How To Do Mountain Pose

Mountain Pose is a basic standing yoga pose that strengthens and aligns posture as well as focusing the mind on the body and the breath. While it looks like just simple standing still, Mountain Pose actually engages the mind and the body and teaches a discipline of focus and serenity that most people do not have by nature. If you want better posture and calmer demeanor, you should learn how to do Mountain Pose.

Standing still is one thing. Mountain Pose is another. You begin this pose by “rooting your feet” to the earth. This means instead of standing mindlessly, you are focused on the entire surface of both feet being on the floor and engaged to hold you up. Some even discuss “drawing energy” up through the feet into the body. Going up the body the next part to consider is the legs. You want to engage the quadriceps by lifting the knee caps in Mountain Pose. Abdominals should be tight and shoulders drawn back and down in this pose. The chest and shoulders should be open to receive more airflow and keep the back tall.

A good alignment check for posture is to keep these things in mind while you stand: Crown of the head over tailbone and tailbone over heels. As you draw your breath in calmly and fully, make sure to keep your shoulders relaxed and down and think about standing very tall and drawing energy upward.

Mountain Pose is an excellent pose for anyone to try. If you love it and are looking for other ways to relax, try our blog How To Relieve Headaches With Yoga.

Here are the steps to performing Mountain Pose:

1) Stand tall with feet a few inches apart and toes spread on the mat.

2) Hold arms alongside your body, palms facing forward, shoulders relaxed down.

3) Relax and breathe slowly.