Mountain Pose – Complete Tutorial

Build a strong base, improve your posture, and warm up with this relaxing pose – mountain pose.

Step-by-step Guide for Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

Step 1

Determine if you have a good balance. Make sure you are not dizzy or suffering from low blood pressure. This posture will require you to hold a pose in a standing position.

Some like to keep their eyes closed while holding this pose. Do not attempt this unless you are sure you have good balance.

Grab your mat and stand on it with your big toes touching and your heels slightly apart.
Stand on the mat as if you would stay in line at the grocery store, with a few modifications.

Pay attention to your posture and your feet.

Make sure your body weight is distributed evenly on your feet. Try to recreate this balance in your everyday life too.

Step 2

If you have a hard time maintaining your balance, leave more space between your feet and bend your knees slightly a few times. Following this, return to the initial position. This will warm up your joints.

Keep your tight muscles engaged and lift your knee caps without hardening your core muscles.

Lift your inner ankles to engage your inner arches, and create a stream of energy all the way up from your inner thighs to your pelvis, torso, neck, and head. The point is to strengthen your base to hold your upper body.

Next, turn your upper thighs inwardly and lengthen your tailbone from the floor and lightly engage your back muscles to hold your back straight.

Step 3

Use your shoulder blades to apply some pressure on your back, and then widen them and release the pressure on your back.

Widen your collarbones a little bit. Place your arms beside your upper body area, and make sure you keep your chest area open.

Step 4

Focus on keeping your head straight. Your chin should be parallel to the floor. You should not engage your neck muscles too much while holding your head up. Your posture should be relaxed.

Your tongue should be wide and flat in your mouth, and your gaze should be forward on a point that is at approximately the same height as your head. Do not look downwards or upwards. Instead, find a spot that is about the same height as you are.

Step 5

Hold the pose for at least 30 seconds and try to keep your negative thoughts at bay. If you are a beginner, just focus on a spot on the wall in front of you. If you do your Yoga practice outdoors, make sure you are near an object, such as a tree, that you can focus on.

The Mountain Pose is usually done at beginning of Yoga sessions or in Vinyasa sequences to prepare the body for other asanas.

Mountain Pose Modifications

If you have a hard time maintaining your balance or posture, stand against a wall. Widening your legs can also help.
The Mountain Pose is usually done on a flat surface, but if you want to challenge yourself a bit you can pick rough surfaces too.

Since the Mountain Pose is usually used as a warm-up and for transitions in Vinyasa style, they are not many ways you can modify it.

If you want to challenge your balance, you can close your eyes while holding the pose. You can also stretch your arms forward.

Mountain Pose Benefits

The Mountain Pose has few contraindications and is perfect for both beginners and advanced Yoga practitioners alike because it teaches the body how keep the spine straight and distribute body weight evenly on the feet.

The Tadasana also teaches us how to improve our standing position in everyday life, and it increases our awareness of our own body functions.

Among the Mountain Pose benefits you will find the following:

Improved posture
Better balance in people with flat feet
Toned abdomen and thighs
Strength and flexibility development
Increased awareness of our body movements
Relieved tension
Improved digestion and detoxification process

The Mountain Pose helps us become more aware of our daily movements and maintain our posture not only when we hold the pose, but also in our everyday lives.

Tadasana is often used to improve balance and relax the human body in Yoga practitioners with injuries too, and it can be used by almost anyone without serious balance issues and/or low blood pressure.

Mountain Pose Common Mistakes

The Mountain Pose is relatively easy to do, but there are a few common mistakes a lot of Yoga practitioners make. These include the following:

Bulging back while standing on the mat
Putting too much pressure on the back muscles and core
Not gazing forward but looking up or down
Holding the pose while not focusing on breathing

That being said, you are now ready to hold the pose without putting unnecessary strain on your body.

The Sun Salutation and the Mountain Pose

Each time you start a Yoga workout, you should begin with the sun salutation to get all of the benefits of the practice, both emotional and physical. Each time you want to start a sun salutation, you will start in Tadasana, or Mountain Pose.

Start the sun salutation by holding the Mountain Pose in front of the mat with your gaze forward.

While holding the pose, you can give ujjayi breathing a try if you are accustomed to the breathing technique.

The ujjayi breath, or the “ocean sound,” is a diaphragmatic breath that first activates the lower belly and then goes up to the lower rib cage by activating the first, second, third, and fourth chakras through the movement of oxygen in the body.

