Tadasana is an active pose.

It's one that will feel different than when you're standing on a street corner waiting for the light to change. In this video, I guide you through how to balance evenly between all four corners of your feet, engage the quads, integrate your core muscles, lift and lengthen your side seams, hug your shoulder blades down and back, and lengthen the back of your neck thereby creating a strong and sturdy mountain pose — the base pose for almost all other poses.

Notice how this integrated mountain pose feels in your body. Hopefully stable and sturdy, just like your foundation.

Aim to maintain these sensations throughout your physical practice because mountain pose is the base, the foundation for the rest of your practice. The muscle memory you build here translates to feeling more secure in other postures throughout your practice.

Sanskrit

Tadasana

Level

Beginner

Step-By-Step Instructions

• Stand with feet parallel

• Heels in line with second and third toes

• Weight evenly distributed through all four corners of the feet

• Lift the arches

• Press the inner thighs back (internal rotation)

• Draw the lowest part of the belly in and up (tailbone toward the inner heels)

• Lengthen through the side seams

• Shoulder blades hug down the back and into the body to broaden across the heart

• Lift through the crown of the head

Modifications

• Chair

• Hands at heart (Samastihi)

Category

Standing Poses

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