Join me in this 10 minute flow: yoga for posture for beginners where I’ll guide you through 3 main poses that will improve your posture while also breaking down mountain pose that you can work on throughout your regular day.
Note: video can take a moment to load. Be patient. If you prefer just to listen to the audio select item 02.
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Mountain Pose
While mountain pose may seem like an obvious yoga pose for posture for beginners it really is a powerful one.
Many of us don’t stand in mountain pose in our regular day life, our natural posture takes over and we may find like most of us a lot of our energy centers starting to get shut down partly due to our posture (although never solely, that’s a whole other chakra conversation, one I hope to add to the blog soon!).
To get into mountain pose you can 1) what the above video for a visual and verbal break down or 2) begin with your feet.
Mountain Pose breakdown
- Start by standing your feet hip width apart. Standing up against a wall with your heals against the wall can help you feel your alignment better. If you have a full length mirror this can also help.
- Press into all four corners of your feet. Lift your toes to do a little check in of where your weight lies.
Pro Tip Next time your at a beach or sandy area take off your shoes and walk. Or even wet your feet and make foot prints on cool concert. Notice what pattern your feet naturally make. You’ll see where you tend to put your weight, a lot in your heal, your toes, etc. Use this to help you find more balance in your foot place meant as you get on your mat.
- Fill the knee caps lift up as you feel an inner rotation of the thighs spiraling from your calf muscles all the way up to your hip joint.
- Notice your pelvic bowl. Does it tilt forward or back. Leaning against the wall here can help you really feel this. Or looking into a mirror. Try to find your neutral.
- Engage your lower abdomen like your pulling your belly button up and in, but not so intensely you cannot breathe.
- Draw your rib cage together so your ribs don’t jut out.
- Draw your shoulders up to your ears then down your back on an exhale.
- Check in with your neck that your ears are over your shoulders. (For most of us our chin pushes forward so we do a “skull draw,” aka sliding the neck just slightly back.)
Tada! You just found tadsanana, mountain pose.
I know I know, I couldn’t help myself its just fun to say together!
Reverse Table Top
Reverse table top is a great yoga pose for posture for beginners because it really does the reverse work of all our forwardness our shoulders bear for most of us with hunched over posture.
You may even find after doing this pose that some emotions come up because its such a good heart opener!
Reverse Table Top Breakdown
Begin seated on your bum. Place your feet close in toward your hips but slightly apart inline with your hip points. Place your hands behind you, fingers pointing towards your bottom edge of your mat.
You can stay here to start to draw the shoulder blades together. Inhale.
Exhale, begin to lift your hip points up to the sky. Aiming to create a flat top with your abdomen.
Feel your shins pushing towards the front of the room and your shoulder blades drawing together while keep them away from your ears.
Keep that lower abdomen engaged and inner thigh muscles rotating into engage the deep transverse abdominal muscles to deeply support you.
Keep breathing.
Pro Tip Don’t neglect your neck! Your neck can be relaxed, gaze towards your knees or if you have a strong neck you can relax it back making sure to come out gently if you feel any pain whatsoever. Our heads are very heavy!
Staff Pose
Staff pose is another great yoga pose for posture for beginners because it helps you really focus on sitting upright which is where most of us spend a lot of our time. It looks so simple but it is a deeply training posture.
Staff Pose Breakdown
- Begin with your legs extended, don’t worry if your legs do not extend out completely straight. (This will depend on your flexibility levels.)
- Come to find alignment in your spine as you did in mountain pose.
- Legs hip width apart, toes engaged, knee caps drawing up. Thigh muscles spiraling in slightly.
- Check that your pelvic bowl isn’t rocking forward or back but is neutral.
- Draw your belly button up and in to engaged the lower abdomen. Draw your rib cage together and shoulders down your back to open through the chest.
- Check in with your neck that your ears are over your shoulders.
- Hands resting at your side either palms flat or finger tips touching. Note: Not all hands will touch the ground, it has nothing to do with flexibility but completely with anatomy.
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