Poses by Benefit

Take a closer look at seven subtle-body healing modalities, and how to find one that will help you boost the benefits of your yoga practice.

Long day? Feeling sluggish? Try these poses from YJ Influencer Meredith Cameron to create space in your upper body to soften, flush, and balance your organ system.

So you overate or overstressed… This short sequence focuses on processing and letting go to counteract holiday excess, leave you feeling lighter, and make some space for joy.

YJ Influencer Laura Burkhart shares the surefire strategies she’s used to end her decade-long battle with insomnia.

When it feels like life is spinning out of control, teacher Sara Clark recommends opening your energy channels to raise your vibration and increase your stress resilience.

Here's how to strengthen and gain mobility in your upper back

Use this sequence to check in with yourself, quiet fears and negative mental chatter, and ultimately move into a place of deep trust.

Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land created our Yoga for Flexibility Challenge but explains why it’s not all about about “stretching.”

There’s a myth that a strong muscle is a tight one, and a flexible muscle is weak. It seems counterintuitive, but identifying and strengthening weak areas can actually help tight areas release their grip. Your challenge for this week is to address one or two of your dormant areas with targeted strength work. Share your progress on social media with #YJflexichallenge for a chance to be featured on our @YogaJournal Instagram page!

We can mitigate some of the shifts in the body that occur during pregnancy, simply by standing well. This practice will wake up the muscles that we need to maintain good structural integrity and a healthy pelvic floor even as big changes are occurring within.

Do you have to do asana first? Is it like hypnosis? Dharma Mittra answers YJ readers’ common queries about this deep relaxation practice.

For starters, it can offer the benefits of an extra four (yep, four!) hours of sleep. Here, Dharma Mittra shares why this is the practice for modern times.

Open your hips and hamstrings, create flexibility in your spine, and increase circulation to your core with these prep poses for Tolasana.

So, just how handy is yogic breathing during childbirth? Is 9 months of prenatal yoga actually realistic? And can you meditate your way through contractions?

Strala Yoga founder Tara Stiles shares how her practice contributed to her pregnancy and recovery and the benefits a baby with a yogi mom receives. (Read: Good vibes galore.)

Senior Prana Vinyasa teacher and psychotherapist Coral Brown opens up about her trying pregnancy, nonexistent prenatal asana practice, and the wonder of bringing another being into the world.

Aruba-based yoga teacher Rachel Brathen, aka Yoga Girl, gets real about her pregnancy, letting go of her control-freak tendencies, and how pranayama isn’t actually an effective substitute for pain medication during labor.

Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land breaks down the anatomy of fascia and four effective ways to keep it fit through yoga practice.

This contemplative meditation can be practiced regularly or whenever you feel overwhelmed, unstable, or emotionally shut down.

Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Rachel Land says don’t worry if you’ve never considered the health of your fascia before. As a yogi, you may already be taking good care of it anyway. Here, she outlines what it takes.

Suffering from a pounding head? Learn how to diagnose, treat, and prevent headaches the Ayurvedic way.

Maintaining flexibility and stability in the hip joints is crucial for lower-back health and cultivating overall freedom and ease in our bodies.

This mudra connects us to our higher Self, helps lift dull energy, creates a more receptive state, calms the mind, and brightens the overall mood. It is often used in meditation, pranayama, and asana.

Garuda Mudra is named after the eagle that Vishnu—the lord of preservation—rides. It can help you cultivate the discipline you need to stick with your daily yoga practice when life gets busy.

This sequence blends asana with a HIIT tempo, which can help you build strength and burn calories while also inspiring you to feel empowered—all in 15 to 20 minutes.

Ray Long, MD, explains the anatomy of twists and how to support the action with proper muscular engagement to prevent low back pain.

If you're looking to get in shape, Kiersten Mooney proposes the need for speed. And her yoga research backs it up.

Find out how her stress manifests by this quiz from Gaia Herbs.

Think you don’t have time for yoga during the holidays—much less 3-minute pose holds? Yoga Medicine teacher Shannon Stephens makes a case for why yin yoga may be the best practice for your busiest times.

Often during the holiday season we hear that to take care of others we must first take care of ourselves. Here's how to feel more ease and less drained.

Vata governs the body’s changes during pregnancy, but can easily be thrown out of balance. Practice the following Vata-focused sequence to help balance and nourish your pregnant body.

Practicing this twisting sequence is beneficial for anyone who sits for a good portion of the day, suffers from chronic back pain, or loves activities like running, cycling, and hiking.

Whatever the root cause of your slumping, your yoga practice can help alleviate any resulting pain or dips in mood by bringing more balance to the muscles in your chest, upper back, and neck.

Stretch the upper back, spine, and shoulders; opens the chest; help release chronic tension in the shoulders and neck in Extended Puppy Pose.

Meditation is a procedure of cleansing the mind and taking out the garbage in the subconscious. These three Kundalini practices passed down by Yogi Bhajan will help you release conscious and subconscious fears that cause stress, worry, and anxiety.

Here are 5 healthy tips for revving up your energy level, from backbends to Beet Root.

Balancing forces is particularly crucial when it comes to addressing the feeling of “tightness” many of us have in our hips.

You'll feel calmer and more relaxed in minutes.

