When getting started in the physical practices of yoga, also known as asana, you will discover a few ways in which yoga postures can be categorized.
There are seated postures, supine postures (laying on your back), prone postures (facing down), standing postures, balancing postures, inversions, and a few more categories.
In this article, we will focus on standing yoga poses for beginners, and how, as you learn the basics and benefits of these shapes, you can start to incorporate them into your routine, expanding your yoga practice.
Continue reading to learn about these postures!
The Basics Of Standing Yoga Poses
Standing yoga postures provide a solid foundation for you to build balance, strength, flexibility, and mindfulness.
Whether you’re stepping onto the mat for the first time or refining your practice, understanding the essential elements of standing yoga postures is key to tapping into the many benefits that yoga has to offer.
Standing yoga poses for beginners promote better posture, increase circulation, build strength, and improve focus, and incorporating some of these foundational asanas into your regular practice can be the groundwork for transformation.
10 Basic Standing Yoga Poses For Beginners
There is a wide variety of standing postures that are practiced in different styles of yoga.
Today we want to introduce you to a few of the most common ones you may encounter when you attend a yoga class, whether in person or online.
One of the best parts is that you don’t even need a yoga mat & can take these poses with you everywhere you go!
Here are some of the most popular standing yoga poses for beginners:
1 # Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Mountain Pose serves as the most foundational stance in yoga, promoting proper alignment and grounding.
Beginners benefit from learning to establish a steady base, aligning the spine, and cultivating awareness of breath.This pose enhances posture, strengthens legs, and fosters a sense of stability.
If standing isn’t available for you right now, consider practicing this posture sitting on a chair, and with your feet firmly planted on the ground or resting on yoga blocks.
2 # Upward Salute Standing Side bend (Parsva Urdhva Hastasana)
This pose combines a stretch with a lateral bend, offering a gentle opening on the side body.
It opens the chest, stretches the sides of the body, and encourages mindful breathing.
3 # Chair pose (Utkatasana)
This is one of those accessible standing yoga poses for beginners that are very effective for improving the range of motion in the shoulders.
For example, if you feel more tightness in the upper body, consider keeping your arms shoulders level, and as you find more space in the shoulder griddle, your arms perhaps start to lift your arms up toward the ears.
4# Standing forward bend (Uttanasana)
Uttanasana provides a gentle stretch for the entire back body, eases tight hamstrings, and improves spinal flexibility.
Part of the original sun salutations sequence, this forward fold also calms the mind, relieves stress and back pain, and can aid in digestion.
5# High lunge (Astha Chandrasana)
High Lunge introduces the element of balance and strengthens the legs. It’s often used as a transitional pose that prepares the body for more advanced standing postures.
The pose enhances your hip flexors flexibility, builds stamina in the quads, and engages core strength, and challenges balance by coming up on the toes of the back foot.
If you want to feel more stable, consider placing your back knee on the ground, and exploring Anjaneyasana instead.
6# Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I)
Warrior I cultivates strength and stability, making it suitable for beginners. It strengthens the legs, opens the chest, and encourages grounding.
This pose is empowering, fostering both physical and mental resilience.
You can add a slight backbend to this pose for an added challenge.
To learn more about warrior poses read this piece.
7# Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)
Another one of the popular standing yoga poses for beginners is Warrior 2. This asana t enhances strength in the legs and shoulders while improving concentration. T
The pose promotes balance, stability, and a sense of inner strength.
8# Triangle pose (Utthita Trikonasana)
Also known simply as Trikonasana, this standing yoga posture focuses on lateral stretching and balance, making it accessible for beginners.
It strengthens the legs, opens the hips, and elongates the spine, fostering a sense of expansion.
Although it may be tempting to take your bottom hand all the way down to your ankle or the floor, we invite you to try to keep your front body facing sideways and open and place your hand on a block, your shin, or your thigh instead.
9# Goddess pose (Utkata Konasana)
Goddess Pose is a grounding posture that engages the entire body, especially the legs and hips.
It is one of those great standing yoga postures for beginners that empowers, energizes, and encourages a sense of inner strength.
It can also be a great warm up pose for more challenging yoga asana.
In yoga, this asana carries a symbolic significance that extends beyond its physical form. This pose is often associated with the archetype of the divine feminine1 Indries, M. (2022, March 28). An Empowering Yoga Practice to Cultivate Your Feminine Energy. Yoga Journal. https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences/yoga-practice-feminine-energy/, embodying qualities of strength, power, and nurturing.
