Building Upper Body Strength the Easy Way, Revisited

by Nina

In a post from a few of years back Building Upper Strength the Easy Way, I included a mini yoga practice for building upper body strength. In those days, we didn’t have the collection of photographs we have now (thank you, Melina Meza!) and we didn’t have as much information about the individual poses in that mini sequence that we have now.

So I thought today I would revisit that sequence and include photographs of the poses and links to their full descriptions when we have them. The reason this came up for me is that just yesterday I was practicing all these poses in my home practice. Yes, I work regularly on maintaining my upper body strength by doing some simple, accessible yoga poses. As I wrote in Building Upper Strength the Easy Way  you don’t have to do handstands or arm balances to build upper body strength. Any pose where you put weight on your arms builds upper body strength, including Cat/Cow pose, Downward-Facing Dog pose, Upward-Facing Dog pose, Plank pose, Side Plank pose, and Upward Plank pose. 

So I’d like to encourage everyone else to incorporate some of these simple poses into your home yoga practice. For most of these poses, there are modifications for people who have wrist problems, such as practicing with forearms on the floor or using a chair or wall instead of the floor.

Also, any pose where you hold your arms up or out to the side builds upper body strength, including Warrior 1, 2, and 3, Tree pose, Triangle pose, Extended Side Angle pose, Half Moon pose, and so on. Do you doubt me? Try keeping your arms in position instead of releasing them as you change from the first side to the second side of Warrior 2 (or any other pose). I bet you’ll find it’s harder than you expected.

And if you decide to practice this mini sequence in its entirety, feel free to rest between the poses.

Mini Upper Body Strengthening Sequence

1. Cat/Cow Pose (Cakravakasana), 6 rounds. 

If kneeling isn’t possible or you have wrist problems, you can do this pose in a chair (see Featured Pose: Seated Cat/Cow).

Start in Hands and Knees position with padded under your knees if needed. Start with your spine in a neutral position. 

On your inhalation, start moving from your pelvis, tipping your hips downward toward the floor. As you continue to inhale, gently lift and lengthen your spine into a gentle backbend. Lift your breastbone forward and up, and allow your head and neck to lengthen out and back, coming into the Cow backbend.

On your exhalation, start by releasing your pelvis in the opposite direction, moving the back of your waist upward toward the ceiling. As you continue to exhale, allow your middle back to arch up towards the ceiling and release your chin toward your chest, coming into the Cat forward bend.

2. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) pose, 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

See Featured Pose: Downward-Facing Dog for instructions. If you have wrist problems, you can practice this pose on your forearms, either with parallel forearms or with hands clasped into a Headstand position.

3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute.

4. Sun Salutation, 2 rounds, or Downward-Facing Dog to Plank Pose.

My original sequence included Sun Salutations. But I'm thinking now that you might like to keep it even simpler and just practice moving from Downward-Facing Dog into Plank pose and back. You could hold the Plank pose for an extended period of time or you could do the poses dynamically, move in and out of Plank with your breath. See Featured Sequence: Upper Body Strength for information on how to practice Plank pose. People with wrist problems could do the forearm version.

If you want to do Sun Salutations for this sequence, practice Plank pose instead of Pushup Pose and High Lunge instead of jumping. This is not only easier but is safer for most of us because frankly after a certain age, Pushup pose (Chaturanga Dandasana) is quite stressful for the shoulders and jumping around is hard on the knees.

Also, to be honest, I do my Sun Salutations differently than Baxter does. You can see his instructions in his post Featured Sequence: Agility Practice. My version focuses more on upper body strength as it includes both Plank pose and Upward-Facing Dog pose. Baxter’s is milder, as includes Cobra instead of Plank and Upward-Facing Dog. You should do whichever works best for you. 

Here is the sequence of pose I include in my Sun Salutations. I’m not going to give instructions today, just the order of the poses. Don’t worry about moving quickly with your inhalations and exhalations. It’s fine to take a breath or two in each pose, or even stay longer in the arm strengthening poses. 

1. Mountain pose (Tadasana)
2. Arms Overhead pose (Urdva Hastasana)
3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) 
4. Extended Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana with extended rather than rounded spine)
5. High Lunge (Vanarasana), right side
6. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
7. Plank pose
8. Upward-Facing Dog pose (Urdva Mukha Svanasana)
9. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
10. High Lunge (Vanarasana), left side
11. Extended Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana with extended rather than rounded spine)
12. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)
13. Powerful pose (Utkatasana)
14. Arms Overhead pose (Urdva Hastasana)
15. Mountain pose (Tadasana)

For the second round, step your right foot back into the first High Lunge and right foot forward into the second High Lunge.

5. Sideways Plank Pose (Vasithsasana), 30 seconds to 1 minute per side.

See Featured Pose: Side Plank Pose for information. People with wrist problems can practice with the forearm on the floor.

 People who want to build up the strength to do the full pose can do the wall version.

6. Upward Plank Pose (Purvottanasana), 30 seconds to one minute.

See Featured Pose: Upward Plank Pose for information. People with wrist problems can try the chair version, where you bear less weight on your hands.

Repeat the pose two times. Rest in Constructive Rest pose in between. 

7. Child's Pose (Balasana), 1 to 2 minutes.

Take the classic pose, with your arms by your sides, rather than stretched out in front of you. Relax and rest your arms and upper body before moving on to Relaxation pose.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect