Happy Birthday Stella// Triangle Pose!
Today is my niece Stella's birthday. Happy birthday SJ!
For my niece's birthday, I signed up with Carrots n Cake and What Kate Ate for Yoga Pose May. For every day this month, different bloggers have signed up to cover a yoga pose, and talk about it in their own bloggy way. My pose? Triangle!
Triangle happen to be one of my very favoritest poses. It helps strengthen the S-I joint (Sacro-iliac), which is super important for ladies. There is lots of room for variety in triangle: Binds, positions of the arms and legs, spacing where to look with the head and neck, etc.
This last one is a big one for me. In class, I often see students straining to look up at the top hand, and so I bring up this pet peeve all the time: If it hurts your neck to look up, um, don't. I don't see how the yoga police are going to come if you look down at your big toe. When I finally stopped cranking my neck to look up, I found I could hold the pose a lot longer, because I was *no longer in pain.* I know that a lot of being able to look up has to do with positioning of the chin, neck, etc., but, for now, it just isn't worth the strain for...what? I'm not even sure. I love triangle too much to try and look "right."
Finally, Suburban Yogini loves them, too, and I love her blog. For photos of a "nontraditional" version of triangle, she has lovely images, too.
For my niece's birthday, I signed up with Carrots n Cake and What Kate Ate for Yoga Pose May. For every day this month, different bloggers have signed up to cover a yoga pose, and talk about it in their own bloggy way. My pose? Triangle!
(Photo from YogaJournal.com)
Triangle happen to be one of my very favoritest poses. It helps strengthen the S-I joint (Sacro-iliac), which is super important for ladies. There is lots of room for variety in triangle: Binds, positions of the arms and legs, spacing where to look with the head and neck, etc.
This last one is a big one for me. In class, I often see students straining to look up at the top hand, and so I bring up this pet peeve all the time: If it hurts your neck to look up, um, don't. I don't see how the yoga police are going to come if you look down at your big toe. When I finally stopped cranking my neck to look up, I found I could hold the pose a lot longer, because I was *no longer in pain.* I know that a lot of being able to look up has to do with positioning of the chin, neck, etc., but, for now, it just isn't worth the strain for...what? I'm not even sure. I love triangle too much to try and look "right."
Finally, Suburban Yogini loves them, too, and I love her blog. For photos of a "nontraditional" version of triangle, she has lovely images, too.
Triangle Pose!
For more questions about Yoga Pose May, check out Carrot's and Kate's blogs and contact them there. It looks like they may have some spaces for folks to pick up poses for the rest of May, and I'd love to see the different ways people approach poses and see them differently. As always, I see poses in a sequence, so here it is!
- Vajrasana (Diamond Pose)
- Ujayyi Pranayama (Ocean Sounding Breath)
- Table
- Cat/cow spine in table
- Extend opposite arm and leg to balance. Feel stretch along diagonal of body
- Repeat other side
- Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward Facing Dog)
- Walk feet to hands, for Uttanasana (Forward Fold)
- Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
- Yoga Mudra (Symbol of Yoga)
- Uttanasana with Yoga Mudra arms
- Coming up to standing, slight back bend
- Parsvottanasana (Intense West Stretch) with Yoga Mudra arms or reverse prayer hands
- Repeat other side
- Release hands, let them swing gently side to side
- Utthita Tadasana (Five Pointed Star
Pose) - Kaliasana (Goddess Pose)
- Move with breath between step 16 and 17
- Utthita Tadasana
- Trikonasana (Triangle Pose) (bind if you can and enjoy doing so
- Tadasana
- Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle)
- Parsvottanasana
- Low Lunge
- Vinyasa to repeat steps 18-24 on other side
- Tadasana
- Prasarita Padottanasana (Standing Wide Angle Forward Fold)
- Gentle back bend upon coming up
- Upavistha Konasana (Seated Wide Angle Pose)
- Kurmunasana (Tortoise Pose)
- Baddha Konasana (Cobbler's Pose)
- Marichyasana III (Marichi's Twist)
- Savasana (Corpse Pose)
