Practicing yoga with a loved one can encourage positive communication and foster a sense of closeness between two people. Deepen your love by mindfully moving through these couples yoga poses as you open your heart and experience the bliss and peace that practicing yoga holds.
Downward Facing Dog and Child's Pose
Downward Facing Dog for Couples
- Partner 1: Fold forward, bending your knees until your hands touch the floor. Step your feet back, lift your hips, and come into downward facing dog pose.
- Parter 2: Step to the side of your partner and just in front of them. Place your hands on the floor. Step one foot up and then the other so that your feet are on your partner's hips. Your body will be at a right angle. Bend your knees for comfort, and make sure your hands are far enough away from your partner's body so that your back can be long and straight.
Couples Child's Pose
- Partner 1: Bend your knees and sit back into child's pose. If this is difficult on the hips or knees, place a pillow behind the knees and also lean forward into a second firm pillow for support.
- Partner 2: Stand near your partner's feet and face away from them. Sit down onto their sacrum area. Ask your partner if this feels good. Communication is important to make sure the pose feels safe and comfortable for both partners. If desired, lean backwards onto their back for a backbend. Listen to each other breathe. Come out of the pose as soon as either partner feels done with the posture.
Childs Pose Adjustment with Back Massage
- Partner 1: Bend your knees and sit back into child's pose, allowing the tailbone to move toward the floor and the heels.
- Partern 2: Make long strokes on your partner's back, starting near the shoulders and moving down toward the tailbone. Walk your hands along the back. Try different massage techniques and ask your partner what feels good.
Back to Back Poses: Baddha Konasana and Upavista Konasana with Twist
Back to Back Baddha Konasana
- Both Partners: Sit back to back. Draw the soles of your feet together for bound angle posture, otherwise known as cobbler's pose. If your hips feel tight, move your feet further away from your body.
- Partner 1: Lean forward, turning your gaze inward and keeping your back connected with your partner. If leaning forward is difficult, move your feet further away. You can also modify this posture by propping the knees up with pillows.
- Partner 2: Lean back, opening your heart center. Fill your lungs with breath, and enjoy this heart opening.
- After a few, mindful breaths, partner 2 will lean forward as partner 1 leans back.
Back to Back Upavista Konsana with Twist
- Both Partners: Sit back to back. Open and extend your legs out wide, with heels on the floor and knees pointing up to the sky. Twist to the right, catching your right fingertips onto the hip of your partner. Focus on twisting the upper back, while keeping the lower back steady and connected with your partner.
- After you are finished, twist to the other side.
More Couples Yoga Poses
Here are some additional poses you can try alone or with a partner side by side. Find your own ways to do these poses as a couple, approaching it with a playful attitude and letting your creativity flow.
- Camel Pose: Open your heart with a joyous backbend.
- Downward Facing Dog Pose: Increase arm strength and clear your mind with an inversion of the upper body.
- Side Plank Pose: This pose tones your core and wakes up the fire in your third chakra power center.
- Tree Pose: Stand tall in tree pose and find your balance and focus.
- Wide-Legged Forward Bend: Find strength through the legs as you invert the upper body.
Tantra Yoga
Practicing partner yoga poses does not necessarily mean that you are practicing tantra yoga. Tantra is an ancient philosophy that gets a lot of press for information about tantric sex, but in fact that is just one aspect of a broader philsophical world view.
If you are interested in exploring sexual energy and yoga for relationships, consider these resources:
- Contact: The Yoga of Relationship by Tara Lynda Guber and Anodea Judith. It features the principles known as "The Seven Points of Contact."
- Tantric Yoga for Lovers by Steve and Lokita Carter. It features partner yoga routines and poses for building tantric energy.
- The Breath of Tantric Love by Steve Carter. It focuses on improving your pranayama, or breathing, techniques.
Yoga to Increase Your Love Connection
Try the couples yoga poses in this article as a way to reconnect and increase your non-verbal communication, spice up or revamp your sex life, or simply enjoy each other's company, growing your relationship in the process. Yoga, whether practiced alone or with a partner, can help you wake up the body and make you feel alive. With increased vitality and overall well-being, you will have more energy and a calmer sense of self to be present with your partner.
