What are the 12 Basic Postures ?

The 12 Basic postures are a set of wonderful asanas set out in a proper sequence by Swami Vishnu devananda , founder Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres ( www.sivananda.org) that has the essence of all the 84 Classical postures .In today’s busy world not everyone has the time to learn and practice all the 84 classical postures and hence Swami Vishnu devananda selected the 12 best of those and formed in to a wonderful sequence .

The 12 Basic Postures are :

1) Headstand ( Siras –asan )

2) Shoulder Stand ( Sarva –anga-asan)

3) Plough ( Hal-asan )

4) Fish ( Matsy-asan )

5) Sitting Forward Bend ( Paschi-Motan-asan )

6) Cobra ( Bhujan-asan)

7) Locust ( Shalab-asan )

8) Bow ( Dhanur-asan )

9) Half Spinal twist ( Ardha-Matsya-asan )

10) Crow ( Kak-asan ) , Peacock ( Mayur-asan)

11) Standing Forward Bend ( Pada-Hatsa-asan )

12) Triangle ( Trikon-asan )

These 12 Basic postures are taught in the Sivananda Centres and Ashram’s world over in their beginners course and these 12 postures form a basic foundation to learning the other postures and their variations .

Before we go deeper in to the postures we must know how these postures are classified and that we will see in the next message .

( Note : Here we use the word postures to mean yoga postures / yoga asanas )

Krishnanand