Technique Tuesday - Trikonasana Triangle Pose Pt 4

Welcome to our fourth and final instalment of Trikonasana or Triangle pose variations!

This is a fantastic way to open hips, heart and shoulders, strengthen legs and abdominal and back muscles, and even open shoulders, as we will see in the more advanced bind variation today.

As always, listen to your body and never force. This is a commonly used pose, but it can put a lot of pressure on hamstrings, back and knees. See our other posts on this pose for variations to make this more accessible (see last week's post for a chair version!), and choose what is best for you on any given day.

Start in Maha Virabhadrasana / Warrior 2, with hips, shoulders and torso open to the long edge of your mat. Inhale, lengthen through the front leg until it is almost straight, but still has a teensy bend.

Exhale and pull through your front fingers to hinge at your hips, reaching over your front leg and lengthen your torso evenly along your spine. When you can't reach any further, bring your hand either to a block placed on the inside of your front ankle, or fingertips to the floor.

Use your back hand on your top hip to guide your torso, hips open to the front and not hunching over the front leg. When stable and open, you can choose to lift that top arm to the sky, but not backwards behind you. find a comfortable place to look - at the floor, in line with your heart, or up at your top hand.

If your shoulders are very open, you might try a bind, by slightly bending your front knee, bring your bottom hand under your front leg and behind you, your top hand reaches behind and around for your bottom hand. Use a strap if you need.

Breathe here for a few breaths, feeling the pose throughout your body.

When ready, release the bind if you're in it, then engage abdominals, use your top hand to help lift you back upright and into Warrior 2. Step back to Tadasana at the top of your mat and breathe a few breaths here to feel the effects. Try on the other side.

How does this feel? does one side feel tighter/more difficult than the other? Usually that is the case, so experiment to see. Use a wall behind you if you feel one hip is harder to open than the other.

Great job for exploring Trikonasana, I hope this helps your practice!

Cheers,

Meghann