The legs are the pillars that support the entire body weight. To increase leg strength as well as endurance and flexibility, standing yoga poses will be a great choice.
Want to improve leg and muscle strength with yoga exercises? If so, start with simple standing yoga poses. Normally, when doing yoga, you will switch positions continuously in a sequence of movements. However, instead of constantly moving, holding a posture for long periods of time can also be very beneficial. In the beginning, your legs may shake, but that’s okay. Learning how to balance is a good way to focus on improving leg strength and strengthening abs.
Yoga exercises to strengthen the legs at a basic level
If you are new to yoga, you can try these yoga poses to strengthen your legs:
Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Most of the time when doing downward facing dog, the weight will be on the arms. However, try to evenly distribute the weight back to your legs to help keep your arms off the load. Also, try to keep your hips high and heels pointed to the floor in this pose.
Utthita Parsvakonasana (Utthita Parsvakonasana)
Most of the time, when practicing the tilt angle, yogis only focus on the position of the arms. However, it doesn’t really matter whether you put your forearm on your thigh or your hand on the floor, as long as you bend your front knee deeply. Try to keep your thighs parallel to the floor, your knees in line with your ankles, and place your arms where you can reach them.
Tadasana (mountain pose)
Even the simplest standing poses can be great leg strengthening exercises if you hold the pose for a long time. In mountain pose, try to keep your back straight, spread your toes, and stretch your thigh muscles.
Uttanasana (Forward Bend Pose)
This is a popular yoga pose, however, most people rarely go into this pose. For a deeper forward bend, bend from your pelvis instead of your lower back.
Standing forward bend with feet wide (Prasarita Padottanasana)
Similar to the forward bend, but in this position, the legs will be placed far apart. A lot of people think that the “goal” of this pose is to keep the head on the ground. Therefore, when practicing a lot of yogis, try to stand with wide feet to easily lower your head. However, yoga experts advise that you should not make your legs wider than 1m because this will make the hips more prone to wear and tear.
Vrksasana (Tree Pose)
This is the first balance pose that you will practice in your early yoga classes. When performing tree pose, it is important to observe the position of your feet. You should place it above or below the knee, avoid placing it in the middle. You may feel wobbly at first, but this is completely normal.
Trikonasana (Trikonasana)
As with the wide-legged stand, don’t put your feet too far away to try to bring your hands down to the floor. The goal of triangle pose is to establish a solid foundation in your legs, allowing you to open up your chest better.
Warrior Pose 1 (Virabhadrasana I)
This is a great pose to start a series of standing poses. In warrior 1, hips forward. You can try separating your legs on either side of the mat if you find it difficult to keep the hips on your back foot facing forward.
Yoga moves to strengthen legs at a moderate level
If you’ve been doing yoga for a while, here are some more challenging yoga poses you can try:
Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
In chair pose, to strengthen your legs is not how low you can lower, but how long you can hold it. You can keep your thighs pressed together and treat your legs as a single body.
Eagle Pose (Garudasana)
You can do eagle pose right after chair pose because your legs are already in place. Twisting your legs and balancing in this pose will help you strengthen your abs.
Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose)
Half-moon pose is a useful move to exercise leg strength and balance.
Dancer Pose (Natarajasana)
This is the next pose of the tree pose. Dancer pose helps you keep your balance by focusing on the drishti point of view.
Twisted triangle pose (Parivritta Trikonasana)
In the twisted triangle position, the legs will act as anchor points to create stability to open the chest.
Warrior Pose 3 (Virabhadrasana III)
You should do warrior 3 with your hands on your hips to feel if the hips are balanced or not.
Advanced level yoga exercise
If you have been practicing yoga for many years, you can try the following poses:
Twisted Half Moon Pose (Parivritta Ardha Chandraasana)
This pose relies heavily on the stability of the standing leg. Balancing and twisting is a huge challenge, not to mention keeping your legs elevated and straight.
Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)
Wheel pose requires you to have strong legs to support and bear most of your body weight. This yoga pose can give a supple and toned body but it will require maximum effort from the whole body and mind to have the body shaped like the circle of a wheel.
Reference source
Yoga Poses for Leg Strength Library https://www.verywellfit.com/yoga-poses-for-leg-strength-library-3566687 Accessed: 11/11/2020
John Alen was born in 1971 and is a doctor in the healthcare and psychology fields with many years of experience. He is currently working at easyhealthylive.com, a leading health and psychology blog. Having studied at Y1 National Medical University named after IM Sechenov, John Alen is using his knowledge and experience to help improve the physical and mental health of people in the United States.
