Whether you love nothing more than spending your spare time unwinding with some yoga, or you simply want to incorporate some basic poses into your daily exercise routine, beginner-friendly poses such as the Tree pose are a great place to start.
Read on for simple step-by-step instructions on how to do it, as well as the benefits you can expect from this pose!
What Is The Tree Pose?
The Vrksasana, which is otherwise known as the Tree pose, is one of the more simple yoga poses and is likely to be one of the first that you learn when starting out your yoga practice.
Just like its name suggests, the tree pose is a beginner-friendly yoga pose that teaches you to strengthen your core muscles and legs while giving your groin and inner thighs a satisfyingly deep stretch.
As one of the only standing poses in modern yoga exercise, the tree pose is one of the most effective poses at increasing your balance and overall strength while encouraging you to ground yourself into the ground like the roots of a tree, while you stretch your arms upward and open up your chest like the branches of a tree.
Tree Pose: Step-By-Step Instructions
So, now that you know what the tree pose is, we’re now going to be talking you through how you can try it out for yourself!
Even though the tree pose is deemed as being one of the easiest yoga poses, don’t let yourself be fooled because this pose requires plenty of balance and core strength, which is why it’s important to use the proper technique. Check out the instructions below:
Step one: First things first, begin by standing in a mountain pose, or simply standing in a relaxed position with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms at your side.
Take a few moments to center yourself, making sure that you are focusing on your breathwork before moving to the next step. While you’re at this point, you can also take a few moments to roll out your arms, shoulders and neck to help yourself loosen up and relax.
Step two: In your own time, begin to center your weight on your right foot, all the while engaging your core muscles to help increase your overall balance. Take your left foot and slowly begin to bring it up and off the floor, while also making sure that your left foot is strong and grounded.
Step three: When you’re ready, take your left leg and gently begin to bend your knee, continuing to do so until you can feel your left foot coming just underneath your thigh.
If you find that you lose your balance during this step, don’t become discouraged. It’s very normal to lose your balance as you’re centering all of your weight into one foot, so take your time and try again if you need to.
Step four: Ensuring that your core muscles are engaged and your breathwork is aligned to help encourage a smooth flow of movement and energy, press your left foot and thigh together firmly, as this will help to prevent you from becoming unbalanced.
It will also help to prevent your hip from being exerted outwards, which is something that you don’t want to do.
Step five: Once you are in the tree pose, you will then need to hold it for around 5 to 10 breaths, although the amount of time that you wish to spend holding this pose is entirely up to you.
In order to help ensure that you are able to hold this pose, we recommend that you focus on an object in front of you that isn’t moving, such as a piece of furniture.
Step six: After you are ready to stop the pose, gently come back down into the mountain pose, and then switch legs to repeat the move. Continue until you are ready to stop or move on to a new pose in your yoga routine.
Top Tip: If you’re not overly experienced with tree pose, then you might find yourself accidentally rotating your hips outward in order to maintain your balance while in the pose.
This is an incorrect technique and something that you shouldn’t do, as over-exerting your hips into an outward direction can cause them to become strained or injured.
So, to help prevent this from happening, we recommend that you apply equal pressure between your lifted foot/calf and thigh to help keep it in proper alignment.
As we have already mentioned above, the tree pose is harder to do than it might seem, so don’t become discouraged if you find that you’re losing your balance – keep at it and you’ll be doing it properly in no time at all. Practice makes perfect!
Tree Pose: Benefits
Even though the tree pose is one of the most beginner-friendly of all yoga poses, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with any benefits!
What’s more, when done correctly and regularly, tree pose has the ability to strengthen your core muscles, arms muscles, and leg muscles, while also providing your inner thigh and groin muscles with a satisfying and soulful stretch that will help to alleviate aches, tightness and more.
Thanks to that, it means that the tree pose also doubles up as an ideal exercise for helping to alleviate menstrual pains.
Conclusion
In general, though, the tree pose is an awesome yoga pose for helping to improve overall body strength and balance by encouraging you to engage your core muscles, as well as providing you with an opportunity to center and ground yourself.
Not only will this help to ensure that you’re fit and healthy, but it will also provide you with the chance to increase your body awareness and mindfully channel your energy. All in all, it’s a great yoga pose that can be carried out by itself or while transitioning between other poses.
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