February 25, 2022

Mini Flow: The Best Yoga Poses for Kids

Yoga for kids can be a fun and rewarding exercise for both parent and child.

It can be done almost anywhere, at any time and has so many mental and physical health benefits.

That’s why Intersport Elverys have teamed up with the O’Neill family from Mayo to bring you a fun mini flow of yoga poses you can do at home with your kids.

Barry, of Bonco Wellness yoga studio, and his two kids, Sienna and Ralph, are going to bring you through their favourite poses.

So why not flow along?

Check out the class on YouTube right HERE or below.

Before you begin, you might enjoy our Ultimate Guide to Yoga at Home Blog?

Yoga for Kids: Barry O’Neill

“There are so many yoga poses for kids, but today we’re going to show you around 8 you can do and we guarantee there will be plenty of fun along the way.

“Kids love doing yoga; they love the movement, and the challenge of doing some of the harder movements. You will find a lot of the kids poses are named after animals or insects, to make them more relatable to children too which helps.

“Make sure to check out our full class on YouTube, where you can follow along.”

Yoga Poses for Kids

1 Cat Cow

“To start, we go on to all four – hands and knees – with your hands directly underneath the shoulders toget a nice strong posture – it’s called a neutral position.

yoga for kids

“We start with the cat pose, so tuck your chin into your chest and arch your back up to the ceiling, hold for 3 seconds, and then look up nice and slowly towards the celling, allowing your belly fall down to the mat.

“Repeat that pose 5 or 6 times to warm up the spine and get started into your practice.”

2 Downward facing dog

“From the Cat Cow position go back in table top, curl the toes under, ensure nice strong hands and push your bum towards the ceiling, straightening your legs and allowing your head to fall between your arms.

“From here, just to stretch the back of your legs, you bend your right knee and straighten your left leg (and vice versa). Try and drop your knee  down towards the ground nice slowly, get a nice good stretch of the back of your leg.

yoga for kids

“You’re just pedalling your legs nice and gentle and making sure you’re breathing deep.”

3 Cobra Pose

“Okay, so we’re going from the last posture, which was our Downward Facing Dog, into our Cobra Pose.

“So bend the knees slightly and start dropping yourself towards the mat.  You need to open your body here and transition into your Cobra pose, looking straight ahead and then pointing that head up towards the ceiling, depending on the movement and the ability of your spine.

yoga for kids

“Your lower back is supporting the spine here, so hold that for about 15 seconds or three breaths, then come back and you can sit right back onto your heels.

“This is to counteract the back bend by rounding out the lumbar spine. Sit into that position again for three to five breaths and allow your body to relax.”

4 Bow Pose

“From here, we want to drop our body down on the mat again to start.

“Get yourself nice and relaxed. From here you grab your feet, fingers to the outside, making sure you’re taking your time. Take a deep breath in and on the exhale kick back and you lift up as high as you can.

yoga for kids

“Hold this for roughly 10 seconds and then drop your feet back down. You can try three sets, each time just allowing your body to relax again for a few seconds.”

5 Warrior Pose

“Next, we’re going to go from the ground positions go back up into standing.

“You can bring your legs to about palm width apart, turn your foot at 90 degrees, keep your right foot around 45 degrees and then bend your knee over your foot. Keeping hands shoulder height, look out over your hand and hold.

“It’s a nice strong posture to strengthen legs.

yoga for kids

“Breathe and hold for about ten seconds. Then repeat on the other side.”

6 Single Leg Standing Bow Pose

“So now I’m going to introduce a couple of more challenging or harder yoga poses for kids.

“This is a single leg balancing pose called standing bow. Step forward on your mat, grab whatever foot you want on the inside with the hand on the same side.

“Raise the opposite hand and then kick back and reach forward. It’s all about focus, were not looking to stay here all day, just about 5 seconds and pay attention to how your body is in that position.

“Control the movement back down and then do the opposite side. You will find your weaker side may be more difficult.

“It’s all about practice and focus. If you fall out of the posture, don’t worry one bit, just go back and try again. It’s great to help children’s focus as they have to stand on one leg.”

7 Combination of Postures

“Now were going to try a fun mini-combination, kicking our legs back behind our heads and then into a forward fold.

“Position yourself wherever you are comfy, don’t rush into it, stay controlled, and lift your legs over your head and touch the ground behind you with your toes.

yoga for kids

“Make sure to control the legs back down. Then raise the arms right up, inhale and fold forward on the exhale as much as you can. Hold for a few seconds and then repeat.”

8 Butterfly Position

“Finally, bring the soles of your feet together, pull your heels into your body, and with a straight back, like a butterfly flapping its wings, flap your legs up and down and loosen up those hip joints.

“Do this for 30-60 seconds and release for a nice way to finish off today’s sequence.

“Don’t forget to sit back on your heels, put your hands in a prayer position, bow your head and ‘namaste’!”

Conclusion

“I really hope you enjoyed this practice. Make sure to check out the new BAHE yoga range at Intersport Elverys for all your yoga gear, or follow the link below.”

yoga for kids

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