Practice This Beach Yoga Flow for Full Body Strength

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If you’re lucky enough to live near a beach or travel to one, then this beach yoga flow is perfect for you!

This yoga sequence of 12 challenging poses is designed to increase full-body strength. With the added challenge of practicing on sand, you’ll also strengthen all the tiny stabilizing muscles in your body.

Have you ever seen people doing yoga on a standup paddleboard, or jogging on the beach? These are great ways to challenge your body with new movement on less stable surfaces that in turn will increase the overall strengthening.

Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga (SUP Yoga): Tips and Poses For Beginners

A great way to stay committed to your yoga practice is to make it fun and change up your routine every now and then.

If you are constantly going to the same yoga class at the same studio or doing the same sequence in your home practice, you will likely become bored. Plus, your body gets used to the same exercises and will plateau, making it harder to see results.

Try switching up your routine by incorporating some of these variations to your typical yoga poses.

Practice This Beach Yoga Flow to Tone and Strengthen Your Full Body:

Explore this beach yoga sequence with curiosity and mindfulness. Notice how these common yoga poses feel differently on the sand, and how practicing them on a less stable surface challenges your strength and balance in new ways. That’s half the fun! 🙂

1. Chair Pose

What it tones: Thighs, calves, spine and arms

How to practice Chair Pose:

Begin standing at the top of your mat, feet hip-width distance apart
Raise your arms skyward, palms facing each other
Bend your knees and begin sitting back, weight shifting slightly into the heels. Try to get the thighs as close to parallel to the floor as possible. Allow your tailbone to drop down towards the floor to keep your lower back long
Hold this pose for 30 seconds to one minute

Bonus Challenge: Add some pulses in Chair Pose. Lift your hips down an inch and up an inch, keeping the movement small and controlled.

2. Piston Plank

What it tones: Abs, upper body

How to practice Piston Plank:

Begin in High Plank. Stack your shoulders over wrists and be sure to keep your core tight and engaged
Lift your right foot off the ground and bending your right knee, draw the knee towards your left tricep
Hold the knee as close to the tricep as possible for one breath and then extend the leg back to your starting position. Repeat up to 8 times – either alternating legs each time or doing one side at a time

Bonus Challenge: Pick up the pace! Do 20 reps at rapid fire pace (alternating legs) to really get your heart rate up and feel a little extra burn!

3. Crescent Lunge

What it tones: Thighs, calves, core

How to practice Crescent Lunge:

From Down Dog, step your right foot between your hands. Ensure that you place the foot all the way at the top of the mat and that your knee is stacked over the ankle
Stay on the ball of the left foot and keep your left leg straight as you begin to raise your torso upright, straightening your spine
Extend your arms over your head with palms facing each other

Bonus Challenge: From Crescent Lunge, keep your arms extended overhead and begin to bend and straighten the back leg, bending the left knee at a 90 degree angle and dropping the knee towards the mat. Do 6-12 reps on each side.

4. Warrior 2 Pose

What it tones: Thighs, glutes

How to practice Warrior 2:

From Crescent Lunge, spin your back heel down to the mat. Check to ensure the front heel is in line with the back heel
Keep the front knee bent at 90 degrees and ensure the front knee is stacked over the front ankle
Bring your arms out to a T. Keep arms active and extended at shoulder height, palms facing down and arms parallel to the floor
Keep gaze forward, directly over the front middle finger

Bonus Challenge: Add some dynamic movement to this Warrior 2. Bend and straighten the front knee a few times, getting deeper into the lunge with each movement. Then land at your lowest point and hold for 4-8 breaths.

5. Goddess Pose

What it tones: Thighs and glutes

How to practice Goddess Pose:

From Warrior 2, straighten both legs and turn your body towards the long edge of the mat coming into a wide straddle stance with heels in and toes pointed outward
Bend your knees and squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor
Tuck your tailbone in and keep shoulders stacked over hips

Bonus Challenge: Once you are in Goddess Pose, you can intensify the pose by either lifting one heel at a time or squatting up and down for 5-10 reps.

