Top 3 Yoga Exercises to Try at Home

Yoga is a fantastic exercise to help you relax while toning and strengthening your muscles. While it is recommended that you start your yoga journey by attending a few classes to help you to correctly master a selection of poses, there are many different exercises that can be mastered at home.

Before doing any yoga exercises at home you should purchase or borrow a yoga mat. These can be picked up cheaply at many different shops. Don’t think of it as an unnecessary expense; a yoga mat could save you an injury that could be sustained from performing your yoga stances on a hard surface.

Now, let’s consider some of the exercises that you can learn now from home:

Downward facing dog

Place your hands and your knees on the floor, your palms should be flat with your fingers extended forward and should be ever so slightly forward of the line of your shoulders. Inhale deeply, filling your lungs with air. As you exhale lift your knees off the ground so that you are standing on your hands and toes. Inhale deeply once more and as you exhale try to touch the floor with your heels. Don’t force this, just stretch as far as is comfortable. While in this position concentrate on breathing deeply and remain there for fifteen seconds.

Inner thigh stretch

Sit on your yoga mat and spread you legs as wide as they will comfortably stretch, forming a V shape, with your hands on the floor in front of you. Make sure that you are sitting up straight as you inhale deeply. As you exhale move your hands forward as if walking and start to lean forward, your chest moving toward the floor as far as is comfortable. From this position take three deep breaths before slowly uncurling to your upright sitting position. Repeat this exercise three times for the best effect.

Butterfly pose

Sit up straight on your yoga mat and bring your feet together in front of you so that the soles are touching. Inhale deeply and as you exhale place your hands on your toes and very gently pull your heels closer toward you. Inhale once more and as you exhale lean forward while keeping your back straight as long as you are comfortable. Concentrate on deep inhalation and exhalation while you hold this pose for one minute before slowly returning to an upright seated position.

Conclusions

These three simple yoga exercises will help you to get started. There are plenty of resources and DVDs available that will teach you additional yoga exercises. However, we recommend that you find a class with a qualified teacher to instruct you in how to correctly perform each pose. This minimises the risk of injury to you in your exercise.

Many different organisations now run yoga classes so you will be able to find one that suits your needs with relative ease. They are often not too expensive and evening classes are available to those that work during the day. No matter how, when and where you learn, it won’t be long before you start to reap the benefits of your yoga workouts.

Rebecca L. Smith is a full time freelance writer based in the UK. She specialises in creating an assortment of articles on a range of different topics of interest.