Yoga Asanas for the Arms

The arms -- and especially the underarm area -- are a particularly troublesome spot for many people to tone. By practicing specific yoga asanas for the arms, you can help tone flabby areas, build strength in your entire arm area and improve your overall balance and flexibility. Poses that focus on your arms primarily include vinyasas, poses to improve arm flexibility, strength-building poses and inversions. If you experience pain, increased strain or any troublesome symptoms while practicing these poses, stop and seek medical attention if necessary.

  1. Vinyasas

    • Yoga vinyasas -- or flow series -- for the arms engage your arm muscles to help support the weight of your body as you move through a series of strengthening poses. Practicing a vinyasa of specific arm postures, like Plank pose to Chaturanga Dandasana or Downward-Dog to Side Plank, involves the isotonic and eccentric contraction of your arm muscles. This means that you build strength in your arms by moving through poses that contract and shorten, then lengthen and extend, your arm muscles, according to yoga instructor Alisa Bauman in an article for "Yoga Journal."

    Asanas for Flexibility

    • Many yoga poses for the arms focus on building strength, not flexibility. But a few active yoga asanas can help improve arm flexibility, including the Eagle and Cow Face poses, says yoga instructor Andrey Lappa in an interview with "Yoga Journal." Practicing these yoga poses can increase flexibility in your arms by providing a deep stretch for your arm, shoulder and back muscles. They also help lengthen the supraspinatus, a small rotator cuff muscle in the upper part of your arm that attaches to your shoulder. Tightness in this muscle is a common cause of shoulder and upper-arm pain.

    Strength-Building Poses

    • Static yoga poses, in which you hold a posture for an extended period of time, are also useful for building arm strength. These postures involve the isometic contraction of your muscles, which helps improve strength by increasing muscle endurance, according to Bauman. The Warrior series, Dolphin, Downward-Facing Dog, Upward-Facing Dog, Plank and the Pose Dedicated to the Sage Koundinya I are all beneficial asanas that you can use to increase strength and improve tone in your entire arm area.

    Arm Balances and Inversions

    • Arm balances and inversions are usually very challenging yoga asanas that require you to use arm strength to support the weight of your entire body. In arm balances, such as Crane, your body remains in an upright position while you use arm strength to lift your lower body off the floor. As the name implies, inversions involve inverting your entire body to bring your feet higher than your head, or your heart lower than your head. In most inversions, like Handstand and Shoulderstand, you use arm, shoulder and upper-back strength to support your body weight as you turn your body upside-down. Both arm balances and inversions help improve balance and arm strength and help increase your mental focus, according to yoga instructor Kevan Gale in an article for My Yoga Online.