Couples yoga poses you should do with your significant other
Yoga is naturally an intimate practice in which you go deeper within and return to a state of trust. When you add your partner in this experience, it can build this trust within your relationship. Plus, making physical contact in a non-sexual way helps to create a deeper sense of intimacy and connection. By doing couple’s yoga, you work on your communication skills as a pair while getting to know each other on a new level — even if you’ve been together for years.
Prevention suggests the “seated cat cow” as an ideal starting exercise. Begin by coming into a cross-legged seated position while facing each other. Focus on your breathing and see if you and your partner’s breaths start to fall in sync. After “releas[ing] your shoulders down and back,” start a seated cat-cow sequence by holding your partner’s forearms while you’re both still in your cross-legged seat. On the inhale, move into cow pose by pulling your chests forward and slightly arching your middle back towards one another. When you exhale, round out your spine for cat pose in the opposite direction while pulling your chin downwards, “spreading your shoulder blades wide apart.” Continue this movement together as you warm up your spines for at least ten rounds of breath.
By warming up with this movement, you can make eye contact, start to relax, and get an amazing stretch in while you’re doing it.
Some couples may even use partner yoga instead of therapy
After you’ve warmed up your spine, try taking a “back-to-back chair pose,” which Prevention describes like so: “Stand back-to-back with your arms relaxed by your sides. Press your backs firmly together as you walk your feet hip-width apart and then slightly away from your partner’s. Slowly bend your knees and lower down as if you are sitting on a chair.” Hold here as you take “take five to six steady breaths,” while ensuring your posture by “pressing down evenly through both feet.” When it’s time to transition, press upwards against each other as you slowly ascend. Building trust, strength, and stamina, this pose brings you and your partner together to stay balanced and connected.
Practicing yoga solo or with a partner can increase sexual intimacy, create compassion between partners, and even improve your satisfaction with your relationship (via Yoga Journal). Melissa Whippo, a therapist and yoga instructor explains what this practice can do for couples, saying, “Partner yoga gets us into the body, which slows down the nervous system. In a more relaxed state, finger-pointing softens and couples can witness each other’s experiences with greater compassion.”
By slowing down your breathing and connecting in this way, you and your partner can find a new way to connect — on a deeper level — while getting your blood moving!
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