Best Yoga Poses To Keep You Warm In Winter 2025

Winter brings a sense of coziness and tranquility, but the cold temperatures can leave us feeling sluggish, stiff, and low on energy. During these colder months, staying active and maintaining a sense of warmth in both body and mind becomes crucial. While a warm cup of tea or a cozy blanket might provide temporary relief, yoga offers a holistic approach to not only stay warm but also invigorate your body and spirit.

Yoga can be a powerful tool for combating the winter chill, as it helps to increase circulation, open up tight muscles, and improve flexibility—all while promoting mental clarity and focus. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best yoga poses to keep you warm during the winter months, helping you to fight off the cold and stay energized.

Why Yoga is Perfect for Winter

In winter, the body tends to contract in response to the cold, causing muscles and joints to tighten up. Yoga can counteract this effect by encouraging deep breathing, warming movements, and stretches that open up the body and stimulate circulation. Furthermore, yoga practice helps balance the nervous system, reducing stress and anxiety, which often escalate during the darker, colder months.

The combination of breathwork and movement in yoga is especially beneficial during winter. It promotes heat generation through the body and helps regulate body temperature, making it easier to keep cozy and warm throughout the day. Incorporating warming yoga poses into your routine can also support better posture and prevent the discomfort that comes with sitting for long hours in cold conditions.

Warming Up with Yoga: Key Principles

To make your yoga practice effective in winter, it’s important to approach it with a mindset of creating internal heat. This can be achieved by:

• Dynamic Movements: Flowing through a sequence of poses helps to warm up the body. Movements like sun salutations (Surya Namaskar) are excellent for generating heat.
• Deep Breathing: Ujjayi breath, or “victorious breath,” is commonly used in many yoga practices. The sound of this breath is created by constricting the back of the throat, which helps regulate body temperature and increases internal warmth.
• Holding Poses: Holding certain poses for a few breaths will encourage muscle engagement and stimulate circulation, creating lasting warmth.
• Layering Clothing: While practicing at home or in a studio, it’s also essential to wear layers of clothing. Start with something light to move in, but keep a sweater or blanket nearby for when your practice is finished.

Now, let’s dive into some of the best yoga poses to keep you warm and energized throughout the winter months.

1. Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar)

The Sun Salutation is the quintessential flow that warms the body, stretches the muscles, and stimulates the heart. This sequence of poses is designed to flow continuously, creating internal heat through deep, rhythmic breathing. As you move through each posture—standing, folding, reaching, and stretching—your body’s energy builds, helping to ward off winter’s chill.

How to Do It:

1. Start in a standing position (Tadasana), feet together, palms in prayer position (Anjali Mudra).
2. Inhale and reach your arms overhead, arching slightly.
3. Exhale and fold forward into a forward bend (Uttanasana).
4. Step back into a high plank position and lower yourself into a low plank (Chaturanga Dandasana).
5. Inhale into upward dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana).
6. Exhale into downward dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), holding the pose for a few breaths.
7. Step forward and return to your standing position.

Repeat this flow at least 5–10 times to build heat and energize your body.

2. Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

Chair pose is a powerful standing pose that engages the core, legs, and arms. It’s an excellent way to generate warmth in the body by building strength and stability. The longer you hold the pose, the more internal heat you create.

How to Do It:

1. Inhale and raise your arms overhead, reaching through the fingertips..
2. Hold for 5–10 breaths, engaging the core and legs to build heat.
3. To release, slowly stand up and return to the starting position.

This pose not only warms up your body but also improves strength and stability, helping to counteract the stiffness that often comes with winter inactivity.

3. Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

Cobra pose opens the chest and stimulates the spine, which helps combat the slouching posture many people adopt when trying to stay warm in cold weather. It increases circulation and stretches the abdomen and back, encouraging energy flow and warmth.

How to Do It:

1. Place your hands under your shoulders with your elbows close to your body.
2. Press into your hands, and as you inhale, gently lift your chest off the floor, extending through the spine.
3. Hold the pose for a few breaths, lifting through your chest while keeping your elbows slightly bent.

Cobra pose can help relieve tension in the back and chest and is an effective way to open up the front of the body while stimulating internal warmth.

4. Warrior Poses (Virabhadrasana I, II, and III)

Warrior poses are invigorating and powerful, strengthening the legs, core, and arms while promoting balance and focus. These poses help you ground your energy and feel strong and stable, even when the weather outside is harsh.

How to Do It:

1. Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I): Start with your feet wide apart. Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and bend your right knee, while keeping your left leg straight. Extend your arms overhead, palms facing each other.
2. Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II): From Warrior I, open your hips and shoulders, and bring your arms parallel to the floor, palms facing down.
3. Warrior III (Virabhadrasana III): From Warrior II, shift your weight onto your right leg and lean forward, bringing your body parallel to the floor while extending your left leg straight behind you. Keep your arms extended in front of you or by your sides.

These poses energize the body, strengthen your foundation, and open the hips and chest—perfect for keeping warm and grounded.

5. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandhasana)

Bridge pose is an excellent backbend that stimulates blood flow and opens the chest, hips, and spine. It also strengthens the glutes, legs, and back, making it ideal for warming up and releasing tension in the body.

How to Do It:

1. Place your arms at your sides with palms facing down.
2. Inhale and press your feet into the floor while lifting your hips toward the ceiling.
3. Keep your thighs parallel and your chest open, avoiding squeezing the knees together.
4. Hold for 5–10 breaths, then slowly lower your hips back to the floor.

Bridge pose increases circulation, helps open the chest, and can invigorate the body during cold days.

6. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Although Child’s Pose is a restorative pose, it’s a wonderful way to keep warm and grounded by stretching the back and hips while calming the nervous system. When practiced after a more active sequence, it helps you cool down, catch your breath, and stay centered.

How to Do It:

1. Begin in a kneeling position with your big toes together and knees apart.
2. Rest your forehead on the ground, relaxing your shoulders and breathing deeply.
3. Hold for several breaths, allowing the body to relax and restore warmth.

Child’s Pose helps release tension in the body and is a wonderful way to reconnect with your breath while feeling cozy and nurtured.

7. Plank Pose (Phalakasana)

Plank pose is a full-body workout that engages nearly every muscle group, which is ideal for warming up and strengthening the core. It can be added to your yoga practice to increase circulation and challenge your body to stay warm and strong.

How to Do It:

1. Start in a tabletop position with your wrists directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
2. Step your feet back to form a straight line from head to heels.
3. Engage your core, keeping your body in a straight line, and hold for as long as you can, keeping your breath steady.
4. To release, lower your knees to the ground.

Holding a plank pose for several breaths can generate internal heat and strengthen your upper body and core, helping to maintain warmth throughout the winter.

Conclusion

Winter may be cold and dark, but with these warming yoga poses, you can embrace the season with vitality and strength. By incorporating dynamic flows, deep stretching, and mindful breathing, yoga can help you combat the winter chill and foster a sense of warmth and well-being in both body and mind. Whether you practice in the comfort of your home or at a yoga studio, these poses will keep your muscles supple, your joints fluid, and your energy high as you navigate the colder months. So, roll out your mat, breathe deeply, and let yoga keep you warm this winter.