Advanced yoga poses

Long-practice poses. The risk is rarely the shape itself — it is arriving at it years early. On YogaPath 61 of 209 poses carry this rating, spread across 6 families.

There is no timetable and anyone who gives you one is guessing. A useful signal is that you can hold the poses at your current level for their full stated time, breathing normally, without needing to check the instructions. That usually takes months rather than weeks, and it is not a race — the injuries in yoga cluster almost entirely around people going up a level early.

Difficulty and safety are different things. A beginner pose can still be wrong for a specific neck, knee or pregnancy, and an advanced pose is not dangerous for someone who has practised it for a decade. Every page here lists its own cautions — read those rather than relying on the level badge.