Upper Body Yoga Tips

Series Summary

Yoga poses have become increasingly popular as a form of exercise and meditation. The focus of yoga is a holistic one, employing a broad range of practices which focus on a new way of living, thinking and being in the world. Aimed to unite the mind, the body, and the spirit, the health benefits of yoga are also great and varied. From relieving stress to strengthening and toning muscle, integrating yoga positions and exercises into your daily routine can be beneficial on many levels.


In this free video series, our expert will show you how to do yoga poses for upper body strength. If you want to build muscles in your arms, shoulders and back, let our expert show you how to do yoga exercises like the prayer pose, child's cobra pose and the mountain pose. You will also learn how to do the plank pose, upward dog, and the dolphin. If you are interested in strengthening your upper body, let our expert show you everything you need to know for these great yoga exercises.

Video Transcript

"Hi, so in this series we're going to talk about Yoga for strengthening the upper body. And there are a few certain things that people don't think about a lot when they think about trying to build up strength in their upper body, especially for us girls. Number one, strengthening the upper body is not just about strengthening your arms. Its about the whole package which includes your pecks and it includes your trapezius muscles, it includes your latissimus dorsi which are across your shoulder blades. It includes a lot more than just using your arms. So integration is key. You're going to want to in these poses think about not just holding yourself with your arms or pushing with your arms, but using your core, pulling that strength up from your core and sending it out through your muscles using your back. Using all of that power that you have in those lats which are big strong muscles. And you're going to want to think about sending that energy out through your arms as we strengthen, as we push and as we release. The other think that's important to know is that there are pushing muscles and there are pulling muscles. So in these postures we're going to work a lot with supporting our own body weight. Which is going to mean that we're working on our pushing muscles. Right, for support, push up. We'll do those sorts of things. It is good to have balance which means that you also should find another kind of practice for strengthening your pulling muscles. Such as going to the gym, hanging on something, getting a cross bar, getting one of those chin up bars to put across your door. Hang on it and see if you can do those pull ups. There are things like that. Just keep that in mind when you practice, you want a total practice and not just your pushing muscles and your pulling muscles. The other important thing is that the upper body encompasses the fourth chakra which is the heart chakra. And in Yoga this is quite a beautiful thing. The fourth chakra is the chakra that's associated with your heart and giving and receiving. In Yoga they say that if your upper body is strong you can give and you can receive huge blessings. So keep that in mind and when you're strengthening your whole upper body and make this a joyful practice and not just an incredibly difficult one, especially again, for the girls. Alright, here we go.."