Fitness Friday - Triangle Yoga Pose

Today we are back to another Fitness Friday and I have decided to return to looking at yoga poses.  Triangle pose is my current favorite yoga pose and has been one of my favorite poses since I first did yoga last summer.  Triangle pose is one of the standing postures that is contained in the Primary Series and one of the first standing postures that is learned in a Level One yoga class.

The following steps are used when getting into Triangle pose...

- Stand in Tadasana.  With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart.  Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.

- Turn your left foot in slightly to the right directly over the plane of the right leg, bending from the hip joint, not the waist.  Anchor this movement by strengthening the left leg and pressing the outer heel firmly to the floor.  Rotate the torso to the left, keeping the two sides equally long.  Let the left hip come slightly forward and lengthen the tailbone toward the back heel.

- Exhale and extend your torso to the right directly over the plane of the right leg, bending from the hip joint, not the waist.  Anchor this movement by strengthening the left leg and pressing the outer heel firmly to the floor.  Rotate the torso to the left, keeping the two sides equally long.  Let the left hip come slightly forward and lengthen the tailbone toward the back heel.

- Rest your right hand on your shin, ankle, or floor outside your right foot, whatever is possible without distorting the sides of the torso.  Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling, in line with the tops of your shoulders.  Keep your head in a neutral position or turn it to the left, eyes gazing softly at the left thumb.

- Stay in this pose from thirty seconds to one minute.  Inhale to come up, strongly pressing the back heel into the floor and reaching the top arm toward the ceiling.  Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

Blocks can be used to modify this pose as needed and the hand can be placed anywhere from the shin to the floor.  I tend to prefer wrapping my hand around my ankle and playing with my balance.  I will admit that I fell backwards the first few times that I tried this version of the pose and trying this variation of the pose was actually harder than initially learning the pose itself.  I have been all about playing with my balance lately and trying to deepen poses so I really enjoyed challenging myself with that modification.

Another modification to challenge your balance is leaning backwards in the pose versus keeping yourself with a straight back.  I have tried doing a slight back bend while in this pose but I don't love this type of modification.

I think that I will be back on the yoga pose train for the next few Fitness Fridays...

photo courtesy of Yoga Journal