Great Poses for Everyone

There are multiple “basic” poses in yoga that everyone from beginners to advanced can enjoy and work on every day to improve and reap the benefits.

Mountain Pose

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  Stand tall with your feet together, your shoulders relaxed and your weight evenly distributed through the soles of your feet.  Begin with your arms at sides.

• Take a deep breath and raise your hands overhead, palms facing each other with arms straight. Reach up toward the sky with your fingertips.
• If you’re really feeling good, and in the parlance of yoga — “it’s available to you” — consider the extended Mountain Pose.
• The benefits are numerous: Mountain Pose stretches the body, your spine, shoulders, armpits, and even belly. But there is more: it tones thighs, can improve digestion, and helps to relieve anxiety and fatigue while building energy.
• It also can helps to create added space in your chest and lungs.

Downward Dog

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  Aptly named, Downward Dog is how a few German Shepherds we know start each day.

• Start on all fours with hands directly under shoulders, knees under hips.
• Then, walk your hands a few inches forward and spread fingers wide.
• Remember to press your palms into the mat.
• Slowly and gradually press your hips towards the ceiling and bring your body into an upside down “V” position.
• Check your feet.  The gap between them should be approximately the wideth of your hips.
• Feel free to bend your knees slightly.
• If you feel up to it, walk your legs, in position, as though you are a sprinter in the starting blocks, about to get ready for a race.

Warrior Pose

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  This is a classic: Stand with legs apart, turning right foot out 90 degrees and left foot in slightly.

• Bring your hands to your hips and relax your shoulders, then extend arms out to the sides, palms down.
• Bend your right knee 90 degrees, keeping your knee over your ankle; extend your eyes  out over right hand.
• Chest out.  Be a proud warrior and hold for 1 minute.
• Now switch sides and give the other side of your body the same pose.

Tree Pose

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  Begin with your arms at your sides and then…

• Place the bottom of your right foot inside your left thigh, while keeping your hips facing forward.  Try not to have the sole of your foot press against your knee.
• When your feel comfortable, raise your hands in front of you in prayer position — palms should be together
• Try to hold the pose for 30-60 seconds and then…
• Bring Tree Pose to the opposite leg.

Never Stop