Howdy, Parnter!

Practicing yoga with a friend can be fun and rewarding, while partnering in a pose can increase the stretch and be just as fulfilling. In fact, by partnering you can experience the same type of adjustment as that made by the yoga instructor for proper alignment. Emotionally, partner poses also develop trust and remove competitiveness.

Additionally, children will enjoy partnering poses. By working together, it is a fun way to learn cooperation.

Here a few partner poses to get you started.

• Boat: Facing each other, sit on the floor with your knees bent.  Lift your legs into the air. Place the soles of the feet on your partner’s feet.  Extend the legs. Lift the arms and hold on to each other’s hands for balance.
• Extended leg lift: Stand face-to-face. One partner raises the right leg as high as possible and the other partner holds on the right ankle with his/her left hand. The other partner lifts the left leg and the left ankle is held by the other person.
• Standing forward bend: Stand back-to-back in mountain pose and fold forward. Grab hold of each other’s shoulders.
• Warrior II: Stand side-to-side. One partner will step into warrior II with the right foot. The other will step into warrior II with the left foot. The back foot of each partner is touching. Using the back arms hold onto each other’s wrist.
• Wide legged standing forward bend: Stand back-to-back in a wide-legged stance. Fold forward from the hips. Thread your arms in between the legs and reach for your partner’s upper arms and hold the arms with your hands.

In some cases, partner poses are easier to practice with a partner of similar height.

Additional Resources: Dana Rae Pare's Partner Yoga

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