Foundation Poses for Yoga Alignment
Tadasana is the reference point for all standing poses. Press evenly through your feet, lengthen through your spine, and engage your core, with hips stacked above knees and ankles. From here, you learn how it feels when the body is upright and aligned.
Table Top is the starting point for all hands-and-knees work. Place wrists under shoulders, knees under hips, and keep your spine long and neutral. From here, you learn stability through the centre of the body while the limbs support evenly.
The best place to begin exploring alignment is with two foundation poses that form the blueprint for much of your practice: Tadasana (Mountain Pose) and Table Top.
At first glance, they look simple - even too simple. But these are the postures where you learn to pay attention. They train you to notice whether your joints are stacked, whether your spine is neutral, and whether your weight is balanced. This is the groundwork for every other pose you’ll encounter.
These two postures are deceptively powerful because they build two essential skills:
Proprioception - knowing how your body is positioned in space.
Interoception - tuning in to the sensations within your body.
Together, these skills turn yoga from a set of movements into an embodied practice. By returning to Tadasana and Table Top in every class, you’re not just “doing easy poses” — you’re sharpening the awareness that makes every complex posture safer, stronger, and more effective.
From these foundations, the practice naturally develops into more complex balancing patterns - symmetrical and asymmetrical poses - which is where motor learning is challenged even further.
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