Strong Arms: 5 Yoga Poses to

The pursuit of arm strength is so much more than an aesthetic one. Whether your everyday life includes lifting weights or groceries, finding alignment in a yoga pose, or popping into that aspirational arm balance, you need strong, strong arms.

This quest for strong arms not only helps with your heavy lifting but also supports your posture, guards your upper body from strain and pain, and supports overall mobility. Research shows that upper body exercise improves endurance performance and can help preserve overall muscle mass.

As with most physical endeavors, building arm strength asks that you attend to more than just the obvious muscle groups. Strengthening and stretching the muscles of your shoulders and chest helps create a stable, aligned ecosystem, making building stronger arms and bearing weight both safer and more accessible.

The following poses are more about subtlety than performance. True strength is built safely, thoughtfully, and over time, so come back to these exercises often. Also, don’t forget to breathe.

5 Yoga Poses for Strong Arms

Enjoying a few breaths in any or all of the poses on a regular basis is a great way to augment your strength training routine.

1. Puppy Pose

Stretching and strengthening go hand in hand. Spending time in Puppy Pose opens the upper back, shoulders, and front body, prepping your arms for more challenging (aka strengthening) moments. The pose also strengthens the shoulder muscles and, to a lesser extent, the triceps. Consider Puppy an essential warm-up for any arm strengthening routine.

2. Chaturanga

When practiced dynamically, whether it presents as part of a classic Sun Salutation or not, Chaturanga is commonly referred to as a yogi push-up. Rightly so. It asks a lot of your arms, but it is also one of those poses that brings your entire body onboard—core, legs, and feet. Still, your arms take on the lion’s share of the strength and stability that moving through or pausing in this “transitional” shape requires. It just might become one of your favorite strengthening postures.

3. Crow Pose

An arm strength roundup without an iconic arm balance seems…incomplete. So, let’s talk about Crow Pose! Some yogis are able to muscle their way into Crow using grit and arm strength alone. Which is awesome, but not exactly yoga. Rather, engaging the muscles in your abdomen should come first, which in turn transforms your body into a compact shape that almost wants to float up atop your elbows. This is an arm balance, though, which means that arm strength is both essential to access the pose and further cultivated through practice.

4. Upward Salute

Yes, simply raising your arms overhead can bolster upper body strength. Upward Salute is all about ground-up lengthening and extension, stretching arms and opening shoulders. Coming into the pose might seem effortless—lifting your arms overhead is more of a signal of joy and celebration than anything else—but holding the shape requires engagement of the shoulders and triceps. Want more? Reach higher.

5. Wheel Pose

Going upside down can be a great way to condition your arms. Wheel Pose, or Upward-Facing Bow, stretches your entire front body, can help alleviate back pain, and, yes, strengthens your arms. Using your arms to push up into the pose, then support your body weight.