11 Easy Yoga Steps for Beginners — India

4. Practice Gentle Warm-up Movements

Begin movement with gentle warm-ups that open the spine, hips, and shoulders. Cat-Cow is a perfect starting sequence: come to hands and knees, inhale to arch the back and lift the gaze, exhale to round the spine and draw the chin in. Move with your breath for six to eight rounds. Add neck rolls, wrist circles, and ankle rotations to prepare joints for standing and weight-bearing poses. Hip circles or gentle lunges help open the hips without forcing them. Warm-ups reduce injury risk and make transitions between poses smoother. Keep movements slow and controlled, and stop if you feel sharp pain. For wrists, practice on fists or use forearms to reduce strain. Each warm-up should last thirty seconds to one minute so the body warms without fatigue. Link these movements to a soft breathing pattern: inhale to lengthen, exhale to soften. These simple sequences feel familiar—similar to stretching before a morning walk—and they build a base that supports strength-focused poses later in the practice.