10 Essential Yoga Poses for Beginners

Ready to inject some yoga into your life? Before you go to your first yoga class or start a home-based program, here are some essential yoga poses for beginners to get you started with confidence.

You’ve decided to check out what the hype is and start doing yoga.

Grabbing your yoga mat, you are motivated and stoked about yoga’s benefits, but where do you start?

Beginning a yoga practice can be intimidating, whether it’s going to your local studio or following a video in your living room.

To help ensure you develop a safe, effective and enjoyable practice, learning the ins and outs of some of the fundamental poses is essential.

In this guide, we will look at my favorite yoga poses for beginners.

Let’s jump right in and get our namaste on!

Why Should You Do Yoga?

Yoga has many benefits physically, mentally, and emotionally.

The practice focuses on strengthening the mind-body connection, which can improve self-awareness, sharpen focus, reduce stress and improve your overall wellness.

Some of the most common physical benefits people experience include improved mobility, strength, body awareness, and a greater ability to relax.

The Different Types of Poses

There are many different poses, but most fall into some general categories.

First is the position you perform the pose in, which includes standing, seated, kneeling, prone, supine and balancing. Different categories of poses in these positions include; forward bends, hip openers, twists, inversions and restorative poses.

Taking from these categories the following 10 yoga poses are essential for beginners to learn and will teach you the fundamentals you need to develop a strong practice.

These poses are involved in different variations of a sun salutation.

10 Essential Yoga Poses for Beginners

Pose #1: Mountain – Standing

Benefits:

Improves posture
Develops body awareness
Sets the foundation for all standing poses

Cues:

Come to a strong standing posture
Place your feet hip distance apart and pointed straight forward
Feel into the four corners of your feet (big toe, little toe, inner and outers side of heels)
Have the hips in a neutral position
Slightly engage the core
Feel your collar bones wide and relax your shoulders
Lengthen the neck bringing the earlobes over your shoulders
Relax the arms at the sides of the body with the palms facing forward

Common Errors:

Feet are turned outwards
Knees are locked
Hips are tipped forward or back
Shoulders are rounded
Neck is shortened

Pose #2: Standing Forward Fold – Forward Bend

Beginner Yoga Poses - Standing Forward Fold

Benefits:

Increases hip mobility
Allows the neck and back to relax
Stretches the hamstrings

Cues:

Start in mountain pose
On an inhale raise your arms out the sides and then up and overhead
On an exhale leading with your chest, keeping a strong core and your spine long bring your arms out to the side as you fold forward hinging at your hips
Bend your knees enough that your upper body is coming close to or onto your thighs
Allow your head to hang and your neck to relax

Common errors:

Knees are locked
Bending through the back rather than initiating the movement at the hips
Legs are extended to a point where the upper body is far away from the thighs

Pose #3: Halfway Lift – Forward Bend

Benefits:

Develops body awareness
Lengthens the spine
Improves posture

Cues:

Start in a standing forward fold
Place your hands on your shins
On an inhale bring your torso halfway up so you have a 90° angle
Look straight down at the ground so that your neck is in line with the rest of your spine
Lengthen your spine and engage your core

Pose #4: Runner’s Lunge – Hip Opener

Benefits:

Foundation for all other lunges
Stabilizes your hips
Stretches your hip flexors

Cues:

Start in a standing forward fold
Bend your knees enough that your hands reach the ground
On an inhale bring your right foot back towards the back of the mat coming into a lunging position
Point your left foot straight forward with your knee directly over your ankle
Square your hips feeling:
- The front hip pull back and the back hip pull forward
- Without moving your feet feeling as if the front heel is coming towards your back toes and your back toes are coming towards your front heel
- Have both hip points facing forward like headlights

Common Errors:

Hips are not squared
Front knee is not lined up with the ankle
Front foot is not pointed straight forward

Pose #5: High Lunge – Hip Opener

Benefits:

Hip and shoulder mobility
Core strength
Body awareness

Cues:

Start in a runner’s lunge
Square your hips feeling as if your front hip is moving back and your back hip is moving forward
Ensure your front foot knee and foot are pointed straight forward with your knee stacked over your ankle
Have your back toes tucked under with the ball of your back foot down and pressing through the heel
Come up onto your fingertips, raising your chest and lengthening your spine
On an inhale with a strong core and long spine come up with the upper extending the arms overhead
Bring your front need towards a 90° angle

