Tadasana - Mountain Pose

The foundation of all standing poses, Mountain Pose makes a great a starting position, resting pose, or tool to improve posture.

Tadasana or the Mountain Pose is a basic yoga pose that is very beneficial for our health. Beginners are often asked to practise this yoga pose. Although it is a basic yoga pose and won’t tire you out, practising it regularly can improve your health. If you master it, performing other asanas won’t seem like a challenge to you.

Mountain Pose improves your posture and body awareness, strengthens your legs, and establishes good alignment. Tadasana may not look like much, but keeping your body active and aligned is hard work. You're not just standing in any old way. You have to be aware of each part of your body and the role that it plays in stacking your bones and keeping your spine long.

You can even break a sweat if you engage your leg muscles as strongly as possible.

The basic alignment for Mountain Pose carries through to many of the other standing postures (Warrior I, or Virabhadrasana I, for example) and inverted poses (Handstand, or Adho Mukha Vrksasana) that you're going to do.

Steps to do Tadasana:

  1. Stand with the feel parallel, a few inches apart. (Alternately you may stand with the bases of your big toes touching, heels slightly apart.
  2. Lift and spread your toes and the balls of your feet, then lay them softly back down on the floor. Rock gently back and forth and side to side. Gradually reduce this swaying to a standstill, with your weight balanced evenly across your feet. Feel the energy draw from your feet up through your core.
  3. Without pushing your lower front ribs forward, lift the top of your sternum straight toward the ceiling. Widen your collarbones. Allow your shoulder blades to draw toward each other and down the back, away from the ears.
  4. Let your arms relax beside your torso, palms facing in or forward.
  5. Balance the crown of your head directly over the center of your pelvis, with the underside of your chin parallel to the floor, throat soft, and tongue wide and flat on the floor of your mouth. Soften your eyes. Breathe.

Your stance is extremely important. To begin with a balanced Mountain Pose: Place your feet where they naturally fall when you walk forward, and leave a few inches between them. Keep your hips and knees facing forward.

Try to gently activate your core to keep your stance strong and retain the pose’s integrity, and prevent yourself from locking your joints.