Mastering yoga positions in order of difficulty can help prevent injury while helping you advance your yoga skills gradually. A solid grasp of beginner poses helps you perform more difficult poses, because beginner poses are often starting positions for more advanced positions. You can also increase the difficulty of beginner poses with modifications, such as leaning further into the stretch, adding resistance, or challenging your balance more.
Beginner
Beginner poses gently stretch or relax your muscles and help you find the proper alignment of your body. Child's pose is a pose for stress-relief and resting. It involves kneeling on the floor while resting your torso on top of your thighs. Corpse pose is a relaxing pose that helps pacify your sense organs as you lay face up on the floor. Mountain pose, which is the starting position for all standing poses, improves your posture, strengthens your legs and reduces flat feet.
Intermediate
Intermediate yoga positions, such as cobra, locust and fish pose, require greater flexibility, strength and control than beginner poses. Cobra pose strengthens your spine while stretching your torso as you lay face down, and press up with your arms while keeping your hips and legs on the floor. Locust pose strengthens your buttocks and posterior chain as you lay face down, and lift your head, upper torso, arms and legs away from the floor. Fish pose involves keeping your hips and head on the floor as you lift your torso in a face-up position. Fish pose stretches your hip and rib muscles while stimulating your abdominal muscles.
Advanced
Plank, bow and dolphin pose are advanced yoga positions, which require strength and flexibility gained by mastering intermediate poses. Plank pose strengthens your core muscles as you press up in a pushup fashion and hold for up to one minute. Dolphin pose requires flexibility along your posterior chain. As you lift your buttocks upward with straight legs while keeping your elbows and feet on the floor, dolphin pose forms a triangle with your legs, torso and the floor. Bow pose stretches the front of your body while strengthening your back as you lay face down and bring your ankles toward the back of your head.
Master
Master yoga positions, such as the scorpion, wheel, and peacock poses, require significant balance and coordination in addition to greater strength and flexibility. Peacock pose strengthens your entire body as you hold your body off the floor while balancing on your wrists and elbows. Upward bow pose stretches the front of your body by hyperextending your back, which involves resting your palms behind your feet on the floor while in a face-up position. Scorpion pose is among the most difficult poses, which involves resting your forearms on the floor as you lift and balance your legs above your torso, and then hyperextend your back to bring your feet to the back of your head.
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