The Most Grounding Yoga Pose for Your Zodiac Sign, According to an Astrologer

You should consider your Mars sign and Moon sign, too.

grounding pose
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Yoga comes with a number of benefits, including a boosted mood, sharper cognitive functioning, even better sex. The practice can also help you find stillness and presence—especially if you discover which poses best help you access your inner reserves of grounding energy. The ideal grounding pose for you will calm your physical and energetic bodies. An easy way to determine that magic posture? Simply look to your zodiac sign.

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“We channel our highest light through our sun sign, so it’s good to ground down,” says astrologer and yoga teacher Emily Ridout, author of AstroYoga for an Aquarian Age and founder of the International School of AstroYoga. Ridout suggests looking at your sun sign when seeking grounding. (Reminder: that’s the sign that influenced the sun when you were born, meaning it has a prominent influence on you, too.)

That said, you may also benefit from practicing poses aligned with other placements in your birth chart. For example, you may want to check your Mars placement. “Mars often goes really fast and needs to be slowed down,” says Ridout. Also, your moon sign rules your emotions, meaning it can also be pacified with grounding poses that are attuned to its needs. If you’re looking for a broader way to make the astro-yoga connection, practicing yoga in accordance with the current astrological season is another way to ground with the help of celestial energy.

Whatever energy you’re hoping to calm or harness, you’re covered with the most aligned grounding poses for each zodiac sign that follow.

The Most Grounding Pose For Your Zodiac Sign

From a fluid Cat-Cow for Libras to a strong Warrior II for Sag, these grounding poses suit your star sign needs.

Aries: Rabbit Pose

This close-to-the-ground shape is especially helpful for Aries, as the fire sign’s energy benefits from the grounding force of the Earth. Rabbit Pose, or Sasangasana, is great for more than stretching an achy lower back. According to Ridout, the pose also grounds the third eye, which is exactly what Aries needs as the sign—which rules over the head, top of the brain, and eyesight—is known for  its forward-driving energy, making a mental slow-down essential.

Taurus: Shoulderstand and Fish Pose

Shoulderstand and Fish Pose fit together as a matched pair for Taurus,” says Ridout. Since Taurus rules the neck, lower brain, and lower jaw, Ridout notes that each of these poses effectively grounds these areas by reversing the upward flow of energy and drawing it toward the Earth.

Gemini: Humble Warrior

Gemini rules the arms, hands, shoulders, and lungs. Since your lungs affect your breathing—which is integral to both calming the nervous system and practicing yoga in general—Ridout suggests that this sign turn to Humble Warrior for grounding.

“In Humble Warrior, your legs are in Warrior 1, with the hands clasped behind the back,” she says. “The shoulder blades squeeze together, so they’re engaged and integrated, and the head bows down toward the Earth. There’s also deep breathing that occurs while you have these bound arms.”

Cancer: Standing Forward Bend

To understand what pose will be most grounding for Cancerians, Ridout suggests you literally envision a crab. Cancer rules over the area of the chest and stomach—which are areas of the body that house vital organs for sharing and receiving nourishment. Not coincidentally, the sign’s spirit animal has a protective shell that covers this portion of its body. Being too giving can throw this sign out of alignment energetically. That’s where Standing Forward Bend, or Uttanasana, can help.

“Cancers suffer if they care too much…they can give so much that they become depleted,” Ridout says. “In Forward Fold, the part of the body that’s giving is closed off and protected. This way, they are open to receiving through the back of the body.”

Leo: Puppy Pose

Leo rules the heart and spine. Puppy Pose, or Uttana Shishosana, facilitates grounding energy here. The pose essentially nudges the heart toward the Earth for grounding and opens the body into a backbend for receiving.

“Leo is the sign ruled by the sun, which is meant to house the true light of perfection. But a lot of us don’t see the true light of perfection as our hearts,” Ridout says. “People who have a strong Leo identity will look for that light, and Puppy Pose will help them find it.”

Virgo: Lord of the Fishes Pose

The best grounding pose for this Earth sign is Lord of the Fishes, or Matsyendrasana, a seated twist that physically stacks the body parts and follows an order that resonates with organizationally minded Virgo. When Virgos fall out of alignment, they can become susceptible to perfectionistic tendencies, directed either at themselves or at others. “Virgos can sometimes strictly adhere to rules as an attempt to control outcomes in their lives,” Ridout says. This pose can help soothe the nervous system.

