9 Yoga Poses for Couples to Strengthen Their Relationship

”I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.” ~ Gandhi

Yoga with your partner may seem very usual, but it has some unusual effects that will help you both not only understand each other better but also help you build a powerful connection with each other. Science is also of the same view that doing yoga together will help in strengthening your relationships and social connections, which will eventually lead to healthier habits, longer lives, decreased stress, and a more profound sense of life meaning. 

Communication is the key

Yoga is all about communicating with the inner consciousness and with the outer world. And when you indulge in Partner Yoga Poses, it is all about communicating the right energies and intimacies with him or her. When you communicate properly, it helps open up the bond between the two, brings in more confidence, and helps throw in more honesty and lightheartedness between the two; and it’s fun. Allow us to show you nine Couple Yoga Poses that you can practice in your own time and pace. This helps you focus on your breath, increases and strengthens the bond between the two, and also throws in a dash of fun while doing so.

9 Yoga Poses for Couples

1. Seated Centering and Grounding Pose

To ground and center, yourself would be the best way to start your yoga practice. This allows you to make a connection with the spiritual and the physical environment. It also allows you to prep up your mind and to begin your yoga poses for couples. Meditation and mindset are two important facets of a nice yoga session.

Here is how you do it: 

1. Sit cross-legged.
2. Face your partner.
3. Place your hands on his/her knees, while he places his on your knees.
4. Take a good gaze into your partner’s eyes.
5. Take ten deep breaths and allow yourself to develop a deep emotional connection with your partner, without any words spoken.

2. Seated Cat-Cow Pose

This would be a pairing of two yoga poses together. It targets the back muscles and the hips, and even the core muscles too. This pose helps with the expansion of the chest and the lungs, hence focusing on the breaths you take would be important.

Here’s how to do it: 

1. While you remain seated, stretch out and reach for each other’s forearms.
2. Slowly release your shoulders down and back, while you maintain a firm grip.
3. While you inhale, your chest should be lifted up to the ceiling- this would arch your mid-back.
4. While you exhale, your chin should be drawn to your chest, making your shoulder blades spread apart.
5. Continue the breath-synchronized movement for ten to twelve rounds. 

3. Back-to-back Chair Pose  

You can use your partner for support and he can use you for the same while doing this pose. This pose helps strengthen the muscles of the thighs and also helps with ankle mobility as well.

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Stand back to back with your partner.
2. Relax your arms to the sides of your own body.
3. Press your back against your partners with a firm touch.
4. Keep your feet hip-width apart from one another and slightly move away from each  other.
5. Now gently bend your knees as though you are sitting on a chair.
6. Take five to six steady breaths as you reach 90 degrees on your knees and continue to  support each other with your backs. 
7. You can also put your arms around your partner’s elbows (with your arms in contact) for more stability and both of you can rest your palms on your thighs.  
8. Lift the crown of your head and lengthen your spine, while pressing down on your feet.

4. Seated Forward-bend and Back-bend 

For the legs and the back, this is a yoga pose that is meant to be intense. It is a bit challenging, hence it would be wise to go slow, or else your partner or you could be hurt.

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Sit with your backs facing each other.
2. One of you should now extend your legs.  
3. The other partner should bend knees and place both feet flat.
4. While doing that, the partner with the flat feet should begin to lean back onto the other person for support and stretch their hands backward. 
5. The partner with the legs extended in front can gently interlock their fingers with their partner’s and slowly start folding forward from the hips. 
6. As one partner begins to bend forward, the other partner continues to consciously lean on them and lift their hips as the bend gets deeper. 
7. The partner holding the forward fold can now grab hold of their feet/toes and the partner who is leaning on their back can continue to stretch their hands backward for a  good stretch. 
8. Hold this pose for five to six deep breaths, come out of the pose very slowly (and in the same way) and then switch positions.
9. Keeping the legs straight requires a certain level of flexibility. If you have never tried this yoga asana before, work on this pose with your legs bent, like in Sukhasana. 

5. Downward Dog and Child’s Pose 

This is a very popular yoga stretch, which helps deepen the stretch between partners.

