I was doing yoga with my sister last week, which was super cool. My sister lives out of town, so we’ve never had the chance to practice yoga together before, and it was special to share our practice together.

We were doing Trudie Styler’s Warrior Yoga DVD, with the sounds of the waves coming in from the outside, and it was a little slice of heaven. I kept calling out to my sister, “This is my favorite pose,” and I realized, I have a lot of favorite poses! If yoga poses had fan clubs, here’s the ones I would join and the reasons why. (BTW, these are in no particular order).

Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II) — I just feel so fierce when I stand in Warrior II. I especially like to flow into it from warrior or another pose, like triangle.

Mountain (Tadasana)— When the instructor gets the class into this pose with lots of direction, it sometimes seems kind of silly, like how much more direction can we get on standing. But I’ve come to realize the power of this pose and how great it feels to have my heart opened and pressed forward. Standing tall and with my head held high, I feel like anything is possible. I wish I would have started doing this pose as a child; I’d have much better posture.

Child (Balasana) — I’ve been a long-time fan of this pose. It’s one of my go-to poses for stretching the back and relieving back pain. I just recently discovered it is also a great hip opener, so now I have even more reasons to join the child pose fan club. I love it when an instructor assists me in this pose by pushing my lower back down—it is an incredible stretch.

Pigeon (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) — Actually, I have a love-hate relationship with Pigeon. The stretch it provides to the hips is wonderful, but when the yoga instructor keeps us in pigeon for a long time, I tend to lose my focus and my breath. It hurts so good. I’ve got a ton of angst and stress built up in my hips, so the hip-opening effects of this pigeon pose always bring me back.

Tree (Vrksasana) — If I’m having a good balance day, I like to get really deep into this pose. Standing tall, opening my branches, letting in all of life’s possibilities—the feeling is pure nirvana. This is another one of those great life-affirming yoga poses. I’ve noticed recently that I’ll catch myself standing in tree pose while working in the kitchen or standing in a checkout line, so it has crept into my subconscious (love that!).

Savasana — What can I say? The ultimate resting pose had me at hello. My favorite part of yoga class is when the instructor tells us to lie on the floor and plug into savasana…aah!

So, which yoga pose fan club have you joined? Let me know what your favorites are and the reasons why they rock.