Libra: Cat-Cow

Contrary to popular belief, Ridout says Libra isn’t characterized by being balanced but by pursuing balance. She suggests Cat-Cow as the perfect physical manifestation of that journey since Libra rules the low back area. “[Cat-Cow is] going to open up some energy around the low back,” she says. “It finds balance in those areas, which is the hallmark of Libra energy.”

Scorpio: Garland Pose

Since Scorpio energy is often naturally grounded, Ridout says the sign can benefit from being lifted, which is why she recommends Squat or Malasana. While this may seem like a grounding pose, it is energetically opening and lifting for the sexual organs and the entire pelvic area, which Scorpio rules. The essential difference is the opening is directed toward the Earth and not another person.

Ridout adds that this part of the body houses longheld emotional energy. “Those deepest places of ourselves are not meant to be hugely opened up to the world,” Ridout says. “They’re meant to be grounded and held and contained, and then to move up through your own body.” Garland Pose can facilitate that channeling.

Sagittarius: Warrior 2

While you may commonly find this fire sign busily zipping around with intentions to travel everywhere, Ridout says Sagittarius does very well with a clear intention. That’s why she suggests Warrior 2, or Virabhadrasana II, as a grounding pose for the fire sign that rules the hips and thighs.

“Warrior 2 has a very direct focus of the drishti, or the gaze,” she says. “It also has a steady movement in the thighs that’ll both open the hips, which feels nice, and also send the hips to the Earth to ground it down.”

Capricorn: Chair Pose

Ridout recommends Chair Pose, or Utkatasana, for sea goats. The pose is both grounding and strengthening for the knees and bones, both ruled by Capricorn.

It’s also grounding on an energetic level. “Cap can look too far in the future and work too hard,” says Ridout. “Chair Pose can increase the capacity to work hard, but also you can’t hold it forever—you hold it and then take a break. Breaks are just as important as important.”

Aquarius: Downward-Facing Dog

To ground an Aquarius, Ridout suggests Downward-Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana. The air sign rules blood, circulation, and the ankles. Because this pose pushes down through the back heel, it offers energizes the entire back body “while also putting both feet and both hands on the ground,” says Ridout.

Also, since it’s technically an inversion, with the head moving below the heart, the pose can work the circulatory system in a different way than other poses, she says, working to ground Aquarius both literally and metaphorically.

Pisces: Legs up the Wall Pose

Pisces rules the feet, the lymph, and lymphatic drainage. For these fish, Ridout suggests Legs up the Wall, or Viparita Karani, as the most grounding option. “Pisces needs to let go, but they need to let go in a grounded way,” she says. “When they put their back on the ground and their feet in the sky, they’re able to take that place.”

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From Legendary Surfers to Elite Downhill Skiers, Here’s How Athletes Are Using Yoga to Achieve Epic Feats

They're redefining how success feels.

Photo: Courtesy Gerry Lopez

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When legendary big wave surfer Gerry Lopez was a student at the University of Hawaii in 1968, he stumbled upon an outdoor yoga class. “I thought, if you could move like that on a surfboard, you could be a really good surfer,” says Lopez.

He threw himself into practicing yoga, expecting it to enhance his balance on the board, although Lopez understood it was critical for finding balance beyond the physical. “After getting into yoga, I was able to relax when getting tumbled underwater and not being able to breath,” recalls Lopez. “The meditative part of yoga was pretty much the exact same state of mind that you needed to relax in those situations and surf successfully.”

That poise helped him become one of the most fearless big wave pioneers of his era and one of the first surfers to tackle the massive swells of Hawaii’s infamous North Shore, where he took home the Pipeline Masters championship in 1972 and 1973, causing many to rename it the Gerry Lopez Pipeline Masters.

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What’s lesser known is his role as early advocate for the pivotal role that yoga and its meditative qualities play in epic athletic undertakings. Despite Lopez’s proselytization, it took several more decades for yoga to become even marginally common in athletic training regimens.

Although sport psychology has long taught that mindset is essential to athletic performance, it wasn’t until research illustrated that yoga and mindfulness minimize injury recovery time and reduce stress and anxiety that the practice became increasingly commonplace among athletes at all levels, including the NFL, MLB, and NBA. Even then, it took considerable time for most pro, college, and casual athletes to understand firsthand how yoga’s benefits extend beyond flexibility and reduced soreness.

