Most Standing Poses are Remarkably Related to Each Other

Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Triangle, Side Angle, and Half Moon are all connected

Yoga is a wonderful way to cross train and strength train as you age. You can build and maintain muscle mass, bone density, and work on stabilizing your balance. Standing yoga poses strengthen your legs, core, glutes, back, and shoulders, while increasing your ability to balance in different orientations to the floor.

While in some standing poses your spine is vertical, in others your torso is sideways which challenges your proprioception. Practicing standing yoga poses improves your ability to move through your world with strength and ease. This post will discuss how and why to practice Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Triangle Pose, Extended Side Angle Pose and Half Moon pose.

One thing I love about teaching yoga is helping people understand alignment principles that apply to multiple poses. Once you learn them, you can understand all of the poses and how to do them effectively and efficiently.

Warrior 2 is a pose whose alignment principles will help you in Triangle pose, Extended Side Angle pose, and in Half Moon pose, as these are all variations on Warrior 2.

• Triangle is Warrior 2 with a straight front leg.
• Extended Side Angle is Warrior 2 (legs) + Triangle (pelvic tip and rib rotation) + Warrior 1 (upper arm placement)
• Half Moon is Triangle pose (which is based on Warrior 2) standing with only 1 leg on the floor instead of 2.

Warrior 1/Virabhadrasana 1

This pose is the only forward facing pose of these four poses and works the glutes and legs in a slightly different way.

Stand with your right foot facing straight ahead and your left foot about a leg’s length behind the right foot, with your left foot angled to the left about 45 degrees. Line up the right heel in front of the left heel. Press your left foot firmly into the floor, paying special attention to the outer edge of the foot and heel. This should activate your left quads and glutes.

Keeping the weight on your left foot, press your right knee forward while keeping your shoulders over your hips. Your right knee will land over your right ankle. Raise your arms upward, palms facing each other. Slide the shoulder blades downward (depression) and apart (protraction) so that you can see your biceps in your peripheral vision. Your hips are trying to face forward, but they will be facing on a slight diagonal to the left. Your left thigh is rotating outward as your left hip presses forward. Hold for 5-10 breaths then repeat on the other side.

Benefits

This pose strengthens the glutes, quads, and connects our foot into the floor, giving us more stability when we stand. You are also activating the pelvic floor and lower abdominals as your pelvis and torso move toward being vertical. You are strengthening the shoulders, lats, and lower trapezius muscles as you hold and stabilize the arms overhead, with some activity in the biceps. All of these muscles are important for maintaining good posture and balance.

Warrior 2/Virabhadrasana 2

This pose is more similar to the next 2 poses as it is a lateral (side) facing pose, rather than front facing.

Starting in Warrior 1, press your right knee to the right (to keep it over your ankle) and rotate your left hip to the left as far as it will go without allowing your right knee to slide to the left. Your pelvis will not be flat to the side, it will aim on a more open diagonal. Your shoulders and chest, however, will face flat to the left.

Press your arms downward to be horizontal, parallel to the floor. Feel the shoulder blades moving downward (depression) and apart (protraction) as if you could reach your shoulder blades outward to touch your fingertips. Palms face the floor. Gaze toward your right third finger. Stay 5-10 breaths then repeat to the other side.

Benefits

Similar to Warrior 1, this pose builds strength in the glutes, but activates the glutes’ rotational and abduction abilities, rather than the hip extension in Warrior 1. It also builds strength in the quads, pelvic floor, lower abdominals, spinal erectors, and lower traps and lats. There is also a little more tricep action. This pose requires a little more balance, as our gaze is not in the direction that our hips are facing. The more you connect the feet into the floor, the better your balance will be.

Triangle Pose/Trikonasana

From Warrior 2, press your right heel into the floor to straighten your right leg. Activate the quads to prevent hanging into your knee joint or hyperextending the knees. Rotate your palms to face outward toward the left side of your mat, and tip the pelvis toward the front of your mat. Your right hip should be lower than your left, relative to the floor, and the spine should be straight. The more you tip the pelvis, the more you feel the stretch in the hamstrings.

Press the feet into the floor as you lift upward through the knees and quads. Glutes are working as in Warrior 2, focusing on outward/lateral rotation of the thighs. Press the ball of the right big toe into the floor as the right thigh rotates to the right, aiming the knee toward the second and third toes. Press the outer edge (the side with the 5th toe) of the left foot firmly into the floor. Rotate the gaze upward toward your left thumb, and rotate the left ribs toward the ceiling. If this bothers your neck, feel free to gaze outward or downward toward your right thumb.

Stay 5-10 breaths then repeat on the left.

Benefits

Triangle pose creates strength, mobility, and balance. You build strength in the quads, glutes, obliques, spinal erectors, pelvic floor, lower abdominals, and all of the upper body muscles as Warrior 2, while creating a great stretch for the hamstrings of the front leg. The balance challenge comes from tipping the pelvis to the side and looking upward. You really need to tune into the feet pressing against the floor.

Extended Side Angle Pose/Uttitha Parsvakonasana

This pose is a beautiful combination of the previous 3 poses: The legs of Warrior 2, the pelvic tilt and spinal rotation of Triangle, and the extended arm position of Warrior 1.

From Triangle pose, bend your front knee over your right ankle, like Warrior 2. Reach your left arm toward the front of your mat in a diagonal line extending from your left foot. Rotate your 5th finger toward the floor so that the left shoulder blade protracts (moves away from the spine), like Warrior 1. Press your right elbow against your right thigh, moving your rib cage away from the thigh to prevent collapsing into the right shoulder. Press your right knee to the right to keep it over your right ankle. Rotate your spine to the left to gaze upward, like in Triangle pose.

Hold 5-10 breaths, then repeat to the left.

Benefits

This pose combines the benefits of all the other poses, with the exception of the hamstring stretch, and the addition of an adductor (inner thigh) stretch. Glutes, obliques, quads, pelvic floor, lower abdominals, spinal erectors, etc.

Click here to watch a video that guides you through these 4 poses!

Half Moon pose/Ardha Chandrasana

Half Moon is Triangle pose but I moved the floor (I have that power…). All the alignment principles from Triangle pose apply, including the pressure outward through the back leg, which in this pose, becomes the lifted leg.

Start in Extended Side Angle pose on your right side (right foot forward). If you have a yoga block handy, place it about a foot in front of your right 5th toe. Shift 80% of your weight onto your right foot, keeping the knee and toes pointing directly forward toward the front of your mat.

Press downward through your right foot to straighten the leg, activating the quads and glutes. Feel the outward rotation in your right hip which causes your left hip to rotate to the left, just like in Warrior 2 and Triangle poses. Lift your left leg, rotating the thigh and toes to the left, pressing the heel of your left foot actively toward the back of your mat.

To start, gaze downward toward your right thumb. To increase the challenge, you can gaze outward to the left or upward toward your left thumb, just like in Triangle pose. Feel the right thigh rotating to the right as your ribcage rotates to the left.

Hold 5-10 breaths (if you fall over, so be it!) then repeat on the left.

Benefits

This pose has all of the core, leg, and glute strengthening benefits, with that added bonus of challenging your balance. It can be challenging enough to balance on one leg while vertical, but when you shift your orientation to the floor, it adds a whole new level. Read more about Triangle and Half Moon in the post “Balancing When You Turn Yourself Sideways.”

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