Warrior Two

This is the posture in the logo. It is the easiest of the three Warrior poses.

Shiva one of the main three Hindu gods, transformed himself into Virabha the Warrior in one of his manifestations. He was very upset when his wife Sati was insulted by her father, Daksha. Sati was so mortified by what her father has said that she immolated herself. Some legends say that Daksha insulted Virabha, not Sati.

Virabha was very angry and raised an army against Daksha's army and killed Daksha.

Virabhadrasana means the Warrior pose and there are three Warrior poses.

Let's do this one.

If you are young, fit and healthy you can jump your feet as far apart as you can. Otherwise place your feet as far away as you can. Pregnant ladies and those with prolapses or stress incontinence, definitely place your feet; don't jump :- )

One pregnant lady working on her Warrior Two.

Imagine you have a wall behind you. Your shoulder blades, your bottom and the legs are all touching the wall. Doesn't quite work out like that but keep the idea in your head.

Turn your right foot to look to the right. The left foot turns inwards a little, so that if we were using a protractor there'd be about an 80 degree angle between a line drawn through the foot and a line drawn from one heel to the other.

As soon as you turn your foot to the right, you will feel your trunk wanting to turn as well. Concentrate hard on keeping the trunk facing forward and imagine a line vertically upwards along which your spine is placed.

Bend the right knee so that the line between the thigh and the lower leg is making a right angle. Don't worry if you can't bend the knee that far to begin with.

The really important thing, look at your right knee. Make sure it is either aligned perfectly over the line through the middle of your right foot or pointing slightly to the back of your body, towards that imaginary wall.

If the knee is pointing forwards away from that imaginary wall, you could hurt your knee-cap, so be very careful.

Lift your arms so they are level. Ideally lift your elbow joints up which adds to the work done by the arms.

Look along the right arm.

What usually happens is that immediately people look along the right arm, the trunk starts to follow and loses that alignment of the spine about a vertical line, so just check what's happened to you and correct if necessary.

The left leg is also working, try and stretch down that leg and transfer as much of your body weight as possible to the back leg. Make sure the insteps are raised in both feet.

What a lot to think about! and you need to keep breathing :- )

Ideally you move into the bend with the arms lifting on an out breath, drawing in your tummy muscles and lifting up your pelvic floor at the same time. You relax your tummy muscles slightly for the in breath.

It will all happen in time. Just do your best. Feel how much strength and energy comes into the body as you hold this posture. The Warrior poses demand strength. They demand power. Welcome the feeling!

"Into my life your power breaks through, Living Lord"