Frustrated by Warrior 1? These are the instructions that you can – and should be.

Warrior 1 Pose has caused existential crises in yoga students since the popularity of sticky mats and matching sets. You probably let teachers cut to find heel-to-heel lines, squadrate your hips, stop your tailbone and pull your shoulder blades along your back. And if you are a teacher, you may have spoken these words.

Of course these signals work for some of us. But after years of observing students struggled with this pose, we have learned that what is considered traditional coordination for Warrior 1 (Virabhadrasana I) simply does not work for most bodies.

The problem is that these common instructions are often repeated from one generation of yoga teachers to the next. That means outdated notions of what the pose should look like in some bodies, all students are inflicted. Not to sound alarmists, but try to force the body in a form that may not work for your anatomy, can do more harm than good.

There are ways to find stability and convenience in this form, and that is what the entire practice of yoga is about, right? It is less essential that an attitude looks in a certain way and is more important that it feels good in your body. That is why many of us continue to stand up for yoga.

So consider this complete permission to coordinate, make adjustments and choose which supports You in Warrior 1 pose.

How do you get Warrior 1 Pose

Here are some alternative ways to and experience Warrior 1 in Cue and to help you adjust the pose to create more space in the hips, to illuminate pressure in the rear knee and support the structure of your body.

1. Instead of: heel-to-heel lines

Let’s start with your foundation. The generally proposed “heel to heel” lines does not work for everyone. It is a scary attitude that was historically intended for a certain body shape with narrow hips.

Try: Place your feet in two lanes

Instead of trying to balance on a cord, you think of placing your feet in two lanes of traffic or on railway tracks. By allowing yourself or your students to broaden the space between the feet, creates more stability that most of us have to house our hips and find balance. This not only creates stability, but also allows you to have more room for the hips to turn forward.

2. Instead of: square your hips

Speaking of your hips forward, let’s talk about the cue “square your hips.” When it comes to Warrior 1, we have to let this cue go once and for all.

Warrior 1 is an asymmetrical position, which means that each side of the body does something else. With one foot forward and the other foot further back, the hips will never be “square” at the front of the mat.

That is because Warrior 1 ensures that the hindleg is turned externally. When you try to fight the hips, you actually encourage the rear thigh to rotate internally, which is the equivalent of transferring tension to the knees and hips and inviting pain.

Yet we often see students who try to find this fictional coordination because they have heard the cue so often. As a result, they turn their pelvis in an attempt to find an impossible shape. And that can cause tension, discomfort, even pain in the hips, knees and spine.

Trying to force this alignment also has a tendency to throw students out of balance while the rear hift and the spine bowing over. This means that you lose access to certain benefits of the pose that emphasizes strength, stability and opening.

Try: bring your back to the front

Instead, gently try to pull back on your hip and roll your rear shift forward. When your hips stop rotating, that’s it. You’re done! You don’t have to do anything more than that.

3. Instead of: stop your tail bone

Let’s talk about the spine. You want to keep his natural curve. Do not appear on your tail bone as you are Urkel Or at the point to dance the limbo. Unless you have an excessive arc in your lower back that would benefit from gently extending your cum down, can create the stitching of the cocission unnecessary hip tension or even limit your breathing.

Try: keep the natural curve of your spine

If you bend yourself or students unnatural and dramatically the spine, you can concentrate on drawing the front of the rib cage down or bring the spine back to neutral. Otherwise, leave the spine alone.

4. Instead of: Draw your shoulder blades down

Can we finally agree that when you lift your arms, you also have to let the shoulders lift with them? That is what the shoulder blade or shoulder blades do. They are literally designed to raise when lifting your arms.

Try: let your shoulders rise

Whether you are in Warrior 1 or another pose with arms that reach along your head, it is not necessary to pull them down. This creates tension in the muscles, ligaments and even nerves of the arms and neck. Let them be.

So the next time you are in Warrior 1, remember: two-riding strips of highway feet, no output of the hips, not a stop of the cum and shoulders that come up like the sun. See how that feels. You have this.