Here’s how to do it: 

1. One of you should settle into a wide knee child’s pose.
2. The big toes should touch and the knees should spread hip-width apart. 
3. Stretch the arms and keep them shoulder-width apart. 
4. The other partner should stand facing the partner in a child’s pose, so the partner in a child’s pose can grasp the ankles of the standing partner with both hands.
5. The standing partner can now fold forward from their hips, assuming a downward dog position by resting their hands on the seated partner’s hips. 
6. The standing partner should now walk back until the other partner’s elbows lift off the ground and also continue to gently press down on the other partner’s hips with their palms. 
7. This allows for a gentle stretch on the sides of the body, the arms, and the shoulders.
8. Hold this pose for five to six deep breaths.
   

   Revolved Chair Pose  

This is a pose that helps open the chest, helps strengthen the lower body, improves stamina and grounding. 

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Stand facing one another, being one arm’s distance away from each other.
2. Now both of you should stretch your right arm forward and clasp onto each other’s elbow.
3. Stand with your feet, width hip apart.
4. Be parallel to one another.
5. Maintain a tight grip and bend your knees slowly, lowering down as though sitting on a chair.
6. Your shoulders should be stacked high above your hips, and rely on your partner to maintain balance.
7. Hold each other’s right hands firmly and each person should reach his or her left arm back in line with the shoulders.
8. Twist to the left.
9. Hold this pose for five to six deep breaths.
10. Come back to the center.
11. Clasp each other’s left hands while you go twisting to the right.

7. Double Plank Pose 

Not everyone loves the planks and there is always a love-hate relationship with it. However, when you do it with your partner, you will be motivated to hold the plank for longer, help each other with posture correction and build confidence. 

Here’s how to do it: 

1. The taller or the stronger person should start out in a plank pose.
2. Your wrists should be in line with the shoulders, while you engage your core and straighten your legs.
3. The second partner should prepare to balance over the first partner. Start by standing over the hips of the first partner with feet on either side. 
4. Stand facing your partner’s feet.
5. Slowly bend forward and grab hold of your partner’s ankles. 
6. Follow the same steps, i.e., straighten your elbows, engage your core and lift one foot at a time, being cautious about not poking your partner’s shoulder muscles with your toes. 
7. Instead, place your insteps flat and adjust your plank till both you and your partner feel stable and comfortable. 
8. Hold onto this pose for five breaths.

9. Back-to-back Breathing  

This is a pose that helps with intimacy and trust between the two partners. It helps calm the mind and allows for greater bonding too.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Sit comfortably in a back to back seated position. 
2. Keep the spine aligned with your partner’s spine and sit cross-legged. 
3. Both of you should sit straight up with your ears away from your shoulder and your arms should be relaxed.
4. Now begin alternate breathing; i.e., when you deeply inhale, your partner exhales and when you exhale your partner inhales. 
5. Repeat this for ten breaths. Pause, and practice 2 or 3 more rounds of 10 breaths.

Half Lord Of The Fishes Pose  

This is a very easy, seated twist yoga pose which both of you can do together. It helps build confidence, trust, and intimacy between the two. And it’s a fun pose as a well.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Sit back to back with your partner, cross-legged in Sukhasana.
2. Allow your arms to be in contact with each other when resting so the movement is synchronized. 
3. As both of you inhale, lift your arms up together. 
4. On exhale, both of you twist to your right and rest your right hand on your partner’s left thigh or knee.  
5. And allow your left hand to rest on your right knee or thigh. 
6. Communication is a must so you don’t end up moving suddenly or stretching beyond your comfort level. Hold the twist for 5 to 10 breaths. 
7. Lengthen up with every inhale and try to get more space for yourself.
8. With every exhale, try to gently twist a bit deeper.
9. Synchronize your breathing with your partner.
10. Release the twist with an inhale and stretch your arms up. Relax. With an exhalation, repeat the twist on the other side.
11. Alternatively, you can try a variation in which you can interlock your fingers with your partner’s and keep your arms straight and gently twist from right to left with every inhalation and exhalation. 

To Wrap It All Up…

Couple yoga retreats are fast gaining momentum and popularity. It not only helps make the workout fun and relaxing at the same time but also helps with intimacy and deeper bond building as well. Try out a Couple’s Yoga Retreat to experience it yourself. 

About The Author

Om Singh is a blogger at Retreat Kula, a website that offers the best platform to book yoga retreats and yoga teacher training for yogis around the world. He is always on the lookout for interesting places to visit. It took him 25 years of his life to realize where his true calling lies, but once that was done, there’s been no looking back.