What Is Partner Yoga?
Partner yoga is performing yoga poses with a partner that improves stretching and postures through trust and communication with the partner. The partner could be a friend, lover, or family member. For couples, it is also referred to as couple yoga. It helps to create the proper balance in life by making poses and lifting the partner’s body to align the body. This practice builds relationships through a deep connection with one another. For couples, it is the best way to relax, nourish their love, and get the benefits of yoga.
How to Practice Partner Yoga?
The practice should always begin with warm-up exercises and try to communicate properly with a partner to achieve a balance.
There are some poses to try in partner yoga, including:
Double Tree Pose (Vriksana): This pose helps to create a balance between both partners.
Steps to be followed:
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Stand sideways with a partner.
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Draw the inside hands toward the partner’s hip on the other side and touch it.
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Raise the outside hand over the head and join the palms of both partners’ hands.
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Bend the knees of the outside legs sideways by keeping the foot on the inner thigh of the inside legs.
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Maintain the same pose for 30 seconds and focus on the breath.
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Repeat the pose on the other side.
Seated Twist Pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana): This pose helps improve the spine's flexibility and relieve muscle tension by stretching the upper body.
Steps to be followed:
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Sit back to back with crossed legs and twist the spine toward the right side by placing the left hand on the right knee and the right hand on the partner’s left knee.
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Look towards the right shoulder.
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Repeat it on the other side.
Seated Side Bend: This pose helps to relieve tension in the neck, back, and shoulder muscles and reduces stress.
Steps to be followed:
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Sit with crossed legs, back to back, with a partner by bending to the right and placing the right palm of both hands on the floor.
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Raise the left arm over the head by holding it.
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Look towards the left side and hold it for 10–15 seconds.
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Repeat it on the other side.
Partner Chair Pose: This pose helps to relieve tension in the leg muscles.
Steps to be followed:
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Stand back-to-back with closed legs and hold each other’s wrists.
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Bend both knees and reach a squat position by making the thigh parallel to the floor.
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Hold it with a partner as resistance.
Partner Boat Pose (Navasana): This pose helps to improve the flexibility of the core muscles of the legs.
Steps to be followed:
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Sit by facing each other and raise and join the feet of each other’s legs, creating an inverted “V” shape.
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Hold each other’s hands by leaning.
Partner Camel Pose (Ustrasana): This pose helps to promote energy flow throughout the body.
Steps to be followed:
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Kneel on the floor, facing each other
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Keep one foot between a partner's feet and backbend, and rest the heads over the partner’s shoulders.
What Are the Benefits of Partner Yoga?
Partner yoga has numerous benefits, like improving physical, mental, and relationship status.
Physical Health:
Regular partner yoga practice helps to improve physical health, just as heavy workout exercises do.
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Enhances Flexibility: Partner yoga helps improve physical health by stretching the body to its maximum extent without strain. It also helps improve body flexibility in older people, whose flexibility diminishes.
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Strengthens the Muscles: Partner yoga helps strengthen both partners' muscles by making poses and lifting the other partner, thereby holding the other partner's body weight.
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Promotes Balance: Partner yoga helps to create perfect alignment and balance by making proper yoga poses. Both partners must work together to maintain stability to attain the proper pose.
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Reduces Systemic Illness: Partner yoga promotes overall systemic health by reducing the effects of other diseases like heart disease, diabetes, chronic inflammatory disease, etc.
Mental Health:
Making yoga poses with a partner helps improve mental health by deepening the connection with the body.
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Reduces Stress: Partner yoga deepens the connection with another partner, which can help to forget about worries. It also reduces stress by enhancing the mood through gentle touching and making poses with a partner that can reduce the neural stress response.
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Improves Focus: Making poses with a partner helps improve focus and concentration by maintaining physical and mental balance together.
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Enhances Relaxation: The physical touch of a partner while doing yoga helps to clear the mind and improve well-being by relaxing the mind. The yoga poses create a space for the new energy to flow, thereby relieving strains.
Relationship:
Partner yoga helps to improve the relationship by restoring or renewing connections, building trust, and being loyal.
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Promotes Trust and Communication: During yoga poses, both partners must support each other to perform poses by trusting a partner and building confidence in both partners. It also helps to improve communication by exchanging thoughts or experiences throughout the practice and coming out of the comfort zone to trust another person. Though communication is meant to speak, it can be possible through touch and eye-to-eye contact without distractions.
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Develops Loyalty: Partner yoga creates self-awareness in each partner that can develop loyalty as the connection gets deeper. To achieve the desired pose, the partner must align and support both bodies, promoting honesty. Being loyal helps to create a good relationship with each other.
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Strengthens the Bond: Partner yoga is a wonderful way of strengthening the bond by relaxing and deepening the connection between partners. For couples, this yoga also helps to improve romance and intimacy towards one another by having deep connection and fun during the practice.
Conclusion:
Partner yoga is a fun way of practicing yoga poses with another person you trust the most; it could be a friend, lover, or family member. It may provide a chance to relate to each other deeply, which can enhance trust and communication and reduce stress and anxiety. In partner yoga, attention should be paid to both to create a perfect balance.
