How to Try Giraffe Pose with Kids (Plus Fun Yoga Pose Variations)

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Feeling the mid-day slump and need a quick energy boost you can do anywhere?
Want to stand tall and improve your posture?
Tension in your shoulders and upper body weighing you down?

Stretch Tall Like a Giraffe!

Giraffe Pose combines two traditional yoga poses, Upward Salute and Standing Crescent. It fosters focus and balance, strengthening legs, ankles, feet and arms. It also strengthens abdominal muscles while increasing flexibility of the spine and shoulders and expanding the chest.

Do this pose at work or in your classroom to create calm transitions or to refocus and relieve tension during a long test or task.

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At 6 feet tall and around 150 pounds, baby giraffes are some of the biggest newborns in the animal kingdom. You can try this pose kneeling to be a baby giraffe.

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How To: Giraffe Pose

  • Stand tall and strong in mountain

  • Reach arms overhead and press palms together

  • Bend to each side, keeping arms and legs straight

  • Bend forward and touch the ground

  • Walk around the room like a giraffe without bending your knees

  • Try kneeling for baby variation

Sing along with our Giraffe Pose Rhyme:
I'm a giraffe with a very long neck
I look to the right and I look to the left (side bending)
I eat the leaves off the trees and the grass off the ground
I eat the leaves off the trees and the grass off the ground
I eat the leaves off the trees and the grass off the ground
Then I take a deep breath and I circle around (or walk around for walking variation)

Tips for Mastering Giraffe:

  • Relax your shoulders away from your ears as your stretch your arms overhead

  • Focus your gaze forward and keep your chin parallel to the floor

  • Keep elbows (and knees if standing) as straight as possible to create more length through the spine and torso.

  • Remember it doesn't matter how far you bend. Focus on alignment over depth.

Fun Variations of Giraffe Pose:

  • Try this standing to be an adult giraffe and kneeling to be a baby giraffe

  • Walk around the room kicking your long straight giraffe legs looking for trees and grass to eat

  • Try drinking water like a giraffe, spreading your straight legs wide and bending forward in wide legged forward fold.

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Join us every Monday morning LIVE on our Facebook page as we share more music and yoga fun about human, plant and animal babies!