Common Errors:

Front foot is not pointed straight forward
Front knee is in front of the ankle
Front knee is not pointed straight forward
Upper body is not in line with the hips

Pose #6: Plank – Prone

Benefits:

Strengthens both the core and upper body
Improves posture
Sharpens focus

Cues:

Start in table top (on your hands and knees with fingers spread wide and pointing forward)
Externally rotate your shoulders. To do this keep your fingers facing forward and:
- turn your elbow creases to face forward
- twirl your triceps towards each other
Keeping the shoulders directly over the elbows and the elbows over the wrists walk your knees back about a few inches
Exhale engage the core
Inhale bring the knees off of the ground bringing the legs towards straight engaging the glutes
Ensure that there is active length in the spine and that the space between your shoulder blades is filled with your upper back

Common Errors:

Fingers are not pointed straight forward
Fingers are not spread wide
The seat is lifted higher than the spine
The spine is over arched
Hands are wider or narrower than shoulder width

Pose #7: Chaturanga – Prone

Benefits:

Strengthens the shoulders, chest, triceps and core
Improves focus and resilience

Cues:

Start in a plank
On an exhale keeping your elbows tucked in towards your ribs and shoulders away from your ears slowly lower yourself down towards the ground
Hover approximately two inches off of the ground keeping your core strong and spine long

Common Errors:

Allowing the hips to drop
Elbows are flared out away from the body
Shoulders are behind the elbows and wrists

Pose #8: Cobra – Back Bend

Benefits:

Increases mobility in the spine, hips and shoulders
Opens through the front of the body
Stretches the abdominal muscles

Cues:

Start by lying flat on your stomach
Place your hands directly under your shoulders with your elbows tucked in towards your ribs
On an exhale press the top of your feet into the ground engaging your quads and feeling your knees lift off the ground slightly
On an inhale bring your shoulder blades towards your spine lifting your shoulders and widening your collar bones
Press your hands into the floor gently lifting chest off of the ground to whatever extent is comfortable for your ROM
If you feel any pain in your lower back come out of this pose

Common Errors:

Shoulders are shrugged up towards the ears
Feet are lifted off of the ground
Quadriceps are not engaged
Elbows move away from the body
Coming into the pose too quickly

Pose #9: Down Dog – Forward Bend

Benefits:

Increases upper body strength
Develops shoulder, hip and ankle mobility
Stretches the hamstrings and calves

Cues:

Start in a table top position (on your hands and knees)
Walk your knees back or your hands forward a few inches
Externally rotate your shoulders. To do this keep your fingers facing forward and:
- turn your elbow creases to face forward
- twirl your triceps towards each other
On an exhale press the ground away from you staying connected to your shoulders bring your hips up and back into an inverted ‘V’ position
Feel active length in the spine from the tailbone to the top of your head
Keep your neck in line with the rest of the spine
Press your sternum towards your thighs while keeping your shoulders strong and stable
Work with your range of motion and lengthen your legs without forcing them towards straight

Common Errors:

Shoulder joints are allowed to be unstable
Shoulders are internally rotated
Dropping the head
Forcing the heels towards the ground

Pose #10: Savasana – Restorative

Benefits:

Calming
Relaxing
Restorative

Cues:

Start by lying flat on your back
Extend your legs long on the ground just past hip distance allowing your hips possibly allowing the feet to drop out to the side
Place your arms to either side of the body with the palms facing straight up towards the sky allowing the chest and shoulders to open
Rest your head on the ground softening the neck and the muscles in your face
Inhale deeply and exhale strongly and let go

Modifications:

You can place a bolster under your knees
You can cover your body with a blanket
You can rest your head on a small foam yoga block or cushion

*If this is not a restful position for you, move into one that is.

The Bottom Line

After learning the ins and outs of these 10 poses you are now armed with the knowledge to step on the yoga mat with confidence.

You have started your journey towards developing a safe, effective, and enjoyable yoga practice.

Start with these moves, and work your way towards better physical, emotional, and mental health.

10 Essential Yoga Poses for Beginners

Why Should You Do Yoga?

The Different Types of Poses