Let’s take a look at ten tadasana benefits for posture, health, and so much more.
If you are new to practising yoga, this basic yoga pose, the tadasana, one of the most common standing poses in the practice, could be the perfect start to your yoga journey. Learn about the tadasana benefits for posture, health and your body below.
Firstly, to understand what the tadasana benefits are, we first need to know what the yoga pose is and how to perform this pose.
What is tadasana? – roots of the practice
Tadasana is derived from two Sanskrit roots; tada, meaning ‘tree’ or ‘mountain’ and asana, meaning ‘posture’.
Therefore it is known as mountain pose in English. Tadasana is the base of all standing asanas in modern yoga. But, it wasn’t included as an asana in Hatha yoga until 1966.
The simple steps to performing tadasana are as follows:
- Stand up tall with your feet together and look straight ahead.
- Lift your chest by drawing your shoulders back and your shoulder blades down.
- Finally, lift through the crown of your head.
However, Tadasana is more than simply standing. Like all yoga postures, it is an active pose stretching all the muscles in the entire body.
When you are practising this pose, you should have an awareness of muscle activation and posture, ensuring you are promoting stability standing tall and engaged, which is linked with the root chakra or “Muladhara Chakra”.
There are many health benefits to doing yoga daily. Now let’s discuss the ten tadasana benefits for your posture, health and more.
10. Provides relief from back pain – a pose for relief of sciatica pain
Tadasana is considered to be effective in giving relief from forms of back pain, such as sciatica which is a pain that releases from the sciatic nerve.
Tadasana allows you to use your body awareness to stand straight, giving your spine a nice stretch. Regular Tadasana may keep the spine supple.
9. Provides a gentle stretch for body alignment & boosting energy– Utthita Tadasana (Five Pointed Star Pose), a tadasana variation
The Five Pointed Star Pose, which is one of the simple yoga poses, helps to boost energy within the body and can be included in prenatal yoga sequences to help pregnant people balance the chakras and strengthen abdominal muscles keeping them strong throughout the pregnancy.
8. Tadasana boosts mental strength – a good pose for mental health
This yoga posture assists you in connecting to your higher self and expanding your mental awareness, boosting your mental strength.
7. Provides improvements to posture and increases height – improve your body posture with tadasana
Tadasana is a good place to start if you want to improve your posture. Your posture will improve as you learn to stand tall. Thus, this will help to increase your height too.
6. Provides Improved mood – relaxing your facial muscles and connecting to the body helps calms the mind
One of the best tadasana benefits is that the strong mountain pose provides you with a way to improve your mood by reconnecting yourself to your body. It can also help treat depression and strengthen the neurological system.
5. Strengthening your lower body and abs – toning your entire body
Tadasana uses a lot of muscles in the pose; you are likely to use thigh muscles, calf muscles, buttocks muscles and abdominal muscles, too, to keep the pose strong.
A regular routine of yoga can strengthen these areas of the body and help to tone your body.
4. Relaxes the mind and body – releases tension from the face
The beginner-friendly yoga pose can reduce the tension you carry in the body. Tadasana is a good yoga practice that has been proven to relax the mind and body and release any tension you hold in your face.
3. Provides knee pain relief – an easy pose for seniors and people with knee pain
This is an easy yoga pose for relieving knee pain. It works by aligning your legs and stretching the knee muscles to alleviate pain.
A daily practice can be a form of relief whilst helping improve balance and coordination, creating body balance when in tadasana.
2. Improves standing posture – standing with your feet firm on the yoga mat improves your overall standing posture
Mountain Pose and Mountain Pose variation with your feet hip wide apart teaches you the equal distribution of the entire body weight throughout the feet. Tadasana helps to gradually improve your overall standing posture and strengthen your leg muscles too.
1. Helps improve your breathing – a body in stillness can provide improvements to one’s breath, reconnecting to the body
This is one of our favourite tadasana benefits because you don’t need to be an experienced yoga teacher to help your body through yoga. The tadasana mountain pose helps to open up your lungs and lets you breathe deeply.
Other notable mentions
Reduces flat feet: engaging the feet correctly in this pose can help raise the arches of the foot.
Makes your spine more agile: lengthening the spine and doing deep stretches can stretch the spine, which is useful in people with a desk job.
Body alignment: To get a feel for correct alignment, you can do your tadasana practice with your back against a wall.
COPD: Tadasana has many physical benefits for people with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in developing a sense of stability.
FAQs about tadasana benefits
What muscles does Tadasana work?
Many muscle groups are used during this tadasana pose, including the upper body muscles, which cover the shoulders, neck and arms, lower back muscles and stomach muscles.
Which asana is beneficial for the chest and shoulders?
Many asanas are beneficial for the chest and shoulders. Such as the camel pose stretching both the chest and the abdomen, increasing blood flow to the lungs and heart. Then there is the bow pose, cobra pose, or cat-cow pose as well.
Which chakra is activated by Tadasana?
Tadasana activates a few of the chakras in the body when this yoga pose is practised. The Ajna Chakra (third eye, linked to awareness, perception and spiritual connection), Anahata Chakra (the heart chakra, linked to love, compassion and forgiveness), Manipura Chakra (the solar plexus linked to energy and activation), and the last chakra is the Muladhara Chakra (linked to the root of your life, health and confidence).