I’m always trying to find great yoga for beginners. Largely because it helps with achy sore muscles and flexibility.
Also, it happens to be great for strength training and relaxation.
I’ve always been amazed how it can do those two things at the same time!
It’s been kind of tricky to find really good examples of how to do the poses effectively.
There’s lots of pictures with the positions but sometimes I find it challenging to find good explanations of how to do them.
More importantly, it can be a challenge to find explanations of how to do them properly.
So in the spirit of keeping moving and staying healthy because sitting on your butt all day is more dangerous than you can imagine.…
I started thinking. (Yeah, I do that sometimes.)
If I’m having trouble finding good explanations of these poses, maybe other people are as well.
Especially people like me, who are looking for great yoga for beginners.
And if people are having trouble finding good explanations of healthy yoga practices, they might get discouraged from pursuing it further.
We can’t have that.
So I’m going to start posting some amazing examples of yoga that I’ve found that is helping me and I think is great for people just starting out.
Related Article: Bodyweight Strength Training For Beginners and Isometric Exercise
These will be detailed examples with clear explanations of how to perform the yoga in ways that are safe, easy and most effective.
So for starters, let’s look at…
The Cobra Pose
At first glance, it looks simple enough. Well, that’s how I felt about it anyway when I first saw it.
Basically, I figured you just lie down on your belly and lift up.
Turns out, there’s a lot more to it.
So let’s go through what you need to know and then I’ll show you this incredible video I found breaking down the pose into easy pieces.
1. First And Foremost In Your Mind – Stay Aware Of Your Lower Back
Since this pose involves a good upper body stretch, you want to remain keenly aware of your lower back.
Mostly, don’t strain it while getting into the pose.
In order to give your back the respect and consideration it deserves, if you’re looking for yoga for beginners, you’ll want to get into the pose in phases.
Don’t just jump into it. You don’t want to injure yourself when you’re just getting started.
2. Practice Good Stretching And Breathing
This is good advice for all new exercises and routines. Especially if you are just starting out with yoga.
Remember, you’re about to put your muscles into positions they’ve never been in before.
Proper stretching will help you limber up and prepare your joints and muscles for the movements. Breathing will help you develop good technique and get the most out of the movement.
So get ready for a few preliminary positions before going into the full pose.
3. Become Aware Of Your Hands And Shoulders
With a lot of yoga, it’s easy to take your body position for granted.
It’s to be expected since most of what we do during the day involves a lot of automatic movements without much thought.
To get the most out of yoga poses, and in this case the cobra, you’ll become far more aware of your hands and shoulders.
How you position your upper body will be critical to benefiting from the pose and avoiding injury.
4. Where Your Upper Body Goes – Your Legs And Feet Will Follow
This was a bit of a surprise for me. Looking at the pose, you wouldn’t realize how your legs and feet will come into play. But they do!
Here you’ll learn about how to use your lower body for leverage and how to utilize multiple muscle groups to aid in the effective execution of the position.
One of the best tips I’ve picked up from yoga for beginners is how the entire body works to benefit targeted muscle groups.
In this case you’ll learn how to strengthen your entire upper body and core with the aid of muscle groups you probably didn’t realize were aiding with the pose. It’s very cool!
And once you get used to it and build up your strength, it feels great!
So enough yammering on from me. Here is one of the best breakdowns I found for people just getting started with yoga and interested in learning the right way to do cobra pose.
Please enjoy Aparajita Jamwal from the aptly titled Yoga with AJ at Mind, Body, Soul. She is amazing!
Wasn’t that fantastic!
There are so many great takeaways from that lesson I almost don’t know where to begin.
Definitely capitalize on the individual stretches and breathing techniques before you come anywhere near the pose itself. That will benefit you with lots of other exercises as well.
Those stretches in and out of various positions really helped working towards the full pose.
I’m so impressed with working through the half cobra. That’s something I never would have thought up on my own. So grateful to find this kind of explanation.
And how about learning how to apply pressure with the feet to properly extend the shoulders and prevent pressure on the lower back? That was fantastic!
Yoga for beginners really benefits me with my regular workout. It assists with building strength and balance.
Cobra Pose in particular as AJ mentions helps strengthen the spine, firms the buttocks and opens the chest.
Lots of good stuff.
I hope you enjoyed it and find this helpful. Consider adding the cobra pose to your regular workout.
Keep your eyes open because I will be adding more easy yoga for beginners in the weeks to come.
See you soon and best of luck on your continuing physical fitness journey!
Related Article: 5 Of The Best Yoga Poses For Beginners
