The base position of the week. Feet hip width, weight even across both feet, ten slow breaths. Every standing pose that follows is built on this one.
beginner sequence / about 20 minutes
7 day beginner yoga plan
In one breath
7 day beginner yoga plan is a beginner sequence of 10 positions, one round taking about 20 minutes. The table below gives the pose, the time and the one cue that matters at each step, so you can practise from it without stopping to read.
On this page
- The seven days, in full
- Why day three repeats day two
- The printable plan
- What the week will actually feel like
- If you miss a day, and what to do in week two
- If you are over forty, or coming back after years
- The ten poses of the week, and why each is here
- The sequence, step by step
- The whole sequence in one table
- Questions people ask
The seven days, in full
This 7 day beginner yoga plan is a week of about twenty minutes a day. It is not seven different classes. It is one set of ten positions, learned three or four at a time, so that by Sunday you own a sequence rather than a memory of following someone. The table further down this page is the full twenty minute practice you arrive at. Here is how you get there.
- Day 1, about 12 minutes. Tadasana, arm raises, cat and cow, child's pose, savasana. Nothing standing on one leg, nothing on the front of the body. Today is about learning to stand still and to breathe on purpose.
- Day 2, about 15 minutes. Day 1 plus the forward fold and the downward dog. Both with the knees bent. Expect the backs of the legs to complain and expect that to be normal.
- Day 3, about 15 minutes. Repeat day 2 exactly. No new poses. This is the day most plans skip and it is the day that decides whether you are learning or collecting.
- Day 4, about 18 minutes. Add the triangle and the tree, both with a wall behind you. Balance on day four rather than day one, because standing on one leg on a stiff, unfamiliar body is how people frighten themselves off yoga.
- Day 5, about 20 minutes. Add the cobra and lengthen the savasana to three minutes. You now have the whole sequence.
- Day 6, about 20 minutes. The whole sequence again, slower. Take one minute off the standing poses and put it into the savasana if you are tired.
- Day 7, about 12 minutes. A deliberately short day: cat and cow, child's pose, the supported forward fold from the bedtime sequence and ten minutes lying down. A rest day inside the week, not after it.
Why day three repeats day two
Every seven day plan you will find online gives you a new routine each day. That is a content decision, not a teaching decision. It keeps the reader entertained and it is the reason so few people can practise alone at the end of the week.
A beginner learning a posture goes through three stages. First you are copying a shape. Then you can find the shape without being shown. Then you can feel what the shape is doing and adjust it. Almost nobody reaches the third stage on a first attempt, and you cannot reach it at all if tomorrow brings a different pose. Repetition is not the boring part of the plan. It is the part that produces a practitioner.
So on day three you will feel underworked, and you will be tempted to add something. Do not. Instead, use the spare attention to notice one specific thing: whether your weight is genuinely even across both feet in tadasana, whether your breath keeps moving in the downward dog, whether you are holding your jaw. Those noticings are the actual curriculum.
The printable plan
One page for the week. Print it, tick the days, and do not tidy up a missed day by doing two the next.
- Monday. Tadasana 2, arm raises 1, cat and cow 2, child's pose 1, savasana 3. Total about 12 minutes.
- Tuesday. Monday plus forward fold 2 and downward dog 2. About 15 minutes.
- Wednesday. Exactly as Tuesday. Nothing new. About 15 minutes.
- Thursday. Add triangle 3 and tree 2, with a wall. About 18 minutes.
- Friday. Add cobra 2 and take the savasana to 3. The full sequence, about 20 minutes.
- Saturday. The full sequence, slower. About 20 minutes.
- Sunday. Cat and cow 3, child's pose 2, supported forward fold 3, savasana 10. About 18 minutes, all of it on the floor.
If you want breath work in the week, add nine rounds of anulom vilom at the end of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, after the savasana rather than before it. Three days is enough to find out whether you like it.
A printable PDF version of the week is being prepared and will be linked here when it exists.
What the week will actually feel like
Being told what is coming is the difference between a normal experience and a worrying one.
- Days 1 and 2: awkward. You will be thinking about the instructions rather than the body, and the breath will keep getting forgotten. Both normal.
- Day 3: mild stiffness in the backs of the legs and possibly the shoulders. Soreness that arrives a day or two after unfamiliar work is ordinary. Sharp pain during a movement is not, and is a reason to stop that movement.
- Day 4: the balance day, and the day people judge themselves hardest. Everybody wobbles in the tree pose in the first week. The wall is not cheating; wobbling near a wall is how the balance is built.
- Day 5: usually the first day something feels easier than it did. Most students notice it in the forward fold.
- Days 6 and 7: the sequence starts to run without you narrating it. That is the goal of the whole week.
What should not happen: pain in a joint rather than a muscle, pins and needles down a leg, dizziness that does not pass in a few seconds, or breathlessness. Any of those means stop and get advice rather than push through.
If you miss a day, and what to do in week two
You will miss a day. Nearly everybody does, and the missed day is not the problem. The response to it is. Do not double up, do not restart the week from Monday, and do not decide the plan has failed. Pick up on the day you would have done next, and let the week be eight days long. Nothing in the body knows what day of the week it is.
