Posing on Tuesday; Reverse Warrior

Aaaaaaand we're back! Apologies to my dedicated pose breakdown readers. Last week I wasn't feeling reverse warrior, so I asked T to take some shots of me in a different - more exciting - pose.  They didn't turn out and I had positioned myself poorly.
It was a reminder to me that I am still growing as a yoga practitioner and that just because I did something correctly once doesn't mean I won't mess it up every now and then in the future.

So, today, we are back to the poses in the dancing warrior sequence with

REVERSE WARRIOR
(Viparita Virabhadrasana)


We were in Warrior 2. On the inhale, turn the front palm up, exhale and lean/stretch back towards the back of the room. When just starting out, I suggest you let your back palm fall to a comfortable place on your back leg. Try to avoid the knee as that would put unnecessary pressure on the joint.

The next arm option is to reach the bottom arm toward the front of the room.

It doesn't really matter which direction your hand is facing, but if you are having trouble with your balance in this pose, try bringing your thumb and index finger together in this classically classy mudra.

The final arm option is to wrap your bottom arm around your back - like you're trying to reach all the way around and grab the inside of your front thigh - and take a second to wave hello to Panda.

Important things to remember in reverse warrior:

1) This is a side stretch. Try to keep your torso facing the side wall and your hips squared in the same direction to keep this from becoming a back bend.

2) Keep the front knee tracking out over the front middle toe. There is a tendency for the knee to collapse inward. To avoid this, try to feel your weight transfer to the outside edge of your front foot. This will help keep your knee up straight.

3) Think of stretching upward and to the back corner of the room instead of backward to the back wall. The goal of this pose is to stretch the front-facing side of the body without crunching or collapsing into the back side-body.

Tadaaaaaaa! Reverse warrior! Next week is right angle pose and all of its glorious excitement and options - but we'll talk about that when we get there.

I hope this was helpful for you! :)