10# Tree pose (Vrksasana)
Tree pose is not only a standing posture but also a balancing one.
It strengthens the legs, improves focus and concentration, and promotes stability. This pose also opens the hips and stretches the inner thighs.
These standing yoga poses for beginners offer a good introduction to the practice, emphasizing alignment, strength, flexibility, and mindfulness.
As you practice these shapes often and experience progress, these foundational poses create a solid platform for exploring more advanced postures and deepening the yoga journey.
4 Benefits Of Standing Yoga Poses For Beginners
While standing yoga postures may not be a requirement for every practitioner, incorporating these poses into your yoga sequence or routine, especially for beginners, offers a plethora of physical, mental, and emotional benefits.
These poses, ranging from the foundational shapes to dynamic balancing poses, provide a solid introduction for evolving your practice.
1# Build a strong foundation
One of the primary advantages of standing yoga poses is the emphasis on building a strong foundation for your practice.
These postures often require for you to ground yourself through your feet, fostering a connection with the earth.
This foundational strength enhances physical stability and is almost like a metaphorical anchor, grounding you in the present moment.
For beginners, this aspect is particularly valuable as it lays the structure and alignment required for more advanced postures and a deeper exploration of the practice.
2# Improve your balance and proprioception
Standing poses facilitate the development of balance2 Krejčí, M., Hill, M., Kajzar, J., Tichý, M., & Hošek, V. (2022). Yoga exercise intervention improves balance control and prevents falls in seniors aged 65+. Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 61(2), 85–92. https://doi.org/10.2478/sjph-2022-0012 and proprioception3 Mullerpatan, R., Kanjirathingal, J., Nehete, G., & Raghuram, N. (2021). Effect of yogasana intervention on standing balance performance among people with diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A pilot study. International Journal of Yoga, 14(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijoy.ijoy_75_20. As you engage in standing yoga poses for beginners that may also challenge your balance, you will start to cultivate a heightened awareness of your body in space.
This enhanced balance not only contributes to physical stability but also carries over into daily activities, promoting better coordination and preventing falls.
3# Adapt the poses to your needs
Standing yoga postures are inherently versatile since they can be practiced with the use of props and there are a few variations to each one of the asanas that you can try out, to see what accommodates your balance, flexibility, and strength needs.
This adaptability makes them accessible for beginners and allows you to progress at your own pace.
From a physical standpoint, standing yoga poses promote balance, stability, muscle strength, and flexibility.
Poses like Warrior I and II engage major muscle groups, including the legs, core, and arms, fostering overall strength and toning. Simultaneously, the dynamic nature of these poses encourages flexibility, particularly in the hips, shoulders, and spine.
4# Gain benefits beyond the physical aspect
The benefits extend beyond the physical realm, influencing mental and emotional well-being.
The mindful focus required during standing poses cultivates a sense of presence and concentration.
As you learn to place the focus on your breath and alignment that feels good in your body, you will develop mental clarity and an ability to quiet the chatter of the mind.
This meditative quality can help you reduce stress levels4 Azami, M., Shohani, M., Badfar, G., Nasirkandy, M., Kaikhavani, S., Rahmati, S., Modmeli, Y., & Soleymani, A. (2018). The effect of yoga on stress, anxiety, and depression in women. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 9(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_242_16 as well as enhance your self-awareness.
Incorporating standing yoga poses into a beginner’s practice thus becomes a holistic approach to well-being.
It lays the foundation for a balanced and sustainable yoga journey, encouraging individuals to explore the depths of their physical abilities and cultivate mindfulness.
A sequence with standing yoga poses for beginners
If you would like to put the asanas that we have talked about in this article, here is a 15-minute YouTube class led by a yoga instructor that includes some of these standing yoga poses for beginners and will give you a nice full-body stretch:
To Close
It is good to incorporate standing yoga poses for beginners as well as for those who have been practicing asana for longer since they are poses that promote balance, stability, strength, and flexibility.
Standing postures can be adapted and modified for a wide range of needs, so it is important to have props handy when you begin exploring these shapes as a new yoga practitioner.
These asanas are a great foundation to evolve your practice from as a beginner and can help you gain a solid understanding of alignment.
To discover a wider variety of standing yoga postures, check out this section of our website next!