6. Bridge Pose

What it tones: Glutes and hamstrings

How to practice Bridge Pose:

Begin lying on your back with knees bent, feet flat on the ground, palms flat by your sides
Lift your tailbone upward, lifting buttocks off the floor and peeling spine off the mat
Lift your buttocks and imagine having a block between your legs – draw your thighs towards one another while keeping your knees stacked directly over the heels

Bonus Challenge: Once you are lifted in Bridge Pose, you can add little pulses by lifting the hips up and down while simultaneously squeezing the glutes and inner thighs. If you are looking for even more burn, you can extend one leg skyward and do the lifts on one leg or lift and lower the straight leg to feel maximum burn!

7. Eagle Crunches

What it tones: Abs and lower back

How to practice Eagle Crunches:

Begin lying flat on your back
Lift your feet off the ground and wrap your right leg on top of your left leg, as if you were crossing your legs while sitting at a table
Wrap your right arm under your left arm
Utilizing your abs, bring your elbows and knees towards one another, allowing the shoulder blades to lift off the mat
As you lower, tap your toes and finger tips on the ground behind your head. Repeat 10-20 reps on each side

Bonus Challenge: Do more reps and try to lift hips and shoulders a bit higher off the ground. Note that going faster does not make this exercises more effective – instead try to slow the exercise down to feel the burn a bit more!

8. Boat Pose

What it tones: Abs, obliques, back and thighs

How to practice Boat Pose:

Begin seated with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor
Keep your spine straight and lean back slightly as you lift your feet off the ground, bringing your shins parallel to the floor
Lift your chest and lengthen your front torso. Extend your arms forward and balance on your sit bones keeping a long and straight spine

Bonus Challenge: For a more challenging variation, you can extend your legs straight out at a 45-degree angle from the ground (making a V-shape with your body). You can also bring your hands into prayer and add in a side-to-side rotation while holding Boat Pose.

9. Dolphin Pose

What it tones: Shoulders, upper back, abs

How to practice Dolphin Pose:

Begin in Forearm Plank with your fingers spread wide and palms flat on the mat. Ensure that you are making a straight line between your elbows and middle fingers
Walk your toes in towards your elbows as you pike your hips skyward
Try to straighten your legs and lower your heels toward the mat
Relax your head between your arms and settle your gaze either between your legs or up toward your belly button

Bonus Challenge: To add more shoulder strengthening, you can shift your weight forward and back for Dolphin Push-Ups. Repeat for 10 reps and then rest in Child’s Pose.

10. One Leg Chaturanga

What it tones: Shoulders, back, arms

How to practice One Leg Chaturanga:

Begin in Down Dog and lift your right leg skyward
Begin to shift forward into Plank Pose, stacking your shoulders over your wrists
Keep your right leg extended, toes lifted off the ground
Bend elbows back to 90 degrees and lower into chaturanga, keeping the right leg lifted
Hold the hover with elbows bent at 90 degrees and either press back to Down Dog or drop the top of the right foot onto the ground and move into Upward Facing Dog

Bonus Challenge: Hold the hover with one leg lifted for 5-10 breaths, but remember to avoid hiking your hips up in the air as you hold.

Practice This Beach Yoga Flow Anytime for Full Body Strengthening

To be honest, you don’t have to practice this yoga sequence at the beach! You can try this at home in your backyard, or in any other nature (or indoor) setting.

The point is to shake up your yoga routine a bit, both in terms of where you’re practicing, and also in terms of what and how you’re practicing. Have fun exploring the new variations shared here, and discovering how they feel in your body as you practice this beach yoga flow. Remember to breathe, and enjoy!

Take Your Yoga Strengthening to the Next Level With the Yoga Strong Challenge

Practice with us on YA Classes by YouAligned and take our Yoga Strong Challenge, which is a 7-day, 7-class program. Each class targets a certain part of the body with strengthening and challenging yoga poses and variations.