Have you ever practiced yoga for some time now and really feel assured in your downward-facing canine and warrior 2?
If that’s the case, why not problem your self by together with a number of intermediate yoga poses in your apply?
Intermediate yoga poses, or medium yoga poses, are noticeably harder than newbie poses. They require extra core energy, steadiness, spinal flexibility, or a deeper opening of a particular physique half.
Nevertheless, as a yoga instructor, I see many yogis getting confused between intermediate and superior yoga poses. And let me inform you, attempting to try a handstand when you’ve simply mastered mountain pose will solely finish in a single factor – damage!
So that can assist you safely stage up from a newbie yogi to an intermediate practitioner, I’m detailing 18 superior intermediate poses you possibly can progressively introduce into your apply. And make sure you learn till the tip, as I’ll share my prime suggestions for training these trickier poses safely and successfully.
Intermediate Poses For Leg Power & Steadiness
Chair Pose
The chair pose is a heat-building posture that strengthens the complete decrease physique, together with the legs, ankles, knees, hip flexors, and again. Plus, with the arms raised, it additionally builds energy within the shoulders and higher physique whereas stretching the chest.
Stand with the toes collectively, bend your knees, and sink your hips like sitting on an precise chair. Watch out to not bend your knees an excessive amount of, as this will compromise your joints – you need to nonetheless be capable to see your toes if you look down.
Reaching the arms alongside the ears makes this pose much more difficult. With the palms dealing with inwards, attempt to convey the higher arms consistent with the ears with out rounding the backbone.
Half Moon Pose
Half moon pose is a wonderful asana to incorporate in your traditional standing sequence. It includes balancing on one leg together with your physique in a lateral place. Thus, it’s each strengthening for the standing leg and wonderful for bettering steadiness.
I like to recommend first attempting this posture together with your decrease hand on a yoga block for help. Then, in case your steadiness and alignment are good, strive bringing your hand to the ground.
From a triangle pose, bend your entrance knee and place your entrance hand about one foot forward of your entrance foot. Then, together with your higher hand in your prime hip, firmly have interaction your standing leg as you float the opposite leg up, so it’s parallel to the ground and consistent with your physique.
Flex the foot of the floating leg and attain your prime arm as much as the ceiling. Draw the shoulder barely again so the chest can open to the facet.
For an additional problem, bend the lifted leg and attempt to seize the within of the foot for a quad stretch. Subsequent, raise the knee excessive and make sure the chest stays open.
Revolved Triangle Pose
Revolved triangle pose options the identical leg place as an ordinary triangle however with a deep twist within the backbone. This immensely improves your steadiness and stability, enhancing spinal mobility and strengthening leg muscle tissues.
- Step your left leg again from the mountain pose, turning the foot out to 45 levels.
- With each legs straight and the hips dealing with ahead, inhale to raise your left arm up.
- Exhale to tilt ahead from the hips, decreasing the left arm midway.
- Take an inhale right here, then twist to the best on the exhale, bringing the left hand to your shin or a block exterior the entrance foot.
- Maintain the core and leg muscle tissues engaged as you draw your proper shoulder again, opening the chest to the best facet.
- Lastly, lengthen the best arm up and look as much as the highest hand.
Revolved Prolonged Facet Angle Pose
Like in revolved triangle, the revolved facet angle pose is a deep twist and chest opener. It additionally challenges your steadiness, strengthens the leg and stomach muscle tissues, and profoundly stretches the hip flexors.
- Step your proper leg again from the mountain, turning the foot out to 45 levels.
- Bend your entrance knee, stacking it over the ankle. Maintain your hips dealing with ahead and inhale to succeed in each arms up.
- Exhale to decrease your arms and torso ahead as you twist to the left. Place your proper hand on the ground or a block exterior your left foot. Goal to hug your torso to the thigh in order that the best forearm is pressed towards the outer left shin.
- Draw your left shoulder again to open the chest to the facet and lengthen the left arm.
- An alternate variation is to have the palms in a prayer pose on the coronary heart middle with the underside elbow hooking to the skin of the entrance knee.
Standing Hand-To-Large Toe Pose
This balancing pose challenges your steadiness, stability, and focus and deeply stretches and opens the hamstrings.
From a mountain pose, shift your weight into your proper leg as you bend and raise your left knee, hugging it into your chest. Take a second to search out your steadiness, then hook the peace fingers of the left hand to the massive toe and slowly lengthen your leg.
Should you can’t lengthen the leg totally, use a yoga strap. Guarantee your backbone is straight, and your shoulders aren’t hunching as much as your ears.
Eagle Pose
This balancing posture is a deep hip and shoulder opener, stretching the outer hips and higher again whereas strengthening the decrease legs. Training this pose will even assist you to work in the direction of your first arm steadiness.
- From a standing pose, shift your weight into the best leg the raise the left foot.
- Wrap the left leg round the best, crossing on the thighs, and bend the knees to sink your hips.
- Bend your knees and attempt to come into the total leg bind by wrapping the left foot round the best calf muscle.
