The Warrior 1 Family of Poses

As I noted in the last post, you can speak of the Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 "Families" of poses. I do this a lot when I teach class, I think it's really useful. You can extend your knowledge and insight and intuition from one pose to a related pose. For instance, if I'm in parsvatanasana, I can think of the things I do in Warrior 1 to improve my experience in that pose, and I can try to apply them to parsvatanasana, a pose in the Warrior 1 family.

Without further ado, here are the main poses in the Warrior 1 Family:

Virabadrasana 1 / Warrior 1
Parsvatanasana / Intense Side Stretch a.k.a. Pyramid Pose
Parivritta Trikonasana / Rotated Triangle
Parivritta Parsvakonasana / Rotated Side Angle

There are of course variations of all these, and other more advanced or obscure poses that might be considered part of the Warrior 1 Family. But these will do for now, since most of us do these poses all the time.

The most basic thing these poses share is that the pelvis is squared to the front as much as possible. All of them, except Rotated Side Angle, are generally done with the back heel down as well. You can do Rotated Side Angle with that heel down as well, which probably makes it a bit more like the others.

Here are the things I like to think about in the Warrior 1 Family of poses.

1) The biggest thing, that every teacher says every time -- square your pelvis to the front, bringing the hip of the front leg back, and the hip of the back leg forward as much as you can. For most of these poses it's even more helpful to think of bringing the front sitbone back, and the back sitbone forward. This is especially true in the forward bending variations -- Parsvatanasana and Rotated Triangle.

2) You actually want to push away from your front foot, almost like you were trying to slide it forward on your sticky mat. This will bring the hip/sitbone on that side back.

3) At the same time, you want to push away from your back foot, as if trying to slide it back on the mat. This will help bring the hip/sitbone on that side forward. Part of this action of pushing back on the back foot is pushing the outside of the foot into the ground. This also involves internal rotation of the thigh, which is number (5) below.

4) Combining (2) and (3), it's like your trying to slide your feet apart from each other. (Don't try too hard, because surely it's possible, and then you'll fall down. It's an energetic thing -- you put as much energy into the action as is reasonable to get the action you're trying to get in the alignment of your pelvis.)

5) Internally rotate both thighs. This is a subtle thing, and it's effect is subtle, but it's important, especially as you get more advanced in your practice. By internally rotating your thighs, you almost inevitably square your pelvis more to the front.

Getting to Know Internal Rotation of the Thighs

I highly recommend experimenting with this internal rotation of the thighs. Use your hands even. Just stand with your feet in Warrior 1 position, both legs straight. Take one hand to each thigh. Start by externally rotating each thigh. What happens? Your pelvis moves to face the side more. Then internally rotate each thigh? What happens? Your pelvis moves to face the front more. When you do it like this, standing with straight legs, it's really, really obvious the effect. It's a little more subtle when you've got the bent knee in front and a lot of weight on it, but it's really important nonetheless.

That's probably enough for now. I will also discuss each of these poses in more detail separately at some later point. Stay tuned!

The Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 "Families" of Poses

Here's a concept that I like a lot, that I use all the time in my classes. I have never heard a teacher in class mention this -- I got it from a Shiva Rea DVD. I did take one class from Shiva Rea in Santa Monica, but it didn't come up.

So she mentions certain poses belonging to either the Warrior 1 or Warrior 2 "Families" of poses. I'm pretty sure this refers to just standing poses.

I really like thinking of the poses this way, because it helps you see what the poses have in common. And you can transfer things you know or do or think or whatever from one pose to the other. For instance, in Warrior 1 I push the sitbone of the front leg back. I do the same in Parsvatanasana, a member of that family.

The split is incredibly obvious. Warrior 1 Family poses all have your hips facing the front of the mat, as much as possible. The Warrior 2 Family poses all have your hips facing the side of the mat, again, as much as possible.

I'm going to do separate posts on each of the families, talking about the things the members of the families have in common. But quickly, I'll mention the basic poses that fall in each family. Of course there are variations and obscure poses that I won't mention, but these are the ones that we do over and over.

Warrior 1 Family
-- Virabadrasana 1 / Warrior 1
-- Parsvatanasana / Pyramid Pose
-- Parivritta Trikonasana / Rotated Triangle
-- Parivritta Parsvakonasana / Rotated Side Angle

Warrior 2 Family
-- Virabadrasana 2 / Warrior 2
-- Trikonasana / Triangle
-- Parsvakonasana / Side Angle
-- Arda Chandrasana / Half Moon