A discussion of yoga poses for beginners

Yoga can be overwhelming for the beginner.

You jog to your local library or Barnes & Noble, pick up a book on the subject, and see people squirming into positions you never thought the human body could do.

Even when you find a book that supposedly has yoga poses for beginners, all the pictures seem absolutely impossible!

Specially for you.

You try one or two, and you can’t even get close to what’s shown in the pictures … or … worse yet … you feel a sharp, stabbing pain that tells you you’ve gone too far.

I’m here to tell you that most of the time, anyone who publishes a yoga book will try to look their best … from a yoga point of view, at least. They are going to show themselves in the final and perfect position, forgetting what it was like for them to fall while attempting the Warrior II position for the first time.

So the first thing I want to tell you about yoga poses for beginners … or overweight people, or elderly people, or people with specific problems, like arthritis, is don’t try to be perfect from the start.

Second, apply some common sense.

The fact that a position like the mid-spinal twist or Ardha-matsyendrasana (learning the Sanskrit names for the various poses is a challenge in itself). The picture should tell you that you may not be ready for it!

Even an experienced yogi will probably do some kind of warm-up, in the form of easier poses and movements, before casually sliding into THAT position.

Finally, start with some of the simplest and easiest yoga poses to perform.

Believe it or not, there are many benefits to simply doing seemingly easy asanas like the Corpse Pose (Shavasana) or the Child Pose (Balasana). In fact, some experienced in the practice consider that the corpse pose, in which you lie on your back on the ground and breathe, is actually MORE difficult than others that may seem more impressive … or scary!

While you will want to put a few poses together to make a yoga routine, and your personal, eventually satisfying, satisfying, and worthwhile routine may be different from everyone else’s, it’s not a problem to start simply by learning and practicing some yoga. he poses for beginners as separate “exercises” before eventually joining them into a full routine.

As you improve with the easy poses, you can go back to Barnes & Nobles and pick up a copy of that book that seemed so scary … or crazy … a few weeks earlier.

Here are some easy yoga poses for beginners.

• Corpse pose or Shavasana
• Easy pose or Sukhasana
• Seated Forward Bend or Paschimottanasana
• Lobster pose or Salabhasana
• Mountain pose or Tadasana
• Electric chair or Utkatasana
• Warrior II or Virabhadrasana II
• Lotus pose or Padmasana

Furnace end points:

1. Don’t start any exercise program, including yoga, without first checking with your healthcare provider.

2. Don’t jump into these positions. Just keep going until you feel resistance and then stop at that point. In fact, many poses, such as the lotus, have alternate positions. You can find examples in many books on yoga, or you can make your own.

In Lotus Pose, for example, you are supposed to wrap your legs around each other. Once, I could do that quite easily, but now, at 70 years old, I have arthritis and I just rest my ankle on my calf, my calf on my ankle.

3. Breathe! Believe it or not, one of the most important exercises in yoga is breathing! Learn to breathe, and as a general rule, you should be able to breathe properly during every movement or pose. In fact, the movements are generally performed in rhythm with the breath.

4. While I am not going to tell you to have fun, I will tell you that if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, why are you doing it? Yes, yoga is good for you and there are many benefits of yoga. But, if you have to force your way to go and perform each session, then you probably won’t stick with it and you will never achieve the many good results that are possible.

You can control this to some degree, creating your own yoga routine, your own private space, and setting your own atmosphere for each session with the help of sights, scents (aromatherapy), and sounds.

I hope this little dissertation on yoga poses for beginners has been helpful.

Namaste.