Consider this grounding sequence a reorientation to your foundation.

While anxiety is natural, yoga and breathing techniques can help students handle the pressures associated with peers, workload and making the grade. Try these 9 yoga tools with your kids for a stress-free start to the semester.

Try these exercises, working with different systems of the body to help you better process your food and relieve specific digestive issues.

Maintain your strength and flexibility with weight training to see improved benefits in your yoga classes.

Do you hear friends saying they're not fit enough for yoga? Here's how to convince them yoga is more than physical exercise.

Colleen Saidman Yee, who teaches Yoga Journal's upcoming Yoga for Inner Peace online course, demonstrates a rocking sequence for fighting fear and promoting positive thinking.

The mudras and the Reiki hand positions can be used in tandem with the Yees’ asana sequence or separately to help you find calm.

This combination of restorative yoga, meditation, essential oils, and Reiki—
from dream team Colleen Saidman Yee and Rodney Yee—will help 
ease anxiety and insomnia to deliver your best night’s zzz’s.

During pregnancy the body changes rapidly, but if we use our yoga practice wisely, we can support these changes, making us strong and flexible in all the right places for easier labor, delivery and recovery.

Do you practice yoga regularly but somehow still feel “stuck” in certain spots? Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Allison Candelaria created this fascia-freeing flow to find more mobility in the backside of your body.

We can't blame you if you've never given your fascia a second (or first) thought. Senior Yoga Medicine teacher Allison Candelaria explains why you will want to start now though.

Even yogis need a little help in the digestion department from time to time. Fortunately, Kathryn Budig says calling on the right pose at the right time can help.

Rubin Naiman, a clinical and sleep-health psychologist, offers advice for practicing before bed.

Ever feel like it's just too tough to get to the studio/gym/track? It could be that you're not exercising according to your sign, or more specifically, your "element."

Trying for a baby? Master teacher Ana Forrest offers advice for doing yoga, breathing, and living in a way that creates a womb that is clean and welcoming.

Next time you find yourself bogged down with emails and to-dos, take 10 minutes to disconnect from the computer screen and practice this short yoga sequence.

Yoga nidra, also known as “yogic sleep” is also a wonderful alternative to sleeping pills for anyone suffering from stress-induced insomnia.

Tone your body and lift your spirit with these inspiring moves that blend the mindfulness of yoga with upbeat cardio. Use this 15-minute workout to show your mind, body, and soul how you really feel about them.

Tiffany Cruikshank shares a meditation to help you become more conscious of the patterns in your mind so you can begin to rewire the soundtrack and guide yourself to a healthier mind and body.

How to use yoga to de-stress your life: come to your mat to defeat chronic stress and live a happier, healthier life.

Janet Stone, who will lead our upcoming Yoga for Moms online course, offers tips and a pose for coping with mom stress.

Yoga Medicine founder Tiffany Cruikshank offers four tricks for fine-tuning your body’s digestive process with yoga.

Bo Forbes tells us why the humble eye pillow is one of the most powerful tools for healing, health, and happiness—and how to use one.

Yoga Medicine founder Tiffany Cruikshank offers her favorite bedtime ritual to settle the nervous system in preparation for deep sleep.

Got two minutes? A short restorative practice can help edit and transform negative inner narratives that reinforce anxiety and depression.

Happiness is a mind-body endeavor. It only takes two minutes to deploy this self-massage to stimulate our belly brain, the enteric nervous system, which regulates mood and immunity.

Here are a few simple ways to carry the nourishing effects of yoga off the mat and into your relationships.

While yoga can often be a quick fix, these postures will help to methodically alleviate the root cause of back pain.

Start to ease lower back discomfort and counteract the effects of too much sitting by swapping some of your standard Surya Namaskars for this core-focused variation.

Photographer Robert Sturman honors and celebrates American veterans of war by featuring several active duty and retired service members practicing yoga.

We spend hours in front of our computers and phones, and the repetitive movement patterns can cause neck and shoulder strain. This sequence will help.

Sara Gottfried, MD, author of The Hormone Reset Diet, explains yoga's effects on our stress response.

Chronic stress 
and anxiety 
signal the brain to wreak havoc on your body. The secret to hitting reset? Yoga.

This Kundalini Yoga sequence supports ideal digestion by increasing energy at the navel point and keeping the digestive organs strong and flexible.

If you're feeling too tired to practice, keep in mind that yoga may be the very thing to bring you sound slumber.

Pick your poses. Two Fit Moms offers three ways to relieve holiday stress with yoga—active, passive, or a combo—in this sequence.

These simple yoga and lifestyle tips from Janet Stone will help you get the rest you need.

Prenatal yoga has long avoided certain poses, but new research indicates some of them may be safer than once thought.

A practice that combines energizing and calming principles (brahmana and langhana) has a balancing, or samana, effect to quiet that monkey mind.

Sitting for meditation at the end of a hectic day can feel difficult. This sequence can help you shift gears and transition smoothly into calm.

Keeping your eyes open if your body is listless, your mind dull, or your heart heavy can be a challenge. This 5-pose flow will help awaken your energy for meditation.

Are you Type A? Is work more central to your day than breath? This 14-minute practice eases stress by boosting endorphins and dopamine—right at your desk.