- From right here, lengthen each arms and wrap the best arm underneath the left. Bend the elbows and produce the best fingertips to the left palm.
- Pull the fingers away out of your face and raise the elbows barely, so you’re feeling the shoulder blades pulling aside.
- Repair your gaze and breathe deeply for five breaths.
Intermediate Poses For Hip & Shoulder Opening
Humber warrior
This standing pose strengthens the legs, glutes, and core whereas deeply stretching the hips, chest, and shoulders. It is a wonderful pose to incorporate in your standing sequences and after backbends.
- Begin in warrior 1 legs with the again foot out to 45 levels and the entrance knee bent.
- Clasp your fingers behind your again and lengthen your arms to open the chest.
- Inhale and lean again barely, pulling the clasped fingers down. Then exhale to fold ahead from the hips, decreasing your higher physique to the within of your entrance knee.
- Conserving your fingers held, attain the arms as far up and over as doable.
- Hug the shoulder to the knee and decrease your torso to deepen the hip stretch. Calm down your head and neck.
Chook of Paradise
This difficult balancing pose requires open hips and shoulders and immense steadiness and focus. Attempt utilizing a strap if you happen to can’t bind your arms or have tight hips or shoulders.
- From the facet angle with the best foot ahead and knee bent, attain your proper arm underneath the underside thigh and your prime arm up and over, bringing it behind the again, aiming to hitch the fingers.
- With the fingers clasped (or holding a strap), look to your entrance foot and step your again foot ahead subsequent to the entrance foot.
- Shift your weight to your left foot as you slowly raise your proper leg, preserving the bind.
- Maintain the best knee bent as you straighten your backbone and discover your steadiness. Then progressively lengthen that leg, pointing the toes up. Draw the best shoulder again to open the chest.
Cow Face Pose
The cow face pose offers a deep stretch to the shoulders, arms, chest, hips, and ankles whereas bettering your posture and decreasing ache and pressure within the backbone.
- From a seated place with each legs straight, bend your proper knee and stack it over the left, bringing the best foot to the left hips.
- Bend the underside leg in order that the foot involves the best hip.
- Attain your proper arm behind your again, bending the elbow and reaching the fingers to the higher again.
- Attain your left arm up and switch the elbow to clasp each fingers.
- Sit with a straight backbone and level the highest elbow up as you breathe into your coronary heart middle.
Garland Pose
Whereas the garland pose (Malasana) might appear like a easy posture, it requires very open hips and, thus, is difficult for many yogis. Along with the hip flexors, it additionally stretches the internal thighs, groin, and backbone.
From a standing place, convey your toes mat-width with the toes out and heels in. Carry your fingers to the prayer pose and decrease your hips as you exhale, with the knees bending barely out to the facet.
Carry your hips as little as doable with out the heels lifting off the bottom. Maintain your backbone straight and press your elbows into your internal knees to open the hips additional and maintain for five to 10 breaths.
Reclined Hero Pose
Reclined hero pose offers a deep stretch to the quads, hip flexors, knees, ankles, and stomach organs. The total variation with the arms overhead additionally opens the chest and shoulders.
Come right into a kneeling place with the toes to the skin of your sitting bones, permitting you to sit down instantly on the yoga mat or a folded blanket. The knees needs to be shut collectively.
Lean again onto your forearms and take a number of breaths. Then, if it feels okay, come down onto your again. Nevertheless, in case your knees raise off the bottom, keep in your forearms.
Should you can comfortably come onto your again, attain your arms overhead and seize reverse elbows.
Intermediate Poses For Core Power
Boat Pose
Boat pose (Navasana) is without doubt one of the most dreaded seated poses because it requires a variety of core energy – one thing many people lack. Nevertheless, by together with this in your common yoga apply, you’ll considerably enhance stability and energy within the core, which is able to assist you to if you transfer on to extra superior poses.
From seated, bend your knees and draw the soles of the toes near your buttocks. Discover a straight backbone as you maintain onto the again of your thighs. Have interaction your stomach muscle tissues as your float your toes off the bottom and produce your shins parallel to the ground.
Launch your arms alongside your legs after which straighten the legs, sustaining your steadiness.
Chaturanga Dandasana
You will have practiced Chaturanga Dandasana as a transition within the Solar Salutations or a vinyasa movement. Nevertheless, I see many yogis performing this pose incorrectly, which may result in damage.
Studying the proper type of Chaturanga is crucial because it helps to construct the energy and stability wanted for a lot of superior yoga poses, similar to crow pose and peacock pose.
Begin in plank pose with the shoulders instantly over the wrists and the hips consistent with the physique. Subsequent, have interaction your core as your bend your elbows and hug them into your rib cage. Then, utilizing your arm energy, slowly decrease your physique towards the ground in a single line till you hover off the ground. From right here, you possibly can push into an upward-facing canine.
Dolphin Pose
Dolphin helps to construct the higher physique energy wanted for arm balances and forearm stand. It additionally tones the core muscle tissues, regulates digestion, and strengthens the quads.
