50 Yoga Poses for Health, Flexibility, and Inner Strength

By Sejal Shah I Updated on: October 22, 2020

Are you starting your yoga practice? Browse our A-Z catalog of yoga poses. The catalog includes explanations for basic to advanced poses including seated, standing, supine, and prone poses. It also includes ten easy yoga poses for beginners.

Topics included:

• Understanding yoga poses: a brief history
• 50+ yoga poses, from basic to advanced
• From mountain pose to downward facing dog, browse our yoga poses catalog (A-Z)
• How you can learn these poses and get started with your yoga practice
• Try our free 60-minute yoga class
• The benefits of a good yoga session
• Some tips for practicing yoga
• Going deeper: your complimentary guided breathwork and meditation session

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Yoga is a combination of physical and mental exercises that have benefitted yoga practitioners for thousands of years. While most people may think of yoga as the practice of yoga poses, the practice also includes breathwork, meditation, and more. As a beginner, learning and practicing yoga poses is a good starting place to discover yoga's many offerings.

Whether you are young or old, fit or in some pain, yoga classes have the power to calm the mind and strengthen the body. And almost anyone can practice yoga and reap its profound benefits. 

Understanding yoga poses: a brief history

The practice of yoga goes back thousands of years. While originally an oral tradition, parts of this beautiful heritage have been preserved in texts and commentaries like the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. There, Sage Patanjali describes the poses, called asanas, as one of the eight limbs of yoga.

He defines asana as that which is steady and comfortable. This understanding also gives insight into the qualities of an enjoyable and effective yoga practice. Whether it's a child's pose, mountain pose, or even downward facing dog, we want to find a place that is steady and stable, while also relaxing into the pose. A true yoga pose offers both ease and stability, both during and after practice. Remembering this in your yoga sessions will offer many benefits.

At a deeper level, yoga explores the full expression of mind-body integration. We become aware of the flow of life energy in the body. We go beyond flexibility and a good workout, to connect physical steadiness to stillness and evenness of mind.

In the next two lines, Sage Patanjali further explains how to do the asana and what the benefit is:

“Let go of all effort to experience infinity” 

“The practice will remove the conflicts of duality”

You may notice that he doesn’t name any specific postures or suggest that they should be complicated. Rather the purpose here is to maintain a steady and comfortable position in order for the life force energy to flow freely. The full practice also involves an inward stroke that takes us deeper into an experience of stillness and oneness by letting go. So, even if you can’t touch your toes or do a handstand, you can still practice yoga!

A few centuries after Sage Patanjali, Hatha Yoga texts had a lot more to say about seated postures. These texts also include more specific poses that strengthened and opened the body. The Goraksha Samhita, a twelfth-century text, mentions 84 postures. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written around the middle of the fourteenth century, mentions 16. The Gheranda Samhita of the late seventeenth century weighs in with 32. The Yoga-Shastra, even mentions 840,000 different poses. These 840,000 poses represent a pose for each living creature in the universe.

The practice of yoga poses is traditionally called Hatha Yoga where the emphasis is on the disciplined efforts to achieve a strong body and mind.  Hatha Yoga is the basis of all different yoga styles of modern yoga, including Iyengar Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Sri Sri Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Bikram Yoga (hot yoga), and Power Yoga.

Here is a beautiful video in which Gurudev, a renowned expert in yoga and meditation, explains what this practice:

50+ yoga poses, from basic to advanced

A beginner yoga student might feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of poses and their odd-sounding names. There's triangle pose, bridge pose, mountain pose, tree pose, and even plank pose. To make it easy, we have listed 50 of the most popular and beneficial yoga poses and sequences along with their English and Sanskrit names.

Browse our detailed yoga pose catalog that includes standing, seated, prone, supine, and lying on sides poses. These range from yoga poses for beginners to advanced poses.

If you click on the name of the pose you will find out more about it—level of difficulty, the step-by-step instructions on how to do it, the benefits, precautions, modifications and variations, preparatory and follow-up poses.

Out of these 50, here are the top 10 easy yoga poses for a beginner. Roll out your yoga mat and get ready for some gentle body stretching! As you progress, you can take on more challenging poses, but it is a good idea to keep things simple when you're just starting out..

