back. Utkatasana is one of the frequently practised yoga poses for weight loss, as it tones the entire body and helps to burn belly fat.

1. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

One of the classic yoga asanas taught and widely practised across the world is the downward-facing dog pose. Adho Mukha Svanasana resembles a dog’s stretching action when it gets up from resting position. It’s a transitional posture with numerous benefits like stretching hamstrings & calves and strengthening legs, arms and back. The downward-facing dog has a calming effect as there is a mild inversion of your head.

1. Down Dog on a chair (Uttana shishosana)

Down dog on a chair is a modification of the downward-facing dog posture – one of the basic yoga poses – which can be difficult for beginners. Uttana shishosana provides benefits that are similar to downward-facing dog, including stretching hamstrings, and strengthening arms & shoulder muscles.

1. Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)

Warrior II is one of the classic yoga poses for weight loss. Virabhadrasana II is a powerful standing yoga posture that helps to burn fat in the hip area and tones the abdominal organs. Practise this yoga posture to strengthen your legs and ankles, improve stamina and to calm the mind.

1. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

Bridge Pose is an inverted backbend posture that energizes, rejuvenates and restores the body. It’s well known as one of the effective yoga poses for weight loss. Regular practise aids in reducing belly fat and strengthening of abdominal muscles. Other benefits include improved blood circulation and better digestive health. It also opens the chest and stretches your spine and neck.

1. Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana)

Seated forward fold is a calming yoga pose that is usually done when the body is warm after a few yoga sequences. It prepares the body to do deeper yoga asanas, such as One Foot Behind Head pose (Eka Pada Sirsasana) and Yogic Sleep pose (Yoganidrasana). Paschimottanasana provides deep stretches to your body, especially the hamstrings, calves and spine.

1. Plank Pose (Kumbhakasana)

Plank pose is a basic strengthening and balancing posture for your arms and the core, in preparation of advanced arm-balancing yoga asanas. Kumbhakasana is the best yoga posture for strengthening the core muscles in your shoulders, arms, abdomen and legs.

1. Corpse Pose (Savasana)

Yoga sessions are usually ended with corpse pose, often termed as the most difficult yoga asana. Although it seems easy, the actual practice is difficult. It requires practitioners to relax the body while maintaining quiet alertness.

The takeaway

Yoga is a lifelong pursuit. So, begin at the basic level and move to advanced postures gradually. It’s a way of life that must be incorporated into your lifestyle to get the full benefits. Start with the yoga poses for beginners discussed in this article. You are likely to be occupied for a long time.