For week two, repeat the same seven days without changing anything. That surprises people who expect a progression, but the second week is where the plan pays. The shapes are familiar, so attention moves to the breath and to the details, and that is where practice actually begins. Only in week three should you consider adding the three rounds of Surya Namaskar that turn this into a genuinely rounded practice.
After a month, the sensible next step is not a longer home routine. It is a pair of eyes. Almost everybody who has practised alone for a month has one habit that they cannot see and that will limit them, most often locked knees or a lifted, gripping shoulder. One class fixes it, and if getting to a hall is difficult, a live online class does the same job because the correction happens while you are in the pose.
If you are over forty, or coming back after years
The plan works as written for most people over forty, with four adjustments that are worth making from day one rather than after something hurts.
- Bend the knees more than you think is necessary in the forward fold and the downward dog, for the whole week. Straight legs are not a goal of this plan.
- Do the tree pose with your back near a wall, not just your hand on one. Balance declines quietly from the forties onward, and it recovers with practice, but the recovery happens safely or not at all.
- Halve the cobra. Three lifts of fifteen seconds, lifting only a few centimetres. Lower back compression is the most common complaint in this age group and it comes almost entirely from lifting too high, too fast.
- Take the full savasana every single day. Recovery capacity is the thing that changes most with age, and the rest at the end is the cheapest recovery available.
The fuller set of adjustments, including what to do about knees and blood pressure, is in yoga for beginners over 40. If you have a diagnosed heart condition, uncontrolled blood pressure, glaucoma, or a recent injury or surgery, get medical clearance before starting, and say so to whoever teaches you.
The ten poses of the week, and why each is here
Ten poses, repeated across seven days in different combinations. Each one is here for a stated reason, and none of them needs a prop you do not already own.
Tadasana
The base position of the week. Everything standing is this with the limbs moved, so it is on every day.
Urdhva Hastasana
Eight arm raises joined to the breath. The quickest way to find out what the shoulders will allow today.
Marjariasana
Twelve rounds of cat and cow, the safest way to move a beginner spine and the reason the rest of the day goes better.
Uttanasana
Knees clearly bent. A forward fold with straight legs on day two is how people decide yoga is not for them.
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Two holds of a minute, knees bent, for the arms as much as the legs.
Trikonasana
Ninety seconds a side. The pose that teaches sideways rather than forwards.
Vrikshasana
A minute a side near a wall. Balance is the thing that returns fastest and is the most encouraging to watch return.
Bhujangasana
Three lifts of thirty seconds, elbows in. Low is the point.
Balasana
The answer to the cobra, and the pose you may take at any moment without asking.
Savasana
Three minutes, not negotiable. It is where the week is absorbed.
The sequence, step by step
Scroll and the drawing beside the steps changes to the position you are reading. Poses shown as plain text do not have a page of their own yet; they will become links the day they are written, with nothing to update here.
Step 1 of 10
Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
One pass through the 10 positions of 7 day beginner yoga plan takes about 20 minutes.
Eight arm raises joined to the breath. Lengthen upward before you allow any curve in the upper back, and keep the lower ribs from flaring forward.
Twelve rounds of cat and cow. The safest way to move a beginner spine, and the reason nothing here starts with a standing forward bend.
Knees clearly bent, hands to the shins or the floor, head heavy. Come up slowly. Two rounds of one minute rather than one long hold.
Two holds of one minute. Bend the knees as much as you need so the spine can lengthen. A long spine with bent knees beats straight legs with a rounded back.
Ninety seconds each side. Reach out along the front leg first, then lower. The bottom hand goes to the shin, never onto the knee joint itself.
One minute a side, near a wall. Foot to the ankle, the calf or the inner thigh, never against the side of the knee. Wobbling is the practice working.
Three lifts of thirty seconds, elbows bent and tucked beside the ribs. This is a back muscle action, not an arm press. Lift less than you think.
The answer to the cobra. Hips towards the heels, forehead down, and let the lower back spread out for a full minute before you get up.
Flat on the back, palms up, three minutes without negotiating. This is where the week's work is absorbed rather than merely performed.
One pass through the list: about 20 minutes across 10 positions. A practice is several of these, and the count is on this page above.
The whole sequence in one table
Every position, its time and its one cue, in the order you do them. This is the version to print or to keep beside the mat.
