7 Yoga Poses to Feeling Strong

hi wellness warriors I'm Kathy madeo for the culturist here to give you seven poses for feeling strong I'm going to weave these poses into a short but empowering sequence that you can do at any point throughout your day so come onto your mat or onto the floor and we'll start right off in downward-facing dog so separate your hands at least shoulders distance apart curl your toes under and lift from the sit bones and then press the chest back towards the thighs being careful not to collapse on the shoulder girdle keeping the shoulders nice and lifting up as the chest presses back towards the thighs and maybe this is your first down dog today first time you've stretched or anything so feel free to just move the body in a way that feels good i like to swivel my hip side to side maybe walk the feet out good and then come still in your downward-facing dog we're going to come into our first strong yoga pose for the day and that is plank pose so come forward so that the shoulders stack right over the wrists you might need to walk your feet back behind you a little bit we're going to hold a nice strong plank pose so looking for a straight line from the crown of your head to your tailbone engage a pelvic floor muscles press the belly to the spine and then actively push the floor away from you with your hands so we're creating lots of heat and strengthen the body here good and we're going to hold this posture for a little bit you can always come down to your knees here we go we're going to hold for five four three two one and then again lifting from the sit bones press back downward facing dog good and then come up high on the tippy toes walk the feet all the way towards the hands if you need to bend your knees go ahead and do so coming into a forward fold feeling the hips stack over the heels inhale half-lift exhale fold inhale rise all the way up to stand reach the fingertips up good hands come through prayer and then standing tall in Tadasana preparing for our second pose for feeling strength is chair pose utkatasana it take a seat almost like you're wanting to sit in a chair behind you in someone's pulling it out from underneath you so the sit bones move back and back apart and the knees don't pass the toes nice strong arm so hug your outer triceps towards each other beautiful and then be careful not to tip the pelvis too far forward or too far back you want to still try to maintain a neutral pelvis that is what's going to activate your core muscles here so this is a really strong pose tones all the muscles of the body really working the legs your glute muscles core muscles arm muscles here we go we're going to hold again five four three two one inhale straighten the legs and exhale fold straight down forward fold two great flows to do in between strengthening postures because it's a cooling pose inhale half-lift exhale fold stepping back to plank pose revisiting our plank pose we're going to work into our third strong pose today chaturanga dandasana so shift all the way forward to the tips of the toes remember you can come down to your knees if you need to and you want to try to get a 90 degree angle of the arms that means shoulders line up to your elbows and then elbows stack on top of wrist oh my goodness we're going to hold this baby here 5 4 3 2 1 good come all the way down to the belly try not to collapse down keep the shoulders lifting up for low cobra pose press the tops of feet into the mat elbow stay bent for cobra pose and then curl your toes again lifting from the sit bones downward facing dog beautiful coming into our fourth strong pose of the day we'll have two sides to do with this one we've got side plank on the right so lots of different variations you can do you can modify with the right knee down you could stagger the feet for a little bit more stability or if you want to create more intensity try stacking the inner edges of the feet lift the left fingertips up you're trying to create or find a straight line with the shoulders and the wrists good nice strong side plank holding here for five four three two one moving straight into plank pose into side plank on the left so swiveling to the outer edge of the left feet left shoulder stacks on top of the left wrist good shoulders in the same plane and then use your leg muscles here as much as your core muscles press the belly to the spine squeeze the quadriceps holding five four three two one and then release the hand down stretch back and downward facing dog will take a quick Child's Pose always great to restore the body in between these strengthening poses breathing here good take two more rounds of breath good we're going to move on to our fifth strengthening pose so step the right foot in between the hands I like to sweep my right leg up in a three-legged down dog and use my quarry to get there so I come into Anita knows a place the foot but just go ahead place the foot however you can today bring your hands onto your hips preparing for a high lunge posture great pose to create strengthen the legs so front knee stacks on top of the front ankle a little micro bend in that back leg will help get you a neutral pelvis and then extend the arms straight up the tendons here is to just kind of let the arms go kind of where they will but we have an opportunity here to build strength in the arms so squeeze the outer triceps towards each other but keep the shoulders drawing down beautiful and we're going to hold again five four three two one deep inhale exhale plant the palms linking some of our strengthening poses together come it up into plank pose move forward and shift down chaturanga dandasana arms at a 90 degree angle come on down for cobra pose the heads of your arm bones stay lifted they go up and back and then they don't even have to drop down as you transition back downward facing dog taking our second side of the high lunge left leg maybe you sweep it up you could check out the knee to nose place the foot and bring your hands to your hips just find the stability in the legs we really want to work the legs here front knee stocks over the front ankle nice level pelvis and then adding the arms good triceps hug in towards each other good shoulders roll down holding five four three two one exhale again plank pose step back shift forward and down chaturanga a sweep it up cobra maybe you could try up dog and then downward-facing dog good coming to the front of the mat you can stop or maybe even a playful hop inhale half-lift exhale fold inhale all the way up to stand hands move through prayer good we're going to find warrior three so great pose to challenge your balance and build strength bring your hands to your hips for a moment begin to lift the left heel up and find a line from the crown of the head to the left heel as you fold or hinge at the hips rather because you're maintaining a straight line from the crown of the head to the back heel keep the outer tip going down to the hips stay nice and squared many d