From mountain pose to downward facing dog: browse our yoga poses catalog 

Poses are listed A-Z for each category

English Name	Sanskrit Name	Level of Difficulty And Main Benefit
Standing Poses
Angle Pose 1	Konasana 1	Beginner Back
Angle Pose 2	Konasana 2	Beginner Back
Chair Pose	Utkatasana	Intermediate Hips, legs
Eagle Pose	Garudasana	Intermediate Hips, legs
Mountain Pose	Tadasana	Beginner  Spine, legs
Reverse Prayer Pose	Paschim Namaskarasana	Intermediate Chest, upper back
Standing Backward Bend	Ardha Chakrasana	Beginner/Intermediate Chest, arms, shoulders
Standing Forward Bend	Uttanasana or Hastapadasana	Beginner/Intermediate Back, hamstrings, nervous system
Standing Spinal Twist	Katichakrasana	Beginner Spine, waist
Standing Wide-legged Forward Bend	Prasarita Padottanasana​	Intermediate/Advanced Back, hamstrings
Sun Salutation	Surya Namaskara	Beginner/Intermediate Entire body
Tree Pose	Vrikshasana	Beginner/Intermediate Hips, legs, balancing pose
Triangle Pose	Trikonasana	Beginner Hips, legs, digestion, full-body stretch
Warrior Pose	Veerabhadrasana or Virabhadrasana	Beginner Hips, legs, arms, shoulders, back
Seated Poses​
Adamantine Pose	Vajrasana	Beginner Digestion, posture, thighs, legs
Butterfly Pose	Badhakonasana	Beginner Inner thighs, hips, menstrual discomfort
Camel Pose	Ustrasana	Intermediate Chest, abdomen, back
Cat Stretch	Marjariasana	Beginner Back, abdomen, wrists, digestion
Child's Pose	Shishu Asana	Beginner Back, digestion, nervous system
Cradle Pose	Hindolasana	Beginner Hamstrings, hips, pelvis
Downward Facing Dog Pose (or Downward Dog)	Adho Mukha Svanasana	Beginner Spine, upper body, leg muscles, anxiety, headache
Easy Cross-Legged Sitting	Sukhasana	Beginner Hips, back, posture
Forward Lunge	Ashwa Sanchalanasana	Beginner Spine, back, chest, lungs
Cow Face Pose (or Cow Pose)	Gomukhasana	Beginner/Intermediate Shoulders, things, spine, sciatica
Inclined Plane or Upward Plank Pose	Poorvottanasana	Beginner/Intermediate Wrists, arms, shoulders, back, spine, chest
Lotus Pose	Padmasana	Intermediate/Advanced Hips, pelvis, posture, digestion
Lotus Practice	Padma Sadhana	Beginner/Intermediate Entire body, mind, soul
Mill Churning Pose	Chakki Chalanasana	Beginner Back, abdomen, hips, sciatica, menstrual discomfort
Monkey Pose	Hanumanasana	Intermediate/Advanced Hips, things, legs
One-Legged Forward Bend	Janu Shirasasana	Beginner/Intermediate Lower back, abdomen
Two-Legged Sitting Forward Bend	Paschimottanasana	Beginner/Intermediate Lower back, abdomen
Pigeon Pose or One-Legged King Pigeon Pose	Kapotasana or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana	Beginner/Intermediate Hips, legs, posture
Seated Forward Bend With Adi Mudra (hand gesture)	Yoga Mudrasana	Beginner Abdomen, back
Sitting Half Spinal Twist	Ardha Matsyendrasana	Beginner/Intermediate Spine, chest, lungs, digestion
Subtle Yoga for Head and Neck	Sukshma Vyayama	Beginner Neck, shoulders
Subtle Yoga for the Whole body	Sukshma Vyayama (Video)	Beginner All joints and muscles of the body
Prone (Lying on Belly) Poses
Bow Pose	Dhanurasana	Beginner/Intermediate Abdomen, back, reproductive organs
Cobra Pose	Bhujangasana	Beginner Arms, chest, abdomen, wrists, digestion, backache
Crocodile Pose	Makarasana	Beginner Back, stress relief, relaxation
Locust Pose	Shalabasana	Beginner Spine, back, shoulders, arms
Sphinx Pose	Salamba Bhujangasana	Beginner Spine, chest, shoulders, stress relief
Superman Pose	Viparita Shalabhasana	Beginner/Intermediate Chest, shoulders, arms, legs, abdomen, lower back
Upward Facing Dog Pose	Urdhva Mukha Svanasana	Beginner/Intermediate Back, arms, wrists, posture
Supine (Lying on Back) Poses
Boat Pose	Naukasana	Beginner/Intermediate Back, abdominals, arms, hips, hernia
Bridge Pose	Setubandhasana	Beginner Back, spine, neck, chest, kungs
Corpse Pose	Savasana	Beginner Stress relief, relaxation
Fish Pose	Matsyasana	Beginner/Intermediate Chest, lungs, upper back
Legs Up The Wall Pose	Viparita Karani	Beginner Stress relief, relaxation, back pain
Lying-down Body Twist	Natarajasana	Beginner Spine, back
Plow Pose (or Plough Pose)	Halasana	Intermediate Neck, shoulders, abs, back, thyroid
Shoulder Stand	Sarvangasana	Intermediate Neck, shoulders, abs, back, thyroid
Wheel Pose or Full-Wheel Pose and  Upward BowPose	Chakrasana or Urdhva Dhanurasana	Intermediate/Advanced  Arms, legs, spine,  abdomen, chest
Wind-Relieving Pose	Pavanamuktasana	Beginner Back, abdomen, gas, digestion
Lying on Side Poses
Side Reclining Leg Lift Pose or Lying- down on sides	Vishnu Asana or Anantasana	Beginner/Intermediate Pelvis, inner thighs

