5 Basic SUP Yoga Poses For Beginners

SAN DIEGO, California - Dashama Gordon is one of the leading voices in the SUP Yoga movement and together with her sponsor Starboard SUP, Dashama has come out with a series of SUP Yoga tutorials where she shares some standup paddle board yoga tips. If you're interested in trying SUP Yoga, here are a few basic poses to get you started.

Cat / Cow Pose

Sean Poynter (left) doing the cat pose and Dashama (right) doing the cow pose. 

Starting on your hands and knees, start with some fundamental basic starter poses. Place your palms under the shoulders with your knees hip-width distance apart stabilizing yourself. Then, take a deep breath in and then exhale and tuck your chin into your chest, round your spine making an arch in your back like a cat. Then, inhale and lift your heart and your tailbone should lift up. Then repeat the inhale and exhale with the motions. This helps to warm up your spine.

Seated Forward Bend

Dashama and Sean Poynter doing a seated forward bend.

Next, slowly transition to sitting with your legs straight out in front of you. Have your palms by your side and inhale with your arms reaching up to the sky and lengthen your spine. As you exhale, reach forward reaching for your feet and proceed to take a few breaths like this. This helps to release the tension from your hamstrings.

See more SUP Yoga tips here.

Table Top

Sean Poynter and Dashama Gordon executing the table top pose. 

The next pose will be used to open up your shoulders. Stay in the seated position and bend your knees with your palms behind your hips, hands facing forward. Shift your hips towards the heels of your feet with your palms behind you and just lift your chest and bend your elbows. This will help warm you up for the next pose which is a tad trickier.

Stay in a nice seated pose to open up the shoulders and then once you're feeling stable enough, lift your hips up into a tabletop. Keep your knees at 90° and lay your head back if you can. Stabilize and use your core strength and then slowly lower yourself back down.

Butterfly

Sean and Dashama doing the butterfly pose. 

Put your feet together and your knees apart. This is going to open up your hips and your inner thighs. Take a deep breath in and fold as far forward as you can on the exhale. Use your elbows to press down on your knees towards the board, further opening your thighs and hips and take a few breaths like this.

Neck Stretch

Sean and Dashama performing a seated neck stretch.

Return to a seated position with your legs crossed. From here, you're going to stretch your neck. Begin by taking one hand to the opposite side of your head and stabilize with your other hand as you open up the neck. Lower your right ear to your right shoulder, breathing into the left side of the neck and take a few breaths. Inhale back to the center and switch sides. When you feel complete, slowly release and take your hands back to the board.

Once you get a grasp on these poses, you're ready to go to the next level and try some more intermediate poses. To see more SUP Yoga tips from Dashama, click here. Watch the full video tutorial from Dashama below!