Yoga not only helps tighten your muscles, but it also strengthens your body, increases your flexibility, and helps you get rid of all the extra jiggle. There are hundreds of yoga poses, or asanas, that strengthen, detox, and balance your body. So, grab your mat and get to work! We have 14 yoga poses that will help you lose weight, tone, strengthen and detox your body.
1. Sun Salutations (Surya-Namaskar)
Sun salutation is a complete physical and spiritual practice in itself. It includes asana, pranayama, mantra and meditation. All the 12 postures involved in a round of Surya Namaskar are performed in a steady, rhythmic sequence, synchronizing with the breath and mental awareness.
2. Standing Forward Fold (Uttanasana)
Forward Bend (Uttanasana) is about lengthening and loosening the back of the body – the hamstrings especially, but also the often-tight low back muscles and shoulder girdle. This yoga pose allows the spine to lengthen without compression and allows the muscles of the legs and hips to stretch, while at the same time starting to strengthen them.
3. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Adhomukha Svanasana – the downward facing dog pose is an easy-to-perform yoga poses and can by practiced by anyone. The preparatory position is with the hands and knees on the floor, hands under the shoulders, fingers spread wide, knees under the hips and typically about seven inches apart, and the spine straightened and relaxed.
4. Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II)
This pose stretches your hips and leg muscles and strengthens them. It also stretches the groin and strengthens the chest. This pose helps relieve backaches, especially during pregnancy. Avoid the pose if you have high blood pressure or injuries in the knees or hips.
5. Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana-III)
This is almost like the warrior II pose, and has the same method of doing it. However, a yogi can modify it a bit if he/she wants to make it more challenging. From the warrior II pose, the yogi can gently lift the body to balance on the front leg and lift the rear leg backward.
6. Half Moon (Ardha Chandrasana)
Ardha Chandrasana, “half-moon” pose, is one of the trickiest balancing poses out there, but rarely broken down in a yoga class.
7. Plank (Uttihita Chaturanga Dandasana)
While eating healthy is a great way to enhance your well-being, taking a holistic view of cleansing your system means being aware of your body at a more subtle level. That’s where the practice of yoga comes in.
8. Side Plank (Vasisthasana)
There is one important factor for spine health. That is stretching on a regular basis. By regular basis, we mean a few times in the day.
9. Tree Pose (Vrksasana)
Whichever form of exercise or routine you decide to take up, you need to know how it works and what its impact on the body is. The main part of the body which is crucial for physical fitness, internal health as well as weight loss, is the spine.
10. Dancer Pose (Natarajasana)
A staggering 700,000 spinal and 300,000 hip fractures are recorded every year in the United States. A study also showed that bone density of an average American is lower than the required normal, leaving them more prone to fractures and bone degradation.
11. Twisted High Lunge (Parivrtta Anjaneyasana)
Yoga can improve several bodily functions, detoxification being one of them. Poses (asanas) can help detox both body and mind to the maximum, improving your chances of attaining optimal health.
12. Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
Exhale and bend your knees gradually while being careful of the fact that the thighs should remain parallel to the floor as much as possible.
13. Triangle Pose (Trikonasana)
Triangle Pose is one of the most commonly used yoga poses. When doing the pose, you form a shape of a triangle stretching your leg and arm muscles; hence, the name “Triangle Pose.”
14. Eagle Pose (Garudasana)
Stand erect and lift one leg. Twist the leg near the hip joint and the knee, and twine it around the other leg.