How you can learn these poses and get started with yoga practice

It is most helpful to learn and practice yoga with the guidance of a trained yoga teacher. While you can find lots of information on our website, the best way to learn is still with feedback and space to ask questions with a trainer who is certified. This will allow you to experience each pose in its most subtle and deeper aspects. We recommend attending a Sri Sri Yoga Foundation Program near you to really dive deep into your practice. 

Our 200 hours of yoga teacher training provides a wonderful platform to learn all the fundamentals of yoga poses in great detail. 

 

The benefits of a good yoga session

Creating your own yoga practice will have benefits on the physical, mental, emotional, and energetic levels. Whether you are looking to enhance your flexibility, build up your overall health, or tap into inner peace, a good yoga session can definitely help. In the links above, you will also find guidance on the breathing cues on how to inhale and exhale in each of the poses. The breath is an important part of asana too. 

Many yoga students begin a yoga asana practice for physical flexibility, strength, stamina, balance, stress relief, and improved health. But they soon discover benefits such as an increased sense of well-being, easier access to meditative states, and improved emotional stability. The key to experiencing these benefits lies in a regular yoga practice over time with patience, attention, and consistency. Having said this, many people feel better after even just one good yoga session!

There is also an evolving field of therapeutic yoga that advocates using specific asana to help alleviate specific health problems or physical issues.

Some tips for beginners and advanced practitioners

Try to practice on an empty stomach and don’t force yourself into any poses. Instead, be gentle and aim for stability. In order to enhance the benefits of the poses, physical poses can be followed up with breathing exercises and meditation. Regardless of the yoga style, it is best to practice mindfully with awareness, as a means of uniting the body, breath, and mind. 

It takes just a few classes to learn the beginner yoga poses and the right way of doing these asanas. 

Remember, your yoga practice is a continuous evolution and practice makes progress.  Over years of practice, you grow and blossom further as a human being. Here are some tips to help improve your evolving practice.

Going deeper: your complimentary guided breathwork and meditation session

For those who want to go deeper into yoga practice, it is helpful to explore the integration of breathwork and meditation. By working with the rhythms of your breath, you can start to impact how you feel in day to day life. Join us for a free breath & meditation session with a live instructor and learn a simple yet powerful breathing technique, and enjoy a guided meditation.

Sejal Shah, E-RYT 500 Sri Sri Yoga Teacher, YACEP, C-IAYT, Meditation Teacher, Happiness expert, NYU Post Graduate Medical School approved Yoga-CME retreat facilitator, Mind-Body Wellness Writer, Homeopath. She can be followed on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.