Wide Legged Forward Fold
Yoga

Four Beginner Yoga Poses to stretch your Hamstrings and Shoulders

These four beginner yoga poses will stretch your hamstrings and open up the front part of your body and the shoulders. There are just variations of the basic Triangle, High Lunge, Wide legged forward fold and Pyramid pose. In other words these little modifications make them a bit different of how we are used to practice them during a regular yoga class.

(wrapped up) Triangle pose

Triangle Pose

I this variation of the well known Triangle pose instead of having the arm extended in the air, we are wrapping the arm and placing the hand on the opposite inner tight. The other arm can be resting on your shin, block or if you want to add an additional spice you can let it float like on the photo which will fire up your core.

Points to remember for Triangle pose:

  • maintain your legs active with pulling your kneecaps up
  • the front foot is facing forward and the back food is at 90 degrees
  • open up the shoulders and try to turn your chest towards the ceiling

Pyramid pose with arms over head

Pyramid pose
Pyramid pose

This variation of the regular Pyramid pose where we interlace the hands and bring the arms over the head its good because it opens the shoulder joint, stretches the pectoral muscle and in the same time elongates your hamstrings.

Points to remember for Pyramid pose:

  • the distance between the feet is smaller than in Triangle
  • front foot points forward, back foot is at 45 degrees angle
  • both hip bones are looking forward
  • spine elongation with the intention to bring the chin towards your shin

High Lunge with arm over head

High Lunge pose
High Lunge

This is a regular lunging pose but with one arm over head. Positioning the legs in this way strengthens the hamstring muscles of the extended leg and fires up the quads as they are the biggest opposite muscles of the hamstrings- we can’t stretch all the time 😉 The variation to bring the opposite arm of the leg that is bent opens up the front body and gives an additional space in the chest.

Points to remember for High Lunge pose:

  • 90 degrees angle of the front leg, making sure you have your knee over your ankle
  • activation of the extended leg ad pulling the kneecap up
  • pulling the ribs in and activating the core
  • if possible rest the hand of the same side of the bend leg on the hamstrings of the extended leg- this gives additional stretch
  • look up but don’t strain your neck

Wide Legged Forward Fold

Wide Legged Forward Fold
Wide Legged Forward fold

In this variation of the Wide legged Forward fold actually we will not fold forward 🙂 We will use only the leg placement while consciously opening the chest towards the ceiling. It doesn’t matter if you can grab your toes on the side you are leaning, you can as well just rest your hand over the leg. What is important to remember is to grab the opposite tight with your hand and open your chest towards that side. During this action think of lengthening rather than leaning to the side.

Points to remember for Wide Legged Forward fold:

  • no matter how much you open your legs, keep them active
  • feet are flexed with the toes pointing upwards
  • both of the seating bones are on the floor, however If you feel uncomfortable seating like this and/or your seating bones are not completely touching the floor, go ahead and use a block/ cushion underneath your bum).

Lastly, don’t forget to do the both legs/sides and take a couple of deep breaths when you are into your variation of the final pose.

In conclusion I hope you liked this little tutorial with these poses. If f you have any question or comment, write it below or drop me an email.

Love,

tem.

xx

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