How to do: Triangle Yoga PoseTriangle Pose  (The Sanscrit name is Trikonasana)

How to do it

From standing (Tadasana), step your right foot out to the side with your feet between 1 and 1 ½ legs width apart. Rotate your right (front) leg out 90 degrees and then turn in your back toes about 45 degrees. Check your front heel is in line with the arch of your back foot (or heel to heel if you would like a bit more stability). Take an inhale and on the exhale lengthen your torso over the front leg, keeping your belly firm, and place your front hand on your shin (or on an upturned block next to your front little toe). Inhale and extend the left (back) arm up towards the ceiling and stretch through the fingertips. Continue to hold with smooth in- and exhales. On your inhales focus on the stretch and lift, and on your exhales focus on grounding into the floor.

When you’re ready, press through the back foot and lift the torso upright. You can then press into the back foot and step back into your standing pose and repeat on the other side.

 

Coming into and out of the pose

You would usually step into Triangle from your standing pose, Tadasana. To come out of the pose you can step back into standing, or you could also come into Downard Dog by lowering your hands to either side of the front foot and coming onto the ball of the back foot, then stepping the front foot back to Downward Dog. Another idea would be to bring the torso up from Triangle, adjust both feet to face forward (you may want to separate them a little further) and come into a wide leg standing forward bend. Play around with the options!

 

Other tips

To make Triangle more accessible, if you are a beginner, you can slightly bend your front knee and bring your front forearm to your front thigh instead. You could also rest your top hand on your back hip, rather than extend it upwards.

Some yoga schools prefer Triangle to practiced as if you’re ‘flat’ and sandwiched between two sheets of glass – ie with the whole body in one line, however, others suggest that if you allow your upper hip to turn in slightly towards the floor, you will feel it’s much easier to extend and lengthen your lower torso and you’ll feel more space in the upper body.

 

What’s it good for?

Triangle is great for improving your balance and strengthening the thigh, knee and ankle. It also builds core strength and flexibility. It’s a wonderful pose in which to explore the opposing directions of ‘grounding’ (through the feet) and ‘lifting’ (through the upper fingertips) to create more space.

 

When should you not do it?

Don’t practice Triangle if you have knee, hip or ankle injuries or if you have balance issues or difficulty standing.

 

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