Yoga Standing Poses: Basic Poses

Series Summary

The word "yoga" comes from the Sanskrit root “yuj” meaning "to bind, or join." Yoga is centrally the practice of union, whether joining the mind to the body, the human to the divine, or the individual to the infinite. The various styles of yoga that have made it to the West all share a common core: positioning the body into a particular posture while focusing mind and breath to lead to physical and spiritual well-being. These arts of positioning the body have been passed on for thousands of years, and encompass one of the oldest cultural traditions known to exist. To practice yoga, then, is also to join with the ancient sages, drawing human history up into oneself and connecting with the divine. In this free yoga video series, yoga instructor Cathie Ryder demonstrates basic standing poses for beginners. These standing poses build awareness in the major muscles of the body as well as strength and stamina. Learn poses such as the tree pose, the straight-leg lunge and the side angle stretch. This excellent series will help viewers develop basic yoga skills in preparation for more advanced yoga poses.

Video Transcript

"Standing poses are really some of the most basic foundational yoga poses that there are. They are great for beginners. They are like the essential yoga poses for beginners for a couple different reasons. One they build a lot of awareness in the major muscles of the body which are mostly in the legs, two they build a lot of strength so you hold them for a little bit longer and they require more strength and energy. They also build stamina or what we call tapas so just like a heat or a vitality in the body and along with all of that they also teach you how to be more stable because a lot of our standing poses we take a wide leg stance and you have to figure out how to balance and maneuver in that wide legged stance so it's stability, strength, stamina, a lot of good things from standing poses and what you will find I hope is that they will also make you feel more grounded as you connect more to the Earth and more to your legs you will just start to feel how you can be really grounded and stable in your own life and in your body and even beyond the yoga practice so let's do some standing poses."