Trikonasana

Trikonasana is the Triangle pose.

These days I teach three versions of Trikonasana, two in my warm up sessions and one that is recognisably an Iyengar type Trikonasana in the main part of my lesson.

If you are fit and healthy, you are welcome to jump your feet apart to a distance of about four feet. You want to feel that your feet are sufficiently far apart that if anybody tugged your arms you are stable enough to resist the tug.

If you are fit, healthy but have had a child and have undercarriage problems; or if you are older, PLACE your feet a distance of about four foot apart.

Turn your right foot to the right. Turn your left foot to look towards the right foot, making an angle of about 45 degrees with an imaginary line you could draw from the one instep to the other.

Imagine you are against a wall. So your shoulders and your bottom are in contact with that wall. This keeps your trunk facing forward.

Bring your arms up so they make a straight line parallel to the floor and if you can, rotate your elbows so the bones at the elbow joint are facing back rather than down.

On an out breath, tighten your tummy muscles, lift up your pelvic floor and then stretch the right arm up and outwards so that the underside of your trunk feels stretched. When you have stretched as far as you can, allow your hand to drop to touch your leg.

Look up to the other hand. The palm should face forward. The fingers should be extended. If you are doing this right you will feel you are working the neck.

Make sure you do not drop the head. The student below has been kind enough to demonstrate this for us. Think about the line of your spine and imagine it continuing on into the head and the head being placed symmetrically about that line.

Your feet, think about them too. Lift up your insteps. Lift up your knee caps. If you can rotate your knee cap towards the back of the body. Keep both legs straight. Think about the shape of your footprint, make sure you are placing weight on the outer edge of the left foot and not letting it roll in.

Gosh, so many things to think about!

Above all, keep breathing!!! When you think you have your perfect triangle pose, try and relax into it and then quietly observe your breathing.

I always tell a beginner to count to five and then come out of a posture but really you can stay in a posture as long as you feel comfortable. You will know when your body has had enough, your heart rate may go up, your body may start to shake. Listen to your body and come out when it tells you, it is ready to do so.

Always remember to hold the posture on the opposite side for an equal length of time unless you find it much harder on one side to the other. In that case, hold it on the hard side, then hold it on the easy side and then go back and hold it on the hard side.