

Tree pose strengthens the muscles of the standing leg, ankle, and foot. Tree pose is the perfect beginner yoga pose for balancing - once you’ve mastered tree pose, you can move on to more complicated balancing poses. Hold for five breaths, then repeat on the other side.Draw shoulders down and back away from the ears, lengthen your neck and look over your front hand.Align your shoulders over your hips and reach arms out so they are parallel to the floor.Engage abdominals toward the spine and tilt your tailbone downward.Keeping your back leg straight, bend your front knee so that it is directly above the ankle and creating a 90-degree angle at the knee.Align the front foot’s heel with the back foot’s arch. Stand with feet 3-4 feet apart with the front foot pointing straight ahead and the back foot at 45 degrees or parallel to the back edge of the mat.Warrior II strengthens and stretches the body at the same time, giving you the feeling of a strong, fierce warrior. This pose strengthens your ankles, legs, glutes, core, back, and shoulders.

With your hands on the floor or your ankles, hold the pose and take five full breaths.Slowly try to straighten the knees while keeping your stomach on your thighs.Reach your hands toward the floor, and let your head hang.Bend your knees slightly so that your stomach touches your thighs.Hinge forward from the hips and bring the torso toward the legs, keeping the spine straight.Standing forward bend is a natural transition from mountain pose and stretches the entire back of the body - from the calves and hamstrings, to the lower and upper back. Expand the chest and pull your shoulders back and down.Engage abdominals toward the spine and tilt your tailbone downward.Flex the quadriceps upward and rotate the upper thigh muscles inward.


Inhale, and pressing down through the legs, extend your heart forward and up, rising with a flat back, reaching your arms out and up. Next, inhale, and with your fingers on the mat or pressing off your shins, extend the spine forward, back flat. From Mountain Pose, inhale and reach your arms overhead exhale into Forward Fold, extending long over your legs, bending the knees as necessary. Breathe deeply into the lungs, rib cage, and entire side-body as you open and lengthen.īuild more pranic energy by linking movement and breath with Half Sun Salutations. Lean forward and back here, accessing the stiff places along your sides and outer shoulder blades. Don’t be surprised if the sides of your body feel shockingly tight after a day or two of lounging around-they just need to be opened back up. Inhale and lengthen your spine, pulling the shoulders down away from the ears exhale and make a side bend to the right. With your right hand, grab hold of your left wrist. Inhale and reach the arms up and overhead, palms facing one another. From Mountain Pose, exhale, lower your hands to your sides, and open your eyes.
