There has been a long-time debate on the difference between yoga for males and females. People have dilemmas on whether there are specific yoga asanas for men and different yoga asanas for women. But, is there any difference? Can both men and women practice the same yoga poses?
Well, yoga is the same for both men and women. But women are known to be more flexible than men, and men are naturally physically stronger than women. And if we will base on this, there might be some techniques and poses that could not be recommended for women or men.
In yoga, there is no distinction between males and females. Some Asanas improve different aspects of your life depending on your gender and needs. Also, based on an individual’s health condition, there is always a limit to everything. So, it’s your ability and practice that allows you to do any asana.
Simple Yoga Poses for Both Men and Women
As we mentioned earlier, yoga is beneficial to both men and women. However, because men and women have different body types and physiologies, the same yoga may provide various types of benefits to both genders. During their menstrual cycles and pregnancy, women are also advised to avoid specific yoga postures.
And now is the time to get out of your yoga mat and discover the unique combination of physical and mental exercises that have captivated yoga enthusiasts all over the world for countless years. Yoga’s beauty is that you don’t have to be a yogi or yogini to benefit from it. Yoga can calm the mind and strengthen the body, whether you are a man or a woman.
Poses are the foundations of yoga. As you develop a regular yoga practice, the following yoga poses are good to learn.
Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
This pose allows you to stand steadily like a mountain, as the term suggests. It is among the most fundamental yoga asanas and serves as the foundation for almost all other asanas. As a result, it is referred to as the “mother” of all yoga asanas. This simple yoga asana strengthens your legs while also strengthening your belly and hips. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be surprised how this works.
How to do it:
- Stand with your big toes touching and your heels slightly apart. Lift and spread your toes and balls of your feet before gently laying them on the floor. Rock from side to side and back and forth. Gradually bring your swaying to a halt by balancing your weight evenly on both feet.
- Then, without hardening your lower belly, firm your thigh muscles and lift the knee caps. Lift your inner ankles to strengthen your inner arches.
- Turn the upper thighs slightly inward. Lift your pubis toward the navel and lengthen your tailbone toward the floor. Widen and release your shoulder blades down your back after pressing them into your back. Lift the top of your sternum straight toward the ceiling without pushing your lower front ribs forward.
- After that, Increase the width of your collarbones. Then place your arms alongside your torso.
- Finally, with the underside of your chin parallel to the floor, throat soft, and tongue wide and flat on the bottom of your mouth, balance the crown of your head directly over the center of your pelvis. Then relax your eyes.
Balasana (Child’s Pose)
This is a good default pause position because it is relaxing. A child’s pose can be used to relax and refocus before moving on to the next position. It stretches and loosens your lower back, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles while gently stretching and relaxing your spine, shoulders, and neck.
How to do it:
- Kneel on the ground. Sit on your heels and touch your big toes together, then separate your knees almost as broad as your hips.
- Exhale, then place your torso between your thighs. Narrow your hip points toward the navel and broaden your sacrum across the back of your pelvis so they slide right down onto the inner thighs. Raise the base of your skull away from the back of your neck as you lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis.
- Now, place your hands on the floor, palms up, alongside your torso, and let the fronts of your shoulders fall to the ground. Feel how your front shoulders’ weight pulls your shoulder blades wide throughout your back.
- Balasana is a pose that allows you to relax. Stay anywhere between 30 seconds and several minutes. Beginners can also use Balasana to feel for a deep forward bend in which the torso rests on the thighs.
Vrikshasana (Tree Pose)
Vrikshasana is another simple yoga asana that can help you improve your balance. It is one of the most effective yoga asanas for spine and leg strengthening. It can also strengthen your core, ankles, calves, thighs, and spine, in addition to improving your balance.
How to do it:
- Bend the right knee and place the right foot high on the left inner thigh, bringing the hands to the hips, starting in Tadasana. Allow the right knee to be as far forward in space as necessary to keep the frontal hipbones square and prevent pelvic rotation.
- Then make sure the standing foot continues to point straight ahead, and press the right foot against the left inner thigh.
- If you notice that the right hip is higher than the left, you should lower the right sitting bone towards the left heel. Observe how the body makes up – the left thigh bows forward, and the outer hip of the left protrudes. You would need to press the left thigh bone back and the left outer hip into the midline to correct it.
- Draw the right knee back, keeping the pelvis squared to the wall you’re facing to deepen the hip’s external rotation. Only pull the knee back as far as you can while keeping the hips square. Then, without flaring the front ribs, raise the arms.
- Finally, reach up, touch palms, and direct your gaze to the thumbs if you can keep your arms straight. Hold the position for 5 to 10 breaths. Finally, take a deep breath out and return to Tadasana.
Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose)
This simple yoga pose is designed to strengthen your lower back muscles and your spine. It activates the digestive system and aids in the regulation of metabolism, among other things. This is one of the most fundamental yoga asanas men and women can do regularly.
How to do it:
- Begin on your stomach, with your feet hip-width apart and your hands beside your ribs. To activate the quadriceps, straighten the big toes and press down with all ten toenails.
- To broaden the lower back, spin the inner thighs to the ceiling while firming the outer ankles into the midline. Raise the head and chest by lightly pressing down with the hands and rolling the shoulders back and forth.
- Next, maintain an extended back of the neck and lift the sternum rather than the chin. Slowly and deliberately straighten your arms as they begin to straighten. Pulling the chest forward and coiling the thoracic spine is more important than pushing onto the lower back because the pelvis remains on the floor.
- To open the chest from behind, move the bottom border of the shoulder blades in and up. Only straighten the arms to the point where the shoulders can stay away from the ears. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows to help you draw out of your lower back and into your upper back.
- Finally, raise your eyes only to the point where the curve of your neck continues the angle of your upper back. Hold for 5-10 breaths, then return to your mat.
The Bottom Line
We said it, and we’ll repeat it: yoga is for everyone. Yoga does not require any superhuman or body-bending abilities to be practiced. It makes no difference whether you’re a man or a woman. All you’ll need is a good yoga mat, a clear mind, and a lot of perseverance.
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