Yoga Positions

Yoga Positions For Beginners Explained In Detail

These yoga positions for beginners are simple but you should still take care when performing them.

If you choose to do yoga positions for beginners or any yoga exercises for that matter, before retiring at night, make certain you are not over-tired, but fully enough awake to relax and concentrate on what you are doing with these yoga basic positions.

Obviously little benefit would be derived from either asanas (yoga exercises) or mudras performed while the mind is in such a state of fatigue that it cannot address itself to the task at hand.

Without the proper mental mood the yoga positions for beginners become so many physical exercises, an exotic but ineffectual substitute for calisthenics.

Remember that all yoga positions for beginners should be performed on the hard floor, using a rug or mat for protection. A mattress or soft bed is inadvisable since you would not derive the maximum muscular benefits from performing yoga exercises on a "giving" surface.

One quick point before we continue. Yoga is all about health so in addition to using the following yoga positions for beginners you should check out this. It's really worth a few moments of your time.

Yoga positions # 1: SAVASANA, or the Death Pose; this is the pose of complete relaxation.

Method: Let yourself lie flat and heavy on the mat. Breathe rhythmically but naturally. Try to feel the weight of your body as though it were digging into the ground. Consciously relax every muscle, starting with the head, neck, shoulders, chest, arms and hands and fingers, down the torso and abdomen, down the back, hips, thighs, knees, legs, feet and toes.

Relax the muscles of your face-forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth, chin. Pretend you are an old piece of rope lying on the ground. When you have relaxed completely, repeat the process.

You will discover a residue of tension here and there which must be gotten rid of. Do not let your mind wander and free-associate, but concentrate on some soothing image, such as clouds floating in the sky. Hold the image.

Do not let yourself relax into sleep. After a few moments reverse the process by deliberately tensing the relaxed muscles one by one. Stretch hard. In time you should be able to hold most yoga positions for ten or fifteen minutes without either day-dreaming or falling asleep. You will find such relaxation more beneficial than an hour's nap.

Yoga positions #2: UDHITTA PADASANA, or Raised-Legs Posture, is a simple asana which may be done by anyone, regardless of age, weight or infirmities, and is therefore excellent to be included in the list of yoga positions for beginners.

Method: Lie flat on your back, arms along the sides as for SAVASANA yoga positions for beginners. Inhaling slowly, slowly raise your right leg without bending the knee, until it is at right angles to your body, keeping your other leg flat on the floor.

Hold this position for a few seconds, then lower the leg while exhaling in the same slow rhythm. Reverse, repeating with the left leg. Now raise both legs at once. Hold this position for a slow count of three times three (counting to three in waltz time approximates one second) and lower the legs again. Rest. Gradually increase the count to ten or twelve seconds.

At first you may find that doing the three parts of yoga exercises such as this just once is enough to produce slight fatigue. But after a few days you will be able to increase the number of repetitions to three, then four or five.

Eventually you should be able to raise both legs at once half a dozen times in smooth rhythm without stopping. Be sure however, as with all yoga positions for beginners, to always to go through all motions slowly: the tendency is to lower the legs fast, since this is by far the easier way.

You will probably experience slight soreness of the abdominal muscles at the start, but this will not last beyond the first few days.

Therapeutic Value: yoga positions for beginners like this will give the abdomen an internal massage, strengthening all the muscles and breaking down surplus fat.

It is therefore particularly good for persons working at sedentary jobs and for those suffering from or wishing to prevent "middle-aged spread.

It is excellent for preventing prolapse of the stomach and for reconditioning muscles after childbirth. In the latter case, however, it should not be done without first checking with a doctor.

Caution: As with most yoga exercises, yoga positions for beginners or not, it should be avoided by persons with a weak heart and women already suffering from female disorders.

In contrast with the above asanas, which are basically Deep Contraction yoga exercises, the next three yoga positions for beginners are Concentration Poses.

They are listed in the logical order in which you will want to do them, the first being the simplest and the last the most complicated yoga positions for beginners.

But even the first of the yoga positions for beginners will require a bit of patience at first, unless you are naturally very limber.

Yoga positions #3: SUKHASANA, also called the Simple Pose:

Method: For these yoga positions for beginners, sit on the mat with legs stretched out in front. Bend the right leg at the knee and place the foot under the left thigh, using your hands to do it.