| Step | Pose | Time | The cue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tadasana (Mountain Pose) | 2 min | The base position of the week. Feet hip width, weight even across both feet, ten slow breaths. Every standing pose that follows is built on this one. |
| 2 | Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute) | 1 min | Eight arm raises joined to the breath. Lengthen upward before you allow any curve in the upper back, and keep the lower ribs from flaring forward. |
| 3 | Marjariasana (Cat Cow Pose) | 2 min | Twelve rounds of cat and cow. The safest way to move a beginner spine, and the reason nothing here starts with a standing forward bend. |
| 4 | Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend) | 2 min | Knees clearly bent, hands to the shins or the floor, head heavy. Come up slowly. Two rounds of one minute rather than one long hold. |
| 5 | Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog) | 2 min | Two holds of one minute. Bend the knees as much as you need so the spine can lengthen. A long spine with bent knees beats straight legs with a rounded back. |
| 6 | Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) | 3 min | Ninety seconds each side. Reach out along the front leg first, then lower. The bottom hand goes to the shin, never onto the knee joint itself. |
| 7 | Vrikshasana (Tree Pose) | 2 min | One minute a side, near a wall. Foot to the ankle, the calf or the inner thigh, never against the side of the knee. Wobbling is the practice working. |
| 8 | Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose) | 2 min | Three lifts of thirty seconds, elbows bent and tucked beside the ribs. This is a back muscle action, not an arm press. Lift less than you think. |
| 9 | Balasana (Child's Pose) | 1 min | The answer to the cobra. Hips towards the heels, forehead down, and let the lower back spread out for a full minute before you get up. |
| 10 | Savasana (Corpse Pose) | 3 min | Flat on the back, palms up, three minutes without negotiating. This is where the week's work is absorbed rather than merely performed. |
| One full round | about 20 min | ||
Where these claims come from
Anything on this page stated as a fact about the body is sourced below. Anything not sourced is written plainly as what the teacher has seen in his own classes, and is labelled that way in the text.
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From Vaithialingam's class
I have given out a version of this week on paper for a very long time, and the version I give now is much smaller than the one I started with. The first one had a new sequence every day, because I thought variety would keep people interested, and it did keep them interested and it taught them almost nothing. The change that made the difference was the repeated day. When I started insisting that Wednesday is Tuesday again, students began arriving at their first class already able to stand properly, and that is worth more to me than a week of entertainment. The other thing I have learned to say out loud on day one is that they will miss a day, so that missing it feels like part of the plan rather than the end of it. I am 89, I still take every class myself, and I have watched more first weeks than I can count. The ones that work are the small repeated ones.
This is what he sees in class, not a medical claim. Where this page states what a practice does for a condition, the evidence is in the sources cited on the page.
Vaithialingam, founder and teacher, 40 years of teaching.
Questions people ask
Can a complete beginner really start with this plan?
Yes. Day one is five positions, none of them on one leg and none of them on the front of the body, and it takes about twelve minutes. Nothing is added until the day before has been repeated. If you can get down to the floor and back up again, with a chair to hold if you need one, you can do this week. If getting to the floor is the difficulty, do the standing positions and use a chair for the rest.
How long should a beginner do yoga each day?
It starts at about twelve minutes on day one and reaches about twenty minutes by day five, where it stays. The seventh day is deliberately shorter and gentler. If twenty minutes is too much on a given day, cut a standing pose rather than the final relaxation, which is the part people try to drop first and should drop last.
How many days a week should a beginner do yoga?
For a first week, yes, because the daily repetition is what builds the habit and the familiarity. But the seventh day here is deliberately restful, all on the floor, which is why seven consecutive days is reasonable. If you feel genuinely worn out rather than pleasantly worked, take a day off and pick up where you stopped. Nothing in the plan depends on the days being consecutive.
What should I do after the seven days?
Repeat the same week without changing anything. The second week is where the shapes become familiar enough that your attention can move to the breath, which is where practice actually starts. In week three, add three rounds of Surya Namaskar. Sometime in the first month, get a class or a live online session so that somebody can see the one habit you cannot see yourself.
Can yoga transform your body in a week?
No, and anybody who promises otherwise is selling something. Twenty minutes of beginner yoga is genuine movement but it is low intensity, and a week is not long enough to change body composition. What a week can realistically give you is less morning stiffness, a habit that is starting to hold, and a clearer sense of how you breathe. Those are the things that make the months afterwards possible.
Do I need a mat or any equipment?
A mat helps, mostly so the hands do not slide in the downward dog, but a folded blanket on a non slip floor will do for a first week. You will want a cushion for the seated positions and a wall within reach for the tree pose. Do not spend money before the week is over. Buy the mat in week two, when you know you are going to use it.
Can you learn yoga in 7 days?
You can learn ten poses well enough to practise them safely on your own, which is what this week is for. You cannot learn yoga in seven days any more than you can learn to swim in seven days, and anybody promising a transformed body in a week is selling something. What the week gives you is a habit and a short list you know how to do.
How should a beginner start yoga at home?
Pick a small number of poses, learn where the props go, and repeat the same short session rather than doing something different every day. Fifteen minutes, six days, with one day off. Learn the rest position first, before anything that could go wrong, and get somebody to watch you within the first month if you possibly can.
What are the 12 basic yoga poses?
The list varies by school, but a common one is standing, arms overhead, forward fold, lunge, plank, eight point salute, cobra, downward dog, tree, triangle, seated forward bend and the rest position. Ten of those are in this week's plan. The twelve positions of Surya Namaskar are a different list and are the one people usually mean by the number twelve.
Come to one class before you decide anything
Your first class is free, in any batch, on any day. No card, nothing to cancel. Come once and see whether the teaching suits you before you pay for anything. You will be asked your age and whether anything hurts, and the sequence will be adapted for you on the spot.
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