Watch On YouTube: Mountain Yoga Pose
The way you carry yourself really is everything. I can get behind that 110% now. The way you see yourself in the mirror, the way you walk into a room, the way your body responds to news. It takes time, but infusing the body with awareness is the best treatment for improving the quality of your life. Standing up tall, relieving pressure and weight in the body is something we crave, naturally. Stand up for yourself! At first it might be difficult and even daunting, but soon you will adapt and find your ideal alignment, nourishing the internal organs and regulating cycles of the body.
Mountain Pose is not intimidating. No yoga pretzels here. It is an excellent foundational posture that will inform many other asanas. I believe that this pose can transform your body. Not only is it a fantastic container for tapping into the breath but daily practice with this pose will allow you to improve your posture, breathe easier and even boost your confidence. There really is more than meets the eye in this asana! It doesn’t ask you to remember traumatizing moments of the metaphorical ruler slapping your wrists and Nurse Ratched telling you to “Sit up straight!” It asks you to work from the ground up and from the inside out. Improving your posture in a way that feels grounded and good. It requires you to really check in and find integrity from your heels to your head.
I have had so many students tell me that this pose above all poses has made an impact in their day to day. Just the awareness of where you carry your weight is incredibly valuable. As a beginner, practice mountain pose at least once a day. Taking a moment (in your kitchen or in the shower even) to take a deep breath and come into the posture. Let me know how the conversation goes...
Benefits:
Modifications:
You are so fucking cute you make babies cry from joy.
Hahaha! You crack me up. I think I am going to have to make this a comment of the week. "Yoga With Adriene -F Bombs welcome."
Namaste!
So, watched the video, tried it out and it feels great!
But I have wonky knees and can't get my feet together without having to overlap my knees. Should I just accept that I can't do the "advanced" pose or is there something else I could do?
I read recently that sitting for periods longer than 20 minutes without getting up and moving causes damage to the body. The study showed that just the simple process of standing and sitting back down helped. So, I've made it a point to get up from my desk at work every 20 minutes to stand. I found your youtube videos just before reading that article (it's wonderful how the world works sometimes) and have been using these short moments throughout my day to stand in mountain pose and just be aware of my body. I can't even tell you how much better I feel from this new simple routine. Thank you for your guidance. I am eternally grateful for all your tips for us beginners. I've enjoyed every single one of your videos (foundation and sequences for beginners) and Yoga has never felt so wonderful!
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your videos. I've very recently decided to start trying yoga to help reduce stress, rebuild strength in my core, lose weight, and relieve chronic knee pain and sciatica (I'm a mess, right?). Your personality keeps me from giving up, even when there's just no way I can hold a pose any longer and I fall, I get back up. Also, I'm originally from Austin and miss it terribly, so listening to you mention the occasional thing from home just brings a smile to my face. As for this pose, for a time I was seeing a physiotherapist to help with my knee problems and little did I know, this is what she was getting me to do for one of my exercises. I obviously can't do it in full all the time, but even when I stand at the computer at work, I tuck in my tail bone and straighten my alignment as much as possible because it's great for the core. Please keep up the great work, and thanks again!
Thanks Adriene!
Thanks Adriene -- I am new to yoga and your videos are so helpful. Your great personality keeps me coming back! Thanks for what you do!
Hello, Adriene. I have one small I'd like to clarify. You say practice this once a day. But what constitutes as having practised it once? Do we hold a taught frame for a duration or do we tense and relax as we breathe in and out respectively? Also, what does tapping into the breadth mean?
Thank you for the video, it was very clear and precise. I'm looking to improve my posture and I'm grateful for making this video
*grateful to you. lol sorry for the English
Thank you, I practice with you all the time. I am a yoga teacher but I learn a lot from you.
Good morning!
I am new to yoga though gently used in mindfulness & sitting meditation. While I could see the benefits in others, until today I had not sat down (or in this case stood up) to do the work.
While doing tadasana, I think I "got" what this is about. This sentence sums up the primary purpose for me:
"..infusing the body with awareness is the best treatment for improving the quality of your life."
Finally and on a personal note to Ms. Adriene: I totally love that you folliow paths of thought, like your toenail comments and seem slightly distracted for a moment but then return us to the center. This reminds me I am not alone or different from you and that connectedness to the universe is possible and readily available.
Namaste
RR
Hi Adriene,
Greetings from London!
I've recently started following your video's on Youtube and they are really good. I tried a class once for about a year but couldn't keep up, so this is much better as I can pause and re-wind.
I was wondering if you could help me and perhaps others with this same problem, in Mountain pose, and to be honest in general life, what should I be doing with my bum muscles, thighs and knees. I find that I'm always tensing them and locking my knees and that's where I hold myself up from. Someone once told me to build up core strength I have to stop holding there and loosen them all. But I don't understand in this pose whether to engage those muscles like I think you are saying, or to let go of the tension and hold elsewhere, like the pelvis.
I also didn't understand the thigh-block thing. I tried, but I can't understand how to tighten and roll thighs toward the back. The block stays there, but it doesn't make sense to me. This whole area of the body is bewildering to me - read into that what you will 😉
Best wishes,
Laura
I love your videos. They helped/ help me a lot - during my training becoming a "Yoga for Women" teacher and now to. Your explanationsare so clear and laced with humor that makes it so much less woodoo and so much more down to earth. As let's face it most regular people just want to get the physical and mental benefits without all the buddhism connected to it. For me it isa great pro that it is in English as my training is in Hebrrw as I live in Israel. So thanks and you seem to have a lot of followers here also teachers and students. Just started teaching and some of my anglo students are great fans of you!! Keep up the good work.
Happy to see some yoga poses for pregnancy, postpartum and postpartum c-section. I am a holistic health practitioner ( reflexology, aromatherapy, guided imagery, breath work) - doula and childbirth educator ( hypnobirthing) so this would really be interesting
Tried incorporating mountain pose in simple daily activities such as standing in queue for something,etc... it works... works everytime I want to calm myself!
Thank you Adriane. You have taught me so much about myself through your yoga practices. I am diabetic and heard this is one of about 6 poses that are great for Diabetics. Is this the case? Love the pose and love the way you teach and make things so easy but so challenging in one. Thank you!
Colorado sending you a shout out right back (all these years later)! I love these foundation videos where I can learn the subtleties of the individual poses for several minutes each to get the feel for them in my body. Thank you so much!