7 Ways to Benefit Your Legs with Yoga Poses

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It’s no secret that practicing yoga can boost your mental, physical, and spiritual health. This ancient practice is known for its ability to reduce stress, ease minor pain, relieve anxiety, and improve the quality of your sleep.

But did you know that yoga can also pack a serious punch when it comes to your legs? That’s right: Both standing and supine (lying face up) yoga poses may help improve balance, flexibility, and strength in your lower body. 

Let’s get into how yoga can benefit your legs and the poses that can be especially helpful.

How can yoga benefit your legs?

According to Mara Olney, yoga teacher and owner of LÜM Health Studio, your legs will definitely feel the love during a yoga class. 

“In yoga, it’s not uncommon to hold some of the standing strength and balancing poses until your legs are shaking. This allows you to feel the muscles being activated, creating the essential mind-body connection, which makes yoga a mindful form of exercise,” she said.

What makes some yoga postures so beneficial for your legs, says Olney, is that they balance strengthening and stretching — the key to having healthier, stronger, more flexible legs. 

According to a small 2016 studyTrusted Source, male college athletes who participated in a 10-week, biweekly yoga group increased their flexibility and balance more than the group that didn’t practice yoga.

The researchers concluded that adding a yoga program to traditional training methods helped enhance the athletes’ fitness and sports performance. 

Another studyTrusted Source from 2014 looked at the effectiveness of Hatha yoga compared with that of calisthenics in a group of older adults. The researchers found that after 1 year, Hatha yoga more effectively improved their flexibility compared with calisthenics. 

Yoga poses for your legs

Ready to stretch, strengthen, and boost the health of your legs? Here are seven yoga poses and stretches to get you started.