It's rare to find a workout that feels equally calming and invigorating, or one that trains your body and your mind. Yet that's a huge part of the allure behind a full-body yoga workout.

Yoga's roots trace back thousands of year, centering mindfulness, breathe, and balance. It's a deep and beloved tradition for millions worldwide.

Those principles also provide a brilliant foundation for at-home yoga workouts with some expanded fitness goals. Think things like improving mobility, increasing balance and stability, and supporting endurance, all while deeply engaging your core and helping minimizing joint strain.

This full body yoga flow uses simple props like a chair or yoga/exercise ball to meet you where you are in your routine. It's designed with beginners and intermediate practitioners in mind, with modifications provided (just like your favorite yoga instructor would give during a live class).

Use this yoga workout as a great reminder that a little mindfulness goes a long way toward stronger abs, better mobility, and a deeper mind-body connection.

35 Minute Duration

Full Body Mobility Program

~140-300+ Calories Burned

10 Different Exercises

Recommended 2-4x/Week

Yoga Workout: Example Routine

Below is a balanced, beginner-to-intermediate yoga workout routine designed to help improve flexibility, strengthen your core, and support increased mobility. Many of its movements come directly from Tonal's Yoga program, designed to balance physical and mental strength.

Format: Hold each pose for 30-60 secs | Transition smoothly between poses, without rest | Complete all 10 poses to form one flow circuit. Perform 2-3 circuits total, resting 60 seconds between.
Duration: ~35 minutes (including warm-up and cool down)

Full-Body Yoga Workout

Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
Plank Pose (Phalakasana or Kumbhakasana)
Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II)
Downward Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Revolved Triangle Pose (Parivrtta Trikonasana)
Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)
Boat Pose (Navasana)
Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Warm-up & Cool-Down

The slow, calming nature of yoga tricks many people into thinking they don't need to perform any warm-up or cool down beforehand. But you're still calling on muscles here, muscles that need gradual engagement before holding static poses, and to help ensure safer pose-to-pose transitions.

A proper yoga workout warm-up and cool down prevents strain on ligaments and supports your routine's range of motion.

Warm Up (3.5 minutes)

Cat-Cow stretch (30 sec)
Standing Side Bend (30 sec each side)
Shoulder Rolls (1 min)
Gentle Forward Fold (1 min)

Cool Down (4 Minutes)

Supine Twist (30 sec per side)
Hamstring Stretch, with or without ball support (1 min)
Vertical Legs-Up on the Wall (Viparita Karani) (2 mins)

Estimated Calories Burned

Women (120-170+ lbs): 50-110+ calories
Men (150-210+ lbs): 75-145+ calories

Remember, these ranges are estimates only. Actual calories burned during a yoga routine depends on the session's intensity level, as well as many other individual factors. For instance, a Vinyasa flow or more active yoga workout styles may encourage energy use on the higher end.

Recommended Number of workouts

Most gentle-to-moderate yoga styles can be practiced daily without risking complications like joint strain, muscle fatigue, or burnout.

We recommend completing this particular full-body yoga workout 2x/week when beginning a yoga mindfulness practice, or when using yoga for mixed-mobility training or active recovery. Beginners should focus on consistency and control, as well as proper breathing during and between movements.

Advanced yoga practitioners can add an additional flow day with more dynamic poses or power yoga transitions.

Muscle Groups Targeted

Major muscle groups activated:

Core
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Glutes
Deltoids
Erector spinae (spine-attached muscles)

Note: This at-home beginners' yoga routine focuses on improving strength and flexibility rather than changing body composition. Yoga can also be a tool used to help promote mobility, posture, and support overall mindful body awareness personal to you. It's a solid option for active recovery days or when you want to move your body without high-intensity training. But of course, these results will be different for everyone.

Using beginner-friendly pose modifications may also affect which muscles are targeted during this yoga routine. For instance, resting your feet on a chair or exercise ball for leg support during a 60-second boat pose will reduce abdominal, quad, hamstring, and glute activation, and therefore change the balance and stability challenge to these muscles.

Equipment Used for Yoga Workout

This yoga workout is designed for an approachable at-home session using minimal equipment. All you need is a mat, and optionally a chair or stability ball to enhance support or intensity.

To elevate your practice into more of a power yoga-style session, consider adding:

Yoga blocks for deeper stretches.
A yoga strap or resistance band.
Light dumbbells (2-5 lbs.) for appropriate weighted poses.
A stability ball to challenge balance and more deeply engage your core.

Who This Workout is Most Effective For

This yoga workout is ideal for a wide range of participants, including:

Beginners building a baseline of everyday strength, stability, and flexibility.
Those enhancing recovery from intense cardio or strength training days.
Adults ages 65+, as yoga is an extremely low-impact workout that can support balance and posture.
Anyone seeking low impact, accessible, yet approachable movement routine.
Anyone interested practicing a form of mindfulness or connecting to yoga's rich traditions.

Answers to FAQs about Yoga Workout

While gentle in appearance (most people don't typically find themselves dripping buckets of sweat during traditional yoga flows), a yoga workout can be a stimulating full-body activity. It integrates coordination, baseline muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility work simultaneously.

Combined, yoga can be a smart addition into a well-rounded, active lifestyle. Of course, it's full "effectiveness" will depend on your workout or fitness goals.

While most forms of yoga are not primarily meant as a calorie-torcher, yoga has shown some ways it can contribute toward weight loss, but indirectly.

"Indirectly" here means yoga can contribute to an active routine and mental health habits that, in turn, potentially support overall weight-focused or body re-composition goals, especially if you choose sessions that elevate your heart rate or ask for sustained muscular effort. Yoga may also pair well with strength training, cardio workouts, or even Pilates that can more directly increase your daily calorie expenditure.

But by itself, yoga isn't really guaranteed a path to reducing your body fat ratio. The mechanics of weight loss fundamentally come down to burning more calories than you consume.

Think of yoga as one piece of a larger approach. It's valuable, grounding, and supportive, rather than a solo weight loss solution. And if it helps you practice your version of an enjoyably active lifestyle, that's great.

Yoga is generally seen as low-risk for most people. That said, improper alignment or over-extending yourself during poses past points of comfort can complicate safety.

Beginners to yoga workouts should prioritize form and gradually progressing into more advanced versions of poses. It may also be useful to practice 1-2 yoga sessions under supervision, just to make sure your technique is on the right track. Especially if you're trying to use extra equipment, like yoga balls or blocks.

Yoga is actually a bit hybrid. While traditional yoga practices largely emphasize flexibility, balance, and patterns of breathing, more modern, fitness-minded variations have sequences designed to better elevate your heart rate or demand more from your muscles.

Concluding words on Yoga Workout

Yoga is a deeply personal practice. For some, it's exercise keeping your body feeling free and capable. For others, it's a physical way to express a spiritual side. Still for others, yoga serves as a calming — even therapeutic — daily mental reset.

This full-body yoga workout was designed to respect all those intentions, using thoughtful poses for low-impact bodyweight work, stretching, balance, and mindfulness.

Overall, movement doesn't always have to be fast and sweaty to be powerful. Tonal believes yoga can be a testament to just that.