Yoga Before Meditation: How it Can Support Your Practice

Last Updated on August 28, 2026 by Matthew Sockolov

Many years ago, I spent my first weekend at Deer Park Monastery, a Vietnamese Zen center in Southern California. I was introduced to the practice of qigong, a form of movement meditation with roots in Chinese medicine and philosophy.

At the monastery, we often engaged in qigong sessions before moving into sitting meditation. I found the mind and body to settle into stillness with surprising ease. Since those days, I have made a point to incorporate movement into my seated practice.

In addition to practicing some sort of movement before meditating, I often break up my longer meditation periods with a few minutes of walking meditation. We even recently made a little labyrinth in the backyard to practice.

The most common way I see this among my students is by practicing yoga before meditation. This is common in many traditions! I want to offer a bit about traditional movement practices, how yoga before meditation can support your practice, and other types of movement to consider.

Traditional Movement and Stillness

This isn’t a hot take or discovery by my part. There are many traditions in which movement precedes seated, standing, or otherwise still meditation.

Yogic Traditions

In many yoga traditions, such as hatha and more modern vinyasa lineages, movement often comes before stillness. You will find practice with postures (asana), leading into breathwork (pranayama), and eventually seated or still meditation (dhyana). The idea is simple: movement releases tension and stabilizes the body, breathwork calms the nervous system, and the strong foundation is set for meditation.

Taoist Practices

In various qigong and tai chi lineages, practice starts more dynamic before moving into stillness. Movements are used to circulate qi, warm the joints and limbs, and quiet the mind through movement. Then, zuowang is undertaken. This is seated or standing meditation that helps stabilizie or deepen the quiet state.

Zen Buddhism

As mentioned with my experience at Deer Park, many Zen traditions incorporate movement before or after sitting meditation. The traditional pattern is to sit in zazen, practice walking meditation (kinhin), then return to zazen. Although this pattern is slightly different, the movement offers the same benefits.

Vipassana

On Vipassana, or insight meditation retreats, you’ll often have periods of seated and walking meditation that alternate. Again, the walking doesn’t always take place before the sitting, but it is interspersed. This practice helps us in many ways, including many of the benefits listed below.

Benefits of Yoga Before Meditation

There are many benefits of practicing yoga (or any movement practice) before seated meditation. It also can be beneficial to break up periods of sitting with some yoga or other movement.

Releasing Physical Tension

First, as yogic traditions teach, a period of yoga before meditation can help release physical tension. Some gentle yoga can help loosen hips, activate the back and shoulders, and get the blood flowing through the body. When we go to sit after doing yoga, we can notice a bit more ease in finding our meditation posture.

Calming the Nervous System

Research shows that yoga can substantially calm the nervous system through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system. The slow movement and mindful breathing helps us find a sense of stillness and ease that translates beautifully to seated meditation. I find that a few minutes of yoga before meditation makes that initial settling period of meditation much calmer and easier.

Regulating Energy

Two of the five hindrances have to do with energy: restlessness and worry and sloth and torpor. Restlessness and worry are too much energy that is undirected, while sloth and torpor are not enough energy. A short period of yoga or moving meditation can help regulate this energy to find the middle path. Some of the canonical suggestions for dealing with these hindrances actually include movement.

Building Mindfulness

Whether it’s yoga, walking meditation, or qigong, these movement practices offer a way to build mindfulness in a different way. We build some awareness of the breath, of the body, and of the mental experience before we even start our sitting meditation.

Mental Ritual

Practicing yoga before meditation can further cement the ritual in our minds. The consistent routine tells the brain it’s time to meditate, and it becomes easier to transition over time. I find it to be helpful in establishing a regular practice, as it contributes to the routine.

Types of Movement

There are many ways we can practice moving meditation before (or after) sitting meditation. Yoga is certainly one that lends itself very well to the practice of mindfulness, but it isn’t the only one.

Yoga

I’m definitely not super experienced with yoga, and don’t claim to be an expert of any kind. But I do enjoy yoga before my seated meditation practice. Gentle forms of hatha yoga, yin yoga, or restorative yoga can be useful. Below is a video from Yoga With Adriene, a popular YouTube channel that has lovely yoga practices for beginners.

Qigong

Qigong is a practice in mindful movement, focusing traditionally on qi/chi, or life energy. It’s a great way to bring mindfulness to the body, improve circulation, and warm up before sitting. The video below is from Thich Man Tue (Brother Insight), my favorite qigong channel. It’s a short (t minute) qigong practice fro the neck and back that is lovely before meditation.

Walking Meditation

If you’re a listener of the podcast or a regular reader of my blog, you know I’m a big fan of walking meditation. It is incredibly useful when it comes to bringing our meditation practice off the cushion into daily life, and serves as a powerful practice in mindfully connecting with the body. Below is a guided practice from our Mindfulness for Beginners playlist.

Tai Chi

Finally, there’s the practice of tai chi. A form of movement meditation borne from martial arts, tai chi is a great way to get the blood flowing, body moving, and mind present. Below is a video from Phoenix Mountain Tai Chi. They have a lot of great videos worth checking out if tai chi interests you.

Building a Consistent Practice

As I discuss in the post For How Long Should Beginners Meditate?, consistency is key. Incorporating yoga and movement into your meditation practice becomes easier and easier with time. I recommend keeping a regular schedule.

You may start with five or ten minutes of yoga, then just five or ten minutes of meditation. Build the habit so it becomes second nature. When the habit is strong, you can begin lengthening the time of practice.

If you’re new to meditation, I highly recommend our Month of Mindfulness program. It’s a free monthlong program in which you receive a 3-5 minute guided meditation every day direct to your inbox. The idea is to offer an overview of basic practices and build a habit with daily sitting. I’ve had great success in building a meditation habit with my students in this way.