From the downward-facing canine, decrease one forearm to the bottom, adopted by the opposite. The elbows and fingers needs to be aligned shoulder width aside and the palms firmly planted. Subsequent, stroll your toes in as a lot as doable, bringing the hips excessive.
Intermediate Poses For Spinal Mobility
Wild Factor
This enjoyable posture opens the complete entrance physique and the hips whereas strengthening the again, shoulders, and higher arms. It additionally works on constructing stability within the core.
From the downward-facing canine, lengthen your left leg as much as the sky. Bend the knee of the lifted leg and open the hip by drawing the foot in the direction of the buttocks and pointing the knee up. Flip your physique to the left facet and look to your left armpit.
Slowly decrease and drop the left foot behind you as you flip your torso and chest to the sky. Maintain the left leg bent and lengthen the best leg with the foot firmly on the bottom. Deal with lifting the chest as you attain your left arm behind you.
Mermaid Pose
Mermaid is a sophisticated variation of the pigeon pose with a further quad stretch and shoulder opening. It’s also a backend, opening the guts and stretching the chest and torso.
From pigeon pose with the best knee ahead, bend your again leg, grabbing the foot together with your left hand. Arch your backbone as you slide the foot down your forearm to hook into the internal elbow.
From right here, attain your proper arm up and over, clasping the fingers behind your head. Maintain your hips impartial as you breathe into your coronary heart middle.
Camel Pose
Camel pose is without doubt one of the deepest backbends and coronary heart openers that improves spinal mobility and might launch pressure within the again and neck. Nevertheless, you must also apply this with care and apply the modified variation with the fingers on the decrease again first earlier than coming into the total pose.
From a kneeling place together with your hips lifted, tuck your toes and place your fingers in your decrease again (fingers pointing down). Lengthen your backbone then begin to arch your again on an inhale as you actively press your hips ahead.
In case you have good spinal flexibility, transfer your fingers to your ankles and drop your head again, discovering a deeper backbend. To launch, convey your fingers again to your decrease again earlier than straightening the backbone, then come to little one’s pose for not less than 5 breaths.
Wheel Pose
The wheel is one other difficult backbend that requires flexibility within the backbone and energy and opening within the shoulders.
Lay on the ground together with your knees bent, and produce your toes near your buttocks with the soles on the mat. Place your fingers subsequent to your ears with fingers pointing to your shoulders and elbows pointing up.
Have interaction your thighs as you raise your hips and chest, urgent into the fingers to raise the top. Subsequent, straighten the legs and arms, lifting the chest and hips whereas letting the top cling. Maintain for five breaths after which slowly decrease again down.
How To Safely Observe Intermediate Yoga Postures
Listed here are some suggestions for avoiding damage when training these intermediate yoga poses.
Be taught About Preparatory & Counter Poses
Most intermediate-level asanas require deeper opening of a physique half, such because the again, hips, or shoulders. Thus, it’s important to make sure you totally heat up for a posture earlier than attempting it.
Subsequently, if you wish to apply intermediate poses at dwelling (together with lessons with a licensed yoga teacher), studying how a yoga session is sequenced is a good suggestion.
For instance, let’s say you wish to study the mermaid pose. This yoga asana requires open outer hips, quads, hamstrings, and shoulder and spinal flexibility. So you need to apply preparatory poses focusing on these areas, similar to pigeon, butterfly, seated ahead bend, thread-the-needle, and low lunge with cactus arms.
Counterposes (the poses you do instantly after a yoga asana) are simply as essential as they create the physique again into steadiness by gently shifting muscle tissues and joints within the reverse method to what they have been simply labored.
I like to recommend having a replica of The Yoga Bible by Christina Brown. It options photos and cues for over 170 yoga poses and an inventory of preparatory and counter poses for every.
Don’t Neglect About Props
One frequent mistake I see yogis make as they progress of their apply is the misperception of not needing to make use of props anymore. Yoga props are for all ranges of yogis, not simply rookies, and simply since you don’t want a block within the Triangle pose anymore doesn’t imply you’ll by no means want props once more.
Probably, you gained’t grasp all of the yoga postures listed above on the primary, second, or third strive. Thus, props function a serving to hand in transitioning from newbie to intermediate poses and intermediate to superior poses.
Let’s take the chicken of paradise, for instance. Many yogis can’t totally bind their arms on this place after they first begin training it. With out utilizing a prop, you’ll improve your danger of damage and compromise your posture and spinal alignment as you’ll naturally hunch forwards to hook your fingertips.
Nevertheless, if you happen to use a yoga strap to help you as an alternative, you possibly can apply the yoga asana with the proper alignment. This lets you work in your hip and shoulder opening till, sooner or later, you notice you don’t have to succeed in in your strap anymore.
Ultimate Ideas On Intermediate Yoga Postures
Whereas there aren’t any simple poses in yoga, these intermediate asanas require further energy, stability, and adaptability in comparison with newbie yoga poses.
Should you’ve been training for some time and really feel able to stage up, why not give them a go? Nevertheless, bear in mind it’s greatest to apply them throughout a yoga class underneath your teacher’s steerage and introduce only one or two postures per session.