Yoga Warrior 1 Pose

Video Transcript

"The next part of any yoga practice usually for Asana is Warrior I or Virabhadrasana I. What you'll do as start out, you can either step either foot in front of you or then step the other foot back behind you. So you get into a nice lunge position. Men's hips are a little more narrow than women's hips so you may need to adjust according to what your hip width is, cause the main goal and the fullest expression of this posture is actually turning the hip points forward. If you find that once you start to turn them forward that you need to walk your foot out, that's okay. The most important part of this posture is to make sure you have the right alignment. There is no right or wrong, as to how deep you can get, it's all about honoring where you are. But you need to make sure that the alignment is good so you don't injure any of your joints, and your knees and hips will thank you later. So what you want to do when you're in this position of face forward is make sure that this knee is not pulling inward or outward. You want to have a nice grounded weight through your foot; therefore, you have a nice line with your knee. The other important part about this posture, after you figure out the alignment of where your knee is tracking, then you want to make sure you have a nice angle here, taking care not to go over the shin, but keeping it in line with the ankle. The other part about Warrior I is turning the foot out slightly. So you don't want it pointing back too far but have it turn in just slightly. Having the weight not pulled through the foot back this way, but having it press the outside of the foot towards the ground, keeping the toes spread nice and wide. The other important part is if you lift the toes up, you can check where the weight is on your foot, and then you can let the toes release. A nice way to think of the energy in your upper body, after you turn your hips forward, so you'll have to turn that foot in slightly, think of the energy your body being centered, vertebrae stacking one on top of the other. Hip points forward and arms come up. Again, letting the shoulders shrug up and then back, will give them a nice locked in position. You may see people do this with their hands, they fold their fingers and keep it up, but if that's too much on your shoulders, you can keep your arms open nice and wide. And then think of the thigh bone pushing back and length coming down through that leg. And that is the fullest expression of Warrior I."