Triangle Pose
Utthita Trikonasana
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How-To:
-Begin in Tadasana, facing the long side of your yoga mat.
-Step your feet wide apart (a leg’s length apart, about 4 to 5 ft).
-Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and left foot in by 15 degrees.Your front knee should be in line with your 2nd and 3rd toes.
-Now align your center of right heel with the center of your arch of left foot.
-Ensure that your feet are pressing the ground and the weight of your body is equally balanced on both the feet.
-Inhale deeply and as you exhale, bend your body to the right, downward from the hips, keeping the waist straight, allowing your left hand to come up in the air while your right hand comes down towards the floor. Keep both arms in straight line.
-Rest your right hand on the floor inside your foot (or a yoga block), or the floor outside your right foot, whatever is possible without distorting the sides of the waist. If you do place your hand on your shin, press your calf muscle into your shin to resist the pressure from your hand. Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling.
-Align your shoulders so your left shoulder is directly above your right shoulder.
-Keep your head in a neutral position or turn it to the left, eyes gazing softly at the left palm.
-Ascertain that your body is bent sideways and not backward or forward. Pelvis and chest are wide open.
-Stretch maximum and be steady. Keep taking in long deep breaths. With each exhalation, relax the body more and more.
-Work to keep your breath smooth and even.
-As you inhale, come up, bring your arms down to your sides, and straighten your feet.
-Step our jump your feet together.
- Repeat the same on the other side.
Key Actions to remember when practicing:
-Front leg: Press down into your front big toe as you firm your outer hip back .
-Back leg: Press your inner thigh back and pull your heels together as if you can create a crease in your yoga mat.
-Stack your shoulders on top of each other.
-Keep neck in line with the spine.
-Create length through both sides of your torso by drawing your top lower ribs toward your hip bone.
-Draw your navel toward your back body.
Helpful hints & modifications: Use a yoga block on the floor to support the lower hand.
Benefits: Triangle pose engages every part of the body, strengthens the core, opens the hips and shoulders and stretches the legs.
Contraindications: Recent or chronic injury to the hips, back or shoulders.
Trikona: Triangle
Asana: Pose
Muscles Strengthened in Triangle Pose: quadriceps, hamstrings, external rotators of front leg, adductors of the back leg, transverse abdominus, obliques, rhomboids, middle trapezius, scalenes, sternocleidomastoid
Muscles Stretched in Triangle Pose: hamstrings, adductors of front leg, gluteals and tensor facia lata of the back leg, pectoralis major and minor, anterior deltoid,