Now bend the left leg and place the left foot under the right leg. (You may, if you wish, reverse the order in which the legs are bent. Left-handed persons will generally find themselves naturally doing this in regard to many positions).

Keep the body balanced and easily erect. Extend your arms so that the wrists rest on your knees, palms turned upward. The tips of the thumbs should touch the tips of the index fingers, with other fingers lying straight out.

At first your knees will persist in sticking up into the air, which is only natural, since unlike the Orientals we have no tradition of sitting cross-legged unless our ancestors were tailors! You may find it helpful to start practicing this pose seated on a large book about two inches thick.

Do not force the knees down. Eventually you will be able to achieve this pose with ease and will assume it naturally for meditation.

Therapeutic Value: These yoga positions for beginners help concentration and induces mental and physical stability through calming the nervous system.

Yoga positions #4: SIDDHASANA, the Advanced or Perfect Pose:

Method: Having mastered the Simple Pose yoga positions for beginners, you are now ready to go on to the Advanced Pose, and you will find that your abilities of concentration become much greater.

Superficially there is considerable similarity between the two exercises, and you begin the SIDDHASANA as you do the SUKHASANA.

This time, however, you start sitting upright, tailor fashion, then take the left foot in the right hand and bend it so that the left heel is placed against the perineum (the structure between the genitals and the anus) and the sole of the left foot touches the upper portion of the right thigh.

Be careful not to sit on the heel, which should just feel the two bones of the perineum. Now bend the right leg so that the right heel is against the pubic bone and the toes of the right foot fit snugly into the crevice formed by the calf and thigh or the left leg.

Next, place your left hand, palm upward, on your left knee and the right hand on the right knee. Keep the head erect, pressing your chin well into your neck. Close your eyes and begin to concentrate by focusing your imagination on a spot between your eyebrows. This is not a must; but your mind is likely to wander at first unless you do.

Therapeutic Value: Same as SUKHASANA yoga positions for beginners, with increased powers of concentration.

Yoga positions #5: PADMASANA, the Lotus or Buddha Pose, one of the basic Asana and the one most Westerners will recognize as one the classic yoga positions for beginners. Of the three meditation poses it is the most difficult to achieve.

But since it is also the most beneficial, by all means try eventually to train your body to assume it.

Method: Sit on the mat tailor fashion. With your hands, bring the right foot up to rest on the left thigh, close to the hip joint, with the sole of the foot upturned and the heel near the middle of the abdomen, the ball of the foot almost in line with the thigh.

Now take the left foot, cross it over the right and place it in a similar position on the right thigh. (For left-handed persons, reverse the order). Place the hands on the knees, palms open, the thumb and second finger of each hand forming the letter O.

Because the Lotus Pose, yoga positions, sometimes take months of practice for the Occidental to achieve, many teachers advocate the following preliminary exercise:

Place the sole of your left foot against the right thigh, then begin a bouncing up-and-down movement with your left knee. You will find that the moment you push the knee down to the floor it will bounce up again like rubber-this is true even of the Simple Pose yoga positions for beginners -and the bouncing routine helps stretch and Umber unused tendons and ligaments. Bounce first one knee, then the other.

Therapeutic Value: The Lotus yoga positions, which symbolizes mental purity and a completely developed consciousness, is said to free the mind of temptations and lower physical instincts.

Its perfect symmetry gives the body inner harmony, preserves the equilibrium of our positive and negative currents and increases the effect of our yoga breathing exercises.

Creative energy is said to waken like a great river dammed up so that its rising waters may be harnessed. Its immediate physical benefits are to keep the joints flexible and to promote good posture.

Perhaps you are wondering why such difficult yoga positions for beginners or postures as the last three are recommended for concentration, since it would seem that in order simply to concentrate one might just as well lie down and relax.

Actually, this is not the case.

Experience has shown that if one lies down to concentrate or meditate, it is all too easy to day-dream, drowse or even fall asleep. Standing yoga positions for beginners, on the other hand, make it impossible to relax sufficiently for the mind to be completely free to devote itself to meditation.

Over the centuries those who have perfected yoga positions for beginners have found that the sitting posture is infinitely the superior one, and so have adopted it.

...really feels good when doing yoga, especially when my body is out tune, so thanks to this yoga positions, it is soothing and relaxing...

Includes Illustrations For Yoga Positions For Beginners