The controlled breathing is meant to increase your awareness of your own body, but if you are not prepared for this technique you can always take big breaths and maintain the exhalation process longer than inhalation.

While you hold the Mountain Pose, place your palms in a prayer position in front of your chest and set an intention. Before each yoga practice, you should set a goal. Work towards meditation, practicing asanas, and breathing toward your goal.

To give you an idea of what intentions are realistic for your Yoga practice, I have put together a short list of intentions you might want to use:

Become more grounded
Increase your self-esteem
Fight anxiety
Let go of the things you cannot control
Practice detachment
Fight off negative thoughts
Become more forgiving

The sun salutations will also help you customize your asanas, meditation, and breathing practices since they help you establish what your intentions.

Depending on what you want to achieve by using Yoga, you will find specific asanas and breathing techniques that will help you out regardless of your fitness level. However, the Mountain Pose will be most likely present in the beginning of each of your Yoga sessions.

To continue to sun salutation, raise your hands into an upward salute, lifting your palms towards the ceiling, and gently arch your back while lifting while maintaining the prayer position.

A Few Common Mistakes You Should Avoid When Doing a Sun Salutation

While it might sound easy, many Yoga practitioners “try too hard,” and they engage each muscle of their bodies when doing a sun salutation. This transforms the whole ritual into a not-so-relaxing experience.

First, make sure that your elbows are completely extended and your head is only slightly tilted back.

Second, be aware of your back muscles and shoulders. Maintain a straight back and avoid hunching. Also, make sure your chest area is open.

Third, the sun salutation is all about preparing yourself for the Yoga session while holding a Mountain Pose. Do not try to overthink it. Rather, live in the moment and enjoy the deep breaths.

The Relationship Between the Root Chakra and the Mountain Pose

The Mountain Pose keeps us grounded. It is known to have an impact on the root chakra, or Muladhara. This is the first chakra point in your body, and it is situated at the base of your spine.

The root chakra is linked to your emotional stability and whatever makes you feel grounded. You can think of Muladhara as the chakra that helps us achieve our must-haves, the things we cannot live without.

It could be food, shelter, or a job. It could also be the friends and family members who contribute to our well-being.

When your root chakra is balanced, you are more likely to get the things you cannot live without, and you are more motivated to fight and keep them in your life.

Yoga poses like the Mountain Pose can help you strengthen a weakened root chakra. But iif you are unsure whether your root chakra is weak, keep reading.

I put together a short list of symptoms that warn you if your root chakra is weakened:

Blood disorders
Constipation
Scoliosis (see yoga for scoliosis)
Difficulty concentrating
Lack of purpose
Sense of helplessness
Anemia
Dizziness

When your root chakra is weakened you will not only see the things you absolutely need for inner peace disappearing from your life, but you can also experience blood disorders, bruises, and bone diseases.

On the flip side, when your root chakra is balanced, you are experiencing a sense of inner peace because your life is stable and you have the key points in your life that make you happy.

When you have too much of root chakra, you will experience stubbornness and arrogance. This occurs because when you are rooted in your own beliefs without doubting them.

How to Use the Mountain Pose to Strengthen Your Root Chakra

The Mountain Pose can be done every day since it is not challenging for the human body to hold the pose, and this is extremely beneficial for your root chakra.
Before you get into the Mountain Pose, set and intention. In this case, it could be finding stability, purpose, or anything that is directly related to the root chakra.

When you finish with your intention ritual, hold the Mountain Pose for at least 60 seconds and combine it with the Child’s Pose.

Other poses that go well with the Mountain Pose are Standing Forward Fold, Warrior 1, and Five Pointed Star.

Usually, you will try to create a sequence of asanas that strengthen the same chakra(s).

Contraindications

The Mountain Pose has few contraindications since you can also use a wall to help with your balance. However, if you are suffering from headaches and low blood pressure, you should be cautious when attempting this pose
If you have hearing problems, you will probably have issues with your balance too.

Also make sure to avoid eating a rich meal before practicing any pose, not just the Mountain Pose.

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Marcus Stone

Soon after graduating college with a degree in Journalism, Marcus decided to pursue his love for yoga and traveled to Rishikesh, India to complete his RYS 500 yoga teacher training. Marcus wants people to know that yoga is for everyone – no matter your race, gender, age, or physical ability. >> Read More