In the first part of this article titled Yoga Beginner Poses, I explained which Yoga Poses should be learned first. But that's not enough. Because if you simply open a book, find the Yoga pose, and try to do it... you will be missing the second half of proper practice, which is technique yoga poses.
If you want to begin your Yoga correctly, and therefore have the best results over time, you must first understand that there is a correct way to do each Yoga pose, and many, many incorrect ways. If you never have any clue as to the actual technique, it simply won't happen on it's own. Instead, the patterns that your body has developed over many years, some muscles too tight and others too weak, will determine how you do the Yoga pose.
While you are practicing each pose, you should know exactly what you're trying to do, and you should be able to measure your ability and understand what you need to do more of. This keeps the pose safe, informed, and interesting, and actually motivates you to come back to the pose again and again over time.
You already know that the first Yoga poses to learn are the Standing Poses. But what you'd never know without proper instruction are the many technical points involved in doing the poses correctly.
For example, when you stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) or Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose), poses where the legs are straight, the thigh muscles should be firm. That may not sound all that interesting as you read this article, but if you straighten one of your legs and make the thigh firm, it becomes more interesting because you're experimenting with it, you're figuring out how to do it.
Really good Yoga instruction doesn't just tell you what to do though, it goes one step farther and tells you "how" to do it. So try this - straighten either leg and make your thigh muscle firm. Then relax the leg, and try it again, but this time I want you to make the thigh firm by "making the kneecap tight". When you think about making the kneecap tight, the muscles gets even firmer, and you really start to understand what you're supposed to do.
Now try that in Tadasana, which is the basic pose where you stand straight. If nobody ever told you to make the thighs that firm, you'd never do it. But once you understand it's a key element in the pose you can begin practicing it, and then mastering it. As you master that basic technique, you can then progress deeper in the pose by learning the next step - that making the legs firmer allows you to lift the spine more, and on and on you go moving deeper and deeper into a correct understanding and practice of the pose.