Inner and Outer Rotation of the Thighs and Arms

Everyone who does yoga with any kind of seriousness has some things that they constantly remind themselves to do or think about as they do yoga. It might be ujaya breathing, it might be tilting the pelvis forward in forward bends, any number of things. My favorite subtle self-adjustments are inner and outer rotations of the arms and legs.

In particular, I think it's really, really helpful to think about inner and outer rotation of the arms and legs in standing poses.

I have a general guideline for this. In the warrior 1 family poses, you rotate both thighs inward. In warrior 2 family poses, you rotate both thighs outwards.

In warrior 1, you're always working to bring the pelvis as square to the front as you can, as parallel to the front of the mat as you can. Internally rotating the legs helps you do this. For me, the back leg rotation has more of an effect, but I think for others the front leg rotation may be as important.

The other warrior 1 family poses, where you're also squaring your hips to the front, are parsvatanasana (sometimes called pyramid pose) and parivritta trikonasana, rotated triangle. Here the thigh inner rotation is revelatory, it can totally change your experience of the pose. I've had several people thank me profusely for this tip in rotated triangle.

Try this yourself in these three poses. Really rotate the thighs inward as you try to bring the back hip forward and the front hip back. Try emphasizing one thigh first, then the other, then try to combine the rotation of both legs.

In the Warrior 2 family poses, the external rotation of the thighs helps you open your hips to the side of the mat. For me, in warrior 2, the internal rotation of the front leg really helps me tuck the front sitbone under. I think about both of these at the same time -- rotate thigh out and tuck sitbone under. As I rotate the back leg I think of also pulling the back hip bone back, trying to make the hips more parallel to the side.

The other Warrior 2 poses where you focus on externally rotating the thighs are trikonasana/triangle, parsvakonasana/side angle, and arda chandrasana/half moon. (Here I mean the half-moon where you're standing on 1 leg with the other parallel to the floor and the arms open wide perpendicular to the floor. There are at least 3 totally different poses called half moon.) All 3 of these poses really benefit from the external rotation. In particular, try it in arda chandrasana. Most people think of pulling the upper hip bone back to open the hips to the side, but it's hard to do this when you're supporting all that weight on 1 leg. But if you think of externally rotating the standing leg, you'll find this is easier to do, and your hips almost magically open up to the side. I don't think the rotation of the upper leg is all that important here, it's much more important what's happening in the supporting leg.

That's basically it. I could go on more, but I don't want to bore anybody.

One thing worth noting is that in Anusara yoga, they call this Inner and Outer Spiral. Anusara drives me a little crazy in its specialized vocabulary -- I think they mean a bit more by inner and outer spiral than I mean by inner and outer rotation. I'm focusing more on the joint, the alighnment of the thigh at the hip joint, of the arm at the shoulder joint. In anusara, they want you to imagine a spiral running all the way down the leg and arm (I think! It's been a while since I studied Anusara.)

The anusara people are onto something. I do think there is more to thigh and arm rotation than what's happening at the joint, but I think focusing on the joint is fine for starters. Most of the power of the rotation happens at the joint -- the rotation of the limb really affects the mobility at the joint. So a focus on the basic inner and outer rotation at the joint is really beneficial, and maybe more accessible than the more obscure anusara-style spirals.