This week's post is a continuation of the last post 'Improving Triangle Pose'. We go deeper into the explanation of why the distance between the legs and the height of the hand are so important for many a beginner and intermediate students. In addition we see how this all ties back to yoga philosophy.
Reason One: To maintain an open chest
One of the main reasons mentioned prior, was to maintain an open chest.
It should be no secret that the breathing techniques are extremely important in yoga. As such, it is introduced in many a beginner class in a variety of ways. In some schools of yoga, the breath is first laced within a flowing sequence of postures. In other schools of yoga, a full fledged Pranayama practice is introduced from day one. In Iyengar yoga, the importance of breath first manifests itself by aligning the pose so that chest is open and the breath can be full.
Opening the chest then, should take priority over everything else. Reviewing the sets of pictures from the last blog post, will quickly reveal how the chest opens up in the final set, where the legs are wider apart and the hand is higher. In the case of Triangle Pose then, widening the stance and introducing a block or chair for the front hand is a good option. It is all depends of the direction of the center of the practitioner's chest. Is it pointing directly outward or is it pointing down to the floor?. The former, of course, is ideal.
Reason Two: To allow the torso and head to turn freely
Triangle Pose is a twist. It is often thought of just a standing pose, but there must be some revolution of the torso and head for the pose to be done correctly. As with all twists the spine must be extended before twisting can begin. Creating more distance between the legs allows the the torso to extend and the twist to be deeper. At the same time it becomes more therapeutic for the neck and shoulders.
To see if you twist enough in Triangle Pose pose, see if while in the pose, the lower side of the torso is directly above the top of the front leg. This way you practice self-study or Svadhyaya.
Reason Three: To find Tadasana in the posture
The third reason underscores one of the understated aims of yoga: and that is, to find Tadasana (Mountain Pose) in every posture.
The picture below will illustrate how Tadasana can be found in Triangle Pose.
The back leg is the standing, or Tadasana leg. The chest is open, and facing forward, just like in Tadasana. In any other variation of the pose (see last blog post's pictures), Tadasana can not easily be found, as the chest closes and the back leg wanes.
Not only is this important from a physical stand point, but from a mental standpoint as well. The question is, Can we maintain the steadiness of mind, the focus, the alertness that Tadasana requires, in every single posture? Can we then carry that over into life, and be as present in every situation that we find ourselves in? We will expand a little more on this in a future blog post but that is the question many of the standing poses ask.
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| Utthita Trikonasana - Finding Tadasana in the pose |
Reason Four: To allow the legs to work correctly
The fourth main reason for the alignment mentioned in the last post is to make the legs work correctly. I will again demonstrate with pictures.
One of the missions of the front leg in this pose, is to teach the hip opening action that is found in more advanced poses such as Padmasana. There are several ways to experience it:
1) Turning the knee to the little toe side of the foot.
2) Rotating of the thigh muscle to the outer hip.
3) Rotating the front buttock well underneath, until the sit bone is in line with the heel.
Regardless of the action(s) you are familiar with, they all results in the same thing: the rotation of the front femur (the thigh bone) in its socket.
If the pose is too narrow, the back leg is disturbed by these actions. The back thigh tends to pop forward and the back knee tends to bend. This happens because the legs don't have enough room to work independently. Then the back leg looses its 'tadasana-likeness' and the groins get compressed.
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Utthita Trikonasana - actions to rotate the front thigh bone in socket. Notice the back thigh wants to pop forward. Taking the legs wider will begin to address that.
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So in many cases, to allow the legs to work independently, without affecting the potential contribution of each other, they must be further apart.
Yoga Philosophy and Triangle Pose
Now just to touch briefly on how the suggestions made in this blog post tie back to the philosophies of yoga. Remember in Iyengar yoga, the intention is to reach a meditative state within each posture, regardless of the level of the practitioner.
Its a little bit different from other forms of yoga where asanas are done and then meditation follows. In fact this is one of the reasons the poses are held so much longer. The idea is that if we can meditate in each of the 600 postures identified in modern yoga, then we can meditate in any situation in life.
To reach a meditative there are certain requirements. Here are just a few:
1) The mind must be free of fluctuations (vrittis) - physical discomfort is one possible source of distraction hence the emphasis on having them removed.
2) An alert mind - hence the attention on attaining a 'tadasana-like' state of mind.
3) Self-study - hence the encouragement to align the pose from within.
4) A steady full breath - hence the priority given to opening the chest.
Once modifications in general move us closer to a meditative state, then the aim of yoga is being achieved.
Summary
Observing the suggestion 'Step Wider, Go Higher', Triangle Pose can move from just being a hamstring stretch, as the hand reaches to the floor, to opening up the possibilities that it could be much more. With the correct adjustment for the practitioners level, it could be a hip opening, chest building, neck freeing, leg strengthening experience as well. More importantly, it is one way (not the only way) of moving closer to the aim of yoga.
That is not to say that the hand must never reach the floor. It simply is not the first priority. Most importantly, it should not be done at the expense of all the actions and benefits here mentioned.