Warrior III

2/15/2021

21 Q2 06

Warrior II (Virabhadrasana III)

Step by step

From Mountain Pose, step your right foot forward, moving into a Stepping Forward Stance. Turn your left foot out slightly to assist with balance. Track heel to heel, so you're not standing on a tightrope.
Square your hips towards the top of your mat (the short end).
Raise your arms overhead, so the upper arms are beside your ears. Have your wrists above the shoulder joints, or touch palms.
Activate your core by lifting your pelvic floor muscles (Mula Bandha) and drawing the lower belly in and up (Uddiyana Bandha).
As you exhale, hinge at the hips, lowering your torso and arms a little so that they're at a diagonal.
Focus on a point on the floor just in front of your mat.
As you inhale, root down through the front foot and draw your weight forwards, raising the back foot from the floor ~ just a little.
Straighten the standing leg as you ease your upper body and left leg parallel to the floor.
Keep your hips level. Point the toes of your raised foot down to the floor.
Engage your standing leg, without locking the knee.
Extend out through the raised foot and the hands.
Stay for 5 breaths.
To come out of the pose, bend the standing leg as you exhale and step back into High Lunge, with control.
As you inhale, step back to Mountain Pose (Tadasana).
Repeat on the other side.

Beginners’ tips

Practise this pose with your hands against a wall, or the back of a tall chair, or resting on a couple of yoga bricks. This will allow you to get used to the actions in the body while helping with balance.
Keeping the standing knee bent a little will help with balance.
Think about sending a line of expression out through the back foot to keep it light and lifted.
Lift the inner arch of the foot and the inner ankle.
Engaging the lower belly will help with stability.

Benefits

Warrior III Pose strengthens the legs, arms, back and core muscles.
Works the small muscles of the feet and ankles.
Improves balance and focus.
Teaches body awareness and proprioception as you learn to adjust your own position in space.

Watch out for...

Locking or hyperextending the knee of the standing leg. Keep a slight bend in the knee if you are prone to this.
It’s common for the hip of the raised leg to lift up. Try to keep the hips level with each other by rotating the inner thigh of the raised leg upwards and rolling the outer hip downwards.

Variations

Experiment with your arms in different positions: out to the sides in a T shape or diagonally behind you, or pressing the palms together either in front of the chest or behind the back.
The foot of the lifted leg can be flexed, pointed or ‘flointed’ (pressing through the ball of the foot while keeping the toes back).
For some people turning out the toes of the standing leg a little before coming into balance is more comfortable.

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