Best Morning Yoga Poses For Beginners

Yoga is more than just a form of exercise. It is a way to achieve a healthier mind, spirit, and body.

The benefits of doing even just a quick morning yoga routine are numerous. With a morning yoga routine, you can balance your hormones and get a better night’s sleep. You also boost your metabolism while stretching your body out, meaning the wear and tear of the day is less likely to hurt you.

The science is simple. The hormones that regulate our sleep, mood, and metabolism are produced in the glands in our endocrine system. And the breathing and meditation achieved through yoga affect the endocrine system. For instance, yoga helps the body produce the melatonin hormone that regulates sleep. And all of that deep breathing has the energizing effect of coffee without all that harmful caffeine!

Morning yoga stretches are great for people of any age group. Here are the best morning yoga poses that even beginners can do.

Half Sun Salutation

There are a few different ways to do sun salutations. That means you can find a method that best suits your lifestyle and schedule, and each one fits perfectly into a 10-minute morning yoga routine.

But if you’re a true beginner, you might want to start out with the Half Sun Salutation, which does not involved getting down on the floor and getting back up again.

You start out with feet apart and palms together. Next, move your arms out in a sweeping motion and arch your back while looking at the sky. Then you fold forward and bring your nose towards your knees.

Half-lift your torso until it is parallel with the floor. Exhale into a forward fold, pressing your palms toward the floor. Inhale and sweep the arms up to the sky. Exhale and bring your palms back together. Here is a video demonstration.

There are many steps to this early morning yoga routine, but your body will thank you later.

Half Lord of the Fishes

Want more of an easy morning yoga routine? In that case, the half lord of the fishes post may be what you’re looking for.

You start out sitting down with your legs outstretched. Next, bend your knees and put feet on the ground. Afterward, move the left foot under the right leg and the left outside leg on the ground. Move your right foot over the left leg to the floor beside your left hip. At this point, your right knee should be pointing to the sky.

Next, twist towards your rightmost thigh and put your right hand behind your right buttocks cheek. Your left arm should be on the outside of the right thigh close to your knee. You can now pull your torso and right thigh close to one another.

From here, you must press the inner right foot into the floor and lengthen your front toros while releasing your right groin. Lean that torso back and stretch your tailbone flat into the floor.

Move your head either into or out of the twist. Try to distribute energy evenly throughout your body as you repeat this move.

Chair Pose

The chair pose is another pose that is good for gentle morning yoga. Start out by raising arms up and keeping them perpendicular to the floor. Keep them parallel and bend your knees out over your feet, leaning forward as if you are sitting in an imaginary chair.

While doing this, move your shoulder blades back and move your tailbone to the floor to lengthen your lower back. After 30 seconds, you can release and repeat or go into another pose.

Wide Leg Forward Fold

The wide leg forward fold is slightly more advanced than the chair pose. But it’s still great for beginners and is great for a 5-minute morning yoga routine.

Start by placing hands on hips and turning to the left, making sure your feet are wide apart. Move toes in and heels out until your feet are parallel to the ground, then make sure your heels are aligned.

Next, lengthen your torso while stretching your head’s crown upward. Fold forward starting with your hips. Look behind you by dropping your head down.

Rest hands on the floor and keep your elbows bent. Move weight to the balls of your feet and walk your hands further back. Ideally, your fingers will eventually line up with toes and heels. Bring elbows above your wrist and then draw quadriceps upward. See if you can move the crown of your head to the ground and then release after a minute of posing.

Revolved Chair Pose

As you might imagine, the revolved chair pose is simply a variation on the original chair pose. It is one of our favorite morning yoga poses.

The beginning works similar to the regular chair pose. However, you bring your hands together as if you are in prayer. From here, you twist your upper body to one side so that you can look at the sky. Keep one bottom elbow on the opposite knee during the twist and reach the other elbow towards the sky.

Dancer Pose

Care to unlock your inner dancer? We love the dancer pose as both a standalone exercise and as the beginning to a longer 30-minute morning yoga routine.

Start by lifting your left heel to the left buttock and your right thigh bone into your hip joint. Pull your knee up as you stand.

Keep torso upright and then reach backwards with your left hand to grab your ankle or foot. Next, lift the left foot up and backwards. Keep your left thigh parallel to floor and and reach your right arm out, keeping it parallel as well. You should release after 30 seconds.

Downward Facing Dog

Downward facing dog is a very iconic yoga pose. And it’s pretty easy to get started!

Start out on your hands and knees. Put knees under your hips and hands in front of your shoulders. Spread your palms and begin turning your toes under.

Next, lift your knees off the floor. With knees bent and heels lifted, lengthen your tailbone and begin lifting your sitting bones towards the sky.

Then, push your thighs back and stretch heels towards the ground. Straighten your knees, firm up the external thighs, and narrow your front pelvis.

Final steps: place index fingers on the floor and lift up to the apex of your shoulders. Firm up your shoulder blades and bring them towards your tailbone. After a minute or two, you should move on to another pose.

Low Lunge

Now that you know how to do downward facing dog, you can take on the low lunge.

Once you’re in the downward facing dog position, put the right foot between your hands. Lower yourself onto the left knee and let your top left foot onto the ground.

With right knee over right angle, stretch out your groin and thigh areas. Next, place fingertips on the ground and relax those shoulders. Slowly place body weight into your hips while moving your tailbone down.

After no more than five breaths, you can come back to a resting position and do something new.

We hope that these eight poses help start you off on a healthy and invigorating morning yoga routine!