Do You Need to Warm Up Before Yoga?

Yes, a short warm-up makes yoga safer and more comfortable — especially before stronger poses. Cold muscles and joints simply don't move as freely, so easing in gradually lowers the risk of strain and lets you get more out of the deeper work that follows. You don't need long: even five minutes of gentle movement is enough to signal to the body that it's time to work.

Watch: Sanjana Prasad's essential warm-up for beginners

In the video above, Sanjana Prasad leads a gentle, joint-by-joint warm-up of about 19 minutes. Her starting point is a habit many new practitioners have: jumping straight into Surya Namaskara. For a beginner, she says, that can be a lot for the body and "might shock the body", so she prepares the joints first for a safe, comfortable practice.

You begin seated in Sukhasana, with a cushion under the hips if you need one, or in Vajrasana. If sitting on the floor isn't comfortable, a chair or even your bed works too. Throughout, her main cue is to coordinate every movement with the breath.

• Neck: inhale the chin up, exhale it towards the collarbone, five times; then ear towards shoulder on each side, keeping the shoulders relaxed rather than lifting them.
• Shoulders and spine: elbow circles, overhead stretches, side bends where you actively press the opposite hip down, and seated twists where you draw the belly in to create space instead of pulling yourself round.
• Hips and legs: butterfly flaps (without forcing the heels close), leg straightening with the foot flexed, and full-range ankle rotations.
• All fours (from about 13:00): a measured tabletop, Cat-Cow, low lunges with gentle pulses and a twist, a hamstring lengthener and one round of plank, before resting in Child's pose.

Sanjana's framing is reassuring: "This is just the warmup", so let the body be free and ease into it. By the end, she points out, you have prepared the spine for side bends and backbends, opened the hips and hamstrings, and touched on the shapes you will meet in Sun Salutations and standing poses, whether or not you go on to practise them.

Good warm-up movements loosen the major joints and wake up the spine. Cat-cow mobilises the back, gentle twists and side bends free the torso, and neck circles, shoulder rolls and a few wrist and ankle rotations prepare the areas that bear weight in many poses. A few slow rounds of Sun Salutation are a classic all-in-one warm-up, building heat while moving the whole body through a full range.

Often you won't need a separate warm-up at all. A well-sequenced class is designed to warm you up as it goes, opening with gentler shapes before anything demanding — that's exactly what those early poses are for. The key is to let the practice build rather than dropping straight into a deep backbend or a full split from cold.

The main mistake is skipping the gradual build, particularly when practising alone at home or squeezing in a quick morning session with a stiff body. Let your first few poses be exploratory, keep the breath easy, and notice how your body feels rather than forcing depth early on. If something feels tight or achy, spend longer warming that area before pushing further.