Each asana helps you become more aware of your body, mind, and environment. While beginning your yoga exercises, experiment with the poses, moving in and out as you feel comfortable. If you approach the poses with playful curiosity, feeling of frustration and competitiveness will not enter your mind. While practicing your yoga exercises, make sure that you don’t feel any discomfort or pain.

Yoga Poses and breathing
Breathing is an essential part of practicing yoga exercises. You should never hold your breathe during a pose. Also make sure that your breath is never forced or strained. Labored breathing is sign that you you’re working too hard and should come out of the pose slightly.

Yoga Asanas can be done by people with diverse profiles and conditions, or even physical difficulties. Whenever possible, seek out a good teacher; books and videos are also a great help.

The following are just a few of the numerous Yoga poses types that have evolved over thousands of years:

Seated poses:

Seated poses are decidedly recommended for beginners, most of the postures are quite easy to master. Seated poses are useful for practicing breathing exercises and relaxation or meditation techniques. Seated poses are also often used as a warm up or as a starting point for other poses.  Performing seated poses develop elasticity to the hips, knees, ankles, and groin muscles, improve your posture, remove tension in the diaphragm, increases the blood circulation to all parts of the body. Many seated postures are used to treat medical conditions, such as constipation, diabetes, arthritis, and genital diseases. Some seated poses includes the Sukhasana, Bound Angle Pose and the Half Lotus.

Standing poses:

Standing poses are often used as warm up or as a starting point for other poses. Standing poses are beneficial for strengthening your muscles, opening your hips, improving posture and invigorating the whole body. Standing postures require both strength and flexibility needed to achieve and accurately execute standing postures of yoga. Some of the positions you may encounter in the standing position include Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), High Lunge; Triangle pose; Utkatasana (Powerful Pose); Vrksasana (Tree Pose); Dolphin Pose; Reverse Warrior; Standing Forward Bend; and the Tadasana (Mountain Pose).

Balancing poses:

Balancing poses are great for improving balance and coordination, strengthen specific body parts such as the shoulders and back as well as developing your ability to remain grounded in a pose. Some balancing poses include Bakasana (Crane Pose); Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand); Crow Pose; Headstand; and Halasana (Plough Pose).

Back bends:

Back bends are probably the most challenging poses in Yoga; they require strength in the arms, legs, buttocks and spine. Back bends poses squeeze the abdominal organs, energize the heart and soul, open the chest, improve spinal flexibility and strength your back. Back bends should not be done by people with back problems, pain or injury. Some balancing poses include Dhanurasana (Bow Pose), Matsyasana (Fish Pose), Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose), Ushtrasana (Camel Pose), and Setubandhasana (Bridge Pose).

Forward bends:

Similar to back bends, forward bends stretch the entire back of your body, especially your hamstrings. Forward bends are also often used to release tension, calm your mind and soothe your nervous system. Similar to back bends, forward bends help keep your spine strong and supple.

Relaxation and restorative poses:

It is important to take time to perform relaxation or restorative poses at the end of each yoga practice. You can use this time to relax your body and mind and allow energy released by the poses in your practice to move freely throughout your body. 

Inversions poses

Inversions are excellent poses to perform to improve your blood circulation, quiet your mind and improve your overall health. Inversions are also believed to reverse the ageing process and reduce the effect of the gravity on your body.

Counter poses

A counter pose is a yoga pose that stretches your spine in the opposite direction from a previous pose or returns your spine to a neutral position.

Twists poses

You can perform twists to stretch and strengthen your back and abdominal muscles, increase the flexibility of your spine and improve your circulation. Twists improve the functioning of your internal organs by providing them with a fresh supply of blood as you twist and release your body.