13 yoga principles that will help you in any asana pose

Sometimes it can be overwhelming to think about all of the specific alignment details involved in any (and every!) pose. But there are some principles that can help you across most poses and if you keep these in mind it will improve your alignment, comfort, and practice. [This post contains affiliate links]

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How do you know when it's juuuuust right? You don't want to be too soft and limp like a wet noodle that doesn't get the benefit of practice. You also don't want to be stiff and overworking it either. You don't want to be at your maximum effort and burn out partway through your practice or injure yourself. Aim for 70% edge. You're working at it, but not 100%. You never want to feel actual pain. You do want to feel your muscles working, strengthening, and lengthening.

Equality

As we move through the day, we tend to call on some muscles more than others. We choose the strong ones and let the weak ones stay weak. It's the easiest way to move. Be aware of your weaknesses. In yoga, you want to challenge those lesser muscles and help them grow.

Stay on the plane

Be careful that you aren't leaning past your center. You don't want your torso leaned way over, your hips popped over to the side, or your knee tilted off at an angle (it's only supposed to bend one way!). Mostly, yoga poses are on a plane. You don't want to be bending on different angles with different parts of your body. Don't bend your joints at an angle that seems unnatural. For example, don't let your knee go past your toes or your hips go out to the side past your legs.

Yoga isn't about changing the way your body moves, but about building beautiful shapes from its natural abilities.

It's true for twists too- in a supine twist, you don't want your whole body to shift. Your shoulders should stay on the floor. In a seated twist, you still want your spine to be upright.

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Breath

Usually, you want the energy in your body to come from your center. When your lungs fill, your arms rise slightly out to the sides and/or upward. When you are going to intentionally move your arms up/out, do it with an inhale to keep your natural connection between body and breath. Same with an exhale-- think of your lungs deflating and releasing the energy that's holding your limbs up-- that's the time to bring them down.

Keep breathing. Every pose should be supported by full breath and energy (prana= life force).

Feet

Every corner of your foot should be pressing into the mat. In case you didn't know, your foot is actually a rectangle with 4 corners. Keep them all down and spread your toes to improve the surface area and stability of your base.

Your thighs

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In most poses, think of energetically spinning your thighs in and back toward your center. This helps protect your lower back and keep your legs strong. Also, think of your legs trying to stay closed together even when they're spread apart- people sometimes call it scissoring your legs.

Hips

Your pelvis is a flowerpot. Don't spill the soil. Keep it upright, not tilted to the front, back or sides.

Abs

Your abs are always, always on. They stay strong to support your back and provide a stable foundation for your arms, shoulders, neck and head. Strong abs means the muscles are shortening (lengthening goes with stretching). Think of pulling and shortening your abs. Especially tighten the belly band from hip to hip and don't let the bottoms of the rib cage flare out. It's not about holding your breath or sucking anything in. You still want to leave room for deep conscious breath. You want to strengthen and tighten your core like the trunk of a tree.

Spine

Your spine is a string of pearls and each vertebrate needs equal space. Don't over-bend in any one area. Lengthen your spine upward. Your spine has natural curvature. You don't need to exaggerate it or straighten it. Don't forget to strengthen the muscles of the back to keep your core from being lopsidedly strong on the front and weak in your back.

Shoulders

If you reach your arms up overhead and stretch long through your back and then release your arms down to the sides, that's where your shoulders should be. Try to stay open through your chest and shoulders.

Neck

Most people need to shift their head back a little bit. We're shifted forward from leaning down over computers and work. Let your neck lengthen. Stretch up through the crown of the head.

More ideas? Disagree? Have another way to explain it? Leave me a comment below!

These thirteen easy yoga principles can help you as yoga alignment tips across most yoga asanas. this is a great post for yoga for beginners and yoga poses