Options for arm position in revolved triangle

As part of our focus on the warrior one family of postures we’ve been spending a bit of time in this pose, revolved triangle. For most bodies it’s a tough shape to make: it asks for a lot of mobility along the back and outside of your legs and hips; it can be pretty wobbly so hard to maintain your balance; plus it’s a deep twist so it can be hard to breathe in! We already looked at the position of your feet in this family of postures in my last blog post (having feet hip width apart rather than one behind each other is likely to make twisting into revolved triangle more accessible). In addition, to help students find more ease while holding this shape, we’ve been playing around a bit with the position of their arms.

PLACEMENT OF BOTTOM HAND

In the first picture here I have my fingertips on the floor on the outside of my front foot, which is the classical set up for revolved triangle. Even though LOTS of other postures don’t, twists naturally come fairly easily for my body and my torso turns enough that I can place my hand on the outside of my leg without having to reach for it too much. But for plenty of other people putting their hand on the outside of their front leg is a real stretch (no pun intended!). Their torso stops turning when their chest is still facing a little to the floor, so instead of just dropping their hand to the floor they have to reach past their leg to get their hand outside their foot - as seen in the second image here. That alignment made my chest feel kind of squashed and it was more difficult to breathe (as if it’s not hard enough to breathe deeply in a twist like this!).

So in class at the moment I’m bringing people into this pose with their bottom hand on the inside of their foot (as in the third image here), and then once everyone’s in the pose offering the option to put their hand on the outside of their foot. And I’d estimate that only about 10-20% of people are taking that option, so presumably the rest prefer having their hand on the inside!

HEIGHT OF BOTTOM HAND

I can get my hand on the floor in this pose, but for me using a block on its lowest height feels ideal. For lots of students trying to place their hand on the floor can be a real struggle. Trying to force your hand to the floor can meaning having to round (or in anatomical terms: flex) your spine a lot, which doesn’t set you up for a comfortable or easeful twist that you’re able to breathe in (see photo 2). In the third photo here I’ve placed my bottom hand on a brick, and you can perhaps see how that may enable students to keep their spines straighter and stay a bit broader across their chest as they turn.

TOP ARM

It’s really tempting in revolved triangle to throw your top hand back behind you as far as it will go, because it can feel like you’re twisting more. In fact what I often see happening when students do that it is their top shoulder shifts forward and their chest hasn’t actually turned any further (photo 2). So I’ve been cueing students to bring their top hand either directly over their top shoulder or a little forwards (where forwards in these images means towards the camera), and to imagine they’re pressing that palm into something solid like a wall. Then plenty of them have been able to shift their top shoulder a little further back (compare my top shoulder in image 2 to to it in image 3).

This approach is part of one of my wider aims for my students in 2020:

• Encouraging students to test out slightly different positions within the poses, and to find what works for them

• Letting go of the need to try and force themselves into a posture that looks a certain way, or of thinking that there’s only one way to do each yoga pose. Different bodies will look different doing the same postures!

Comment below with any questions, thoughts, or with your experience of revolved triangle or warrior 1 🙂

Foot placement in warrior 1

Warrior 1: traditional v updated foot alignment

We’ve shifted our focus to the warrior one family of postures in class this week. I’m also including other poses where the placement of your feet on the mat stays the same but you’re doing other stuff with your upper body, like pyramid and revolved triangle. 

revolved triangle

There are two main things we’re looking at in relation to this group of postures: the placement of your feet and the amount of rotation in your upper body. Once I’ve found a comfortable placement for my feet in warrior 1 I normally keep them pretty much as they are for all the other postures in this family. But because my body’s different to everyone else’s, my foot placement will be different to everyone else in class. Conversely, the amount I rotate my upper body in these poses changes from posture to posture, as well as being different to how everyone else does it. Maybe a simpler way of saying that is:

• feet placement

  • will be individual to each person

  • for any one person foot placement will likely be the same/ similar across the poses in this family

• upper body rotation

  • will be individual to each person

  • will be different for each of these poses.

In some traditions they would consider that there’s a set way everyone should put their feet in warrior 1 (you might have been told in the past to line up your front and back heel, like in the first, left hand image above). In my experience, of my own body and of talking to my students, that alignment often doesn’t work for ankles/ hips/ knees or lower back. So this I’ve been suggesting that my students try out having their feet hip width apart (like in the first, right hand image above). We’re also experimenting with turning your chest towards your front knee (the more traditional way, as shown here) and then turning it a little away from your front knee, which some bodies much prefer.

Which foot placement and position of your upper body does your body prefer in warrior 1?

Front knee stability in the warrior 2 family of poses

After a two week Christmas break that involved more sitting and lying down than the average fortnight (for me at least!), we’ve started the year by looking at standing poses - which means the warriors, triangle, high lunge etc. I include these postures in pretty much every flow and hatha class I ever teach, for every level of student, but it’s not because I think they’re easy or just filler postures. It’s because I think they’re SO GOOD. They’re great strengtheners; they’re also sneaky hip openers (but you often don’t feel the stretch like you would in a seated hip opener, at least partly because your legs are working so hard); they’re also great for improving balance and proprioception. And they’re ideal to start a new year’s curriculum with: from the students’ perspective they’ll get up and moving (whether that’s after a break from exercise over Christmas or simply after sitting at a desk all day). And from my perspective I know that in January, more than any other time of year, my classes will be really mixed levels with lots of people either brand new to yoga or coming back after a break. And these poses are ideal for mixed levels classes: unless they have an injury or limiting condition beginners can make the shapes of these postures. But they can continually be refined and will still make experienced practitioners work hard!

Our first particular focus within this group is the warrior 2 family (ie postures where your front leg is turning out, and your chest is turned to the side of your mat). It’s really common in these postures for a student’s front knee to collapse in towards the big toe side of their foot. So my key learning point for students this week has been to feel and learn engage the muscles in their outer hip that will stop their front knee turning in. Here are some of the postures we’ve used, in the order they’ve appeared in class, and with some of the cues I’ve been giving my students:

Ankle to knee pose

• concentrate on trying to turn your top knee out (ie move it away from your face) and see if you can feel what switches on in the outside of that hip to turn your knee out

Low lunge

• place a hand just on the outside of your front ankle. Use blocks if you prefer. Keep your arm steady, and gently press your front knee out against it. Notice what you feel

Side angle

• put a block (or your hand if you prefer) just outside your front ankle. Press your front knee out against your arm and notice what you feel working in your front hip

Warrior 2

• remember all the times you’ve felt your outer hip working to press your knee out, and try to bring that sensation into your front leg here. If you were using a block in side angle, leaving it there in warrior 2 will give you some sense of whether your leg is turning in or not

Reverse warrior

• when you move your upper body like this it commonly makes your front knee want to straighten and turn in a bit. Apply all you’ve learnt so far about engaging your outer hip to keep your front knee turning out (and keep trying to touch that block with your leg!)