Now, the narrative around yoga and athletes is being rewritten by individuals who are landing in record books, including Olympic swimming medalists Michael Phelps and Cortney Jordan Truitt, all-time leading basketball scorer LeBron James, soccer player Alex Morgan and her past title of game-winning goals, tennis champion Novak Djokovic and his record 24 Grand Slam titles, and countless others who slide under the radar of front-page headlines yet manage epic feats of their own.

In so doing, these athletes are redefining not only the role of yoga in athletics but the very definition of success. Following are insights from longtime students of yoga and athletes who rely on the practice.

Yoga and Athletes Equal Epic Endeavors

Mental Resilience

“The biggest limiting factor in epic feats is the belief and mindset of athletes,” says Mike Aidala, a performance coach known for taking on extreme challenges. He credits his mental resilience to his background as a yoga teacher and student.

Aidala has finished eight ultra-marathons and stand-up paddleboarded 82 miles from the Bahamas to Florida to raise money for cystic fibrosis. He also set a world record in 2022 for total weight lifted in the Turkish Get Up, in which he navigated a series of postures while holding a kettlebell overhead in one hand, essentially transitioning from Savasana to Urdhva Hastasana and back down again 149 times. In an hour of resilience, Aidala had lifted 13,823, surpassing the previous world record by more than 800 pounds.

“The Turkish Get Up requires the most valuable resource that I have: presence,” he explains in a video documenting his training and attempt. “I’ve really been leaning into my mindfulness practices. I’ve been focusing on yoga, meditation, and spending a lot of time in nature.”

Numerous studies support the experience of Aidala and so many other athletes in terms yoga’s effects on mental well-being. That includes an array of factors, including not only reduced stress and improved mindfulness but, according to one recent study, psychological flexibility, defined by the study’s authors as “a necessary quality that enables one to handle stress, control emotions, and face difficulties with more poise.”

“On the mat, you’re constantly having a conversation with your mind. The more you can make friends with your mind, the better it will serve you,” says Aidala. “Not only in life but also in big endeavors, where you need to develop maximum focus and confidence.”

Overcoming Fear

Before Sasha Dingle was a renowned mountain biker and free skier turned meditation teacher, she was a student in elementary school tagging along to her dad’s yoga classes. Not long after, she became aware that whenever fear or doubt would show up, she could anchor back into her body, explains Dingle.

“I think being reflective and being so connected to my body came from that early exposure to yoga,” she recalls. “My strength as an athlete was always my mind. My coaches were telling me the reason I was getting picked for training camps that fed onto the U.S. Ski Team was because I could just put fear away. Yoga laid a foundation for that.”

Throughout her experiences, Dingle was able to navigate the uncomfortable emotions that inevitably arise during intense training and competition, including becoming the Freeskiing World Champion and taking part in the Freeride World Tour and Enduro World Series.

Her takeaways are not unlike Lopez’s countless experiences when he was dragged underwater. “Panic was right there,” he says. “It was on your shoulder. You could easily go there, in which case you would’ve been in trouble.” Instead, he would come back to that stillness and sense of quiet and calm that yoga instilled in him.

Research conducted in 2024 supports these experiences. When athletes were consistently exposed to breathwork and meditation, they experienced a “significant” difference in many previously researched aspects of yoga and athletes, including sleep and anxiety, as well as psychological rigidity and experience avoidance.

Dingle eventually founded the Mountain Mind Project, an organization that provides mental training for athletes, high performers, and everyday folks looking to level up.

Physical Training

Many athletes staunchly defend yoga in their circles, correcting the common misperception that yoga is easy or just stretching.

“Yoga can be very physical and intense,” says Aidala. “It increases strength, mobility, and range, which helps with injury prevention and force production.” Like the kind of force production that might help someone lift 13,823 pounds in an hour.

Similarly, Dingle explains that the powerlifting athletic training regimens never resonated with her. “It didn’t feel like it was making me a well-rounded athlete, which is what I needed to move in the mountains,” she explains of its resilience-building capacity. “Yoga allowed me to build strength in a way that was more holistic and supported my sports.”

For those who don’t see the value in yoga or can’t seem to look past common stereotypes associated with it, Dingle has some advice. “Look past the Instagram version of people in Spandex contorting themselves,” says Dingle. “That is a commercialized, limited view.” She explains that they don’t capture the “strength-building, mobility-building, focus, and self-awareness that are so beneficial for anyone pushing themselves to a higher level.”

Whatever that level is—whether a world record, an epic personal physical challenge, greater mental resilience, or all of the above.

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