The Warrior 2 Family of Poses

The poses in the Warrior 2 Family all have the torso and the hips facing the side of the mat as much as possible. As in Warrior 2, the front foot is generally facing forward, and the back foot facing the side, and the head is generally turned to face one side or another. Here are the main Warrior 2 family poses.

Virabadrasana 2 / Warrior 2

This pose is stranger and harder than post people realize. I've been doing yoga for 14 years, and I'm still working on my Warrior 2. As with Warrior 1, the reason these became essential poses is because they are so complex.

Let's be clear -- almost no one can bring their hips facing the side 100%. You have to have crazy external rotation openness in the front hip to fully square the hips to the side. Think about it this way -- stand on one leg, and bend the lifted knee deeply. Now, bring this knee out to the side. Can you bring the knee all the way to the side, fully 90 degrees from the front? Almost no one can. Now in Warrior 2, the knee is definitely to the front -- so what happens is that the back hip comes forward a little. And maybe a lot. And we're always working on getting that hip back. But remember to keep the front knee over the foot -- don't twist at the knee trying to open the hips more.

Since we internally rotate the thighs on Warrior 1 family poses, it's no surprise that we externally rotate the thighs in Warrior 2 family poses. We do it without thinking, when we open the hips moving into Warrior 2 from Warrior 1. But when you're in the pose, there's a more subtle external rotation going on, one that you can really work on.

It's really only the front leg that needs to externally rotate a lot in this pose. Because that foot is facing directly to the side, right? The back foot is facing almost the same direction as the torso and hips, so external rotation is no so important here. (But I think it doesn't hurt to externally rotate it a little.)

When you're in Warrior 2, front knee bent deeply, you might think, "dude, how on earth do I externally rotate my thigh while I have so much weight on it?" There are a couple ways to think about this. First, think of the sit bone on that side, try to think of "tucking it under". This may make sense to you, or it may not.

Another trick to find the external rotation that I really like I got from the same Shiva Rea DVD where I first heard about the "families" of poses. She talked about "Pada Bhanda", which i guess means "foot bhanda" or "foot lock". To find Pada Bhanda in Warrior 2. try to energetically rotate the front foot, bringing the heel towards the center, the pinky toe towards the outside. (If you have the right foot forward, think of "dialing" or "spinning" the foot clockwise; if the left foot is forward, think of dialing or spinning the foot counter-clockwise. Because the foot is on the sticky mat with all that weight on it, it won't move, but you will almost certainly feel a rotation of the thigh, and you'll feel that front sit bone tucking under.

There are other important things going on in Warrior 2, but I'll save those for another time. Now let's get tosome other poses in the family, and we'll see what they have in common.

Trikonasana / Triange

I always like to bring people into triangle from Warrior 2, because the feet, legs, and pelvis are then already in correct alignment. You straighten the front leg, but you maintain the orientation of legs, feet and pelvis. And the other big family trait you keep in trikonasana is strong external rotation of the front thigh. This external rotation really, really makes a difference in this pose, and it's actually easier to access in Triangle than it is in Warrior 2.

You can do Pada Banda in Triangle just as you do in Warrior 2 -- "dial" the front foot clockwise if it's the right foot, "dial" it counter-clockwise if it's the left foot. In this pose you're really feel the thigh rotate when you do this trick with the foot, and you'll feel the sitbone tuck under.

Another nice thing to do in this pose to find the external rotation once you're in the pose is to use your hand to assist the rotation. Take the top arm behind the back and reach the hand to the top of the front thigh. Then just use the hand to try to rotate the thigh externally. And at the same time, try to tuck the front sitbone under, squaring your hips more to the side. In addition to rotating your thigh, this little trick helps you open the torso to the side as well.

(Side note -- since almost no one can fully square their hips to the side in warrior 2 or trikonasana, almost everyone is doing a bit of a twist in this pose. Because the shoulders generally are squared to the side, and if the shoulders are squared and the hips are not, there's a twist there somewhere. But for some reason, no one ever seems to talk about the twist in Trikonasana.)

Parsvakonasana / Side Angle Pose

Side angle pose is pretty much what you get when you cross Trikonasana and Warrior 2, so it's no surprise they're in the same pose family. You can get get into side angle from either Trikonasana or Warrior 2, among other ways We usually go into it from Warrior 2 -- moving the front arm forward and then down to move into the pose. But you can just as easily get into side angle from Trikonasana -- all you need to do is bend the front knee, and you're right there.

Since the knee is bent in Side Angle, as in Warrior 2, it's harder to access the external rotation of the thigh than it is in trikonasana. You can do the Pada Bhanda trick in this pose, as in the others, to help you find the rotation. You can also do the trick with the top arm grabbing the thigh, as in Trikonasana, although it's a little harder to get since the body is more in the way in Side Angle.

Arda Chandrasana / Half Moon Pose

Arda Chandrasana is one of my favorite poses. A great way to think of this pose involves rotating your perspective 90 degrees. Think of your torso, pelvis, head, neck, and standing leg as all in nice simple, basic alignment, as if you were standing. Except you're standing sideways, with one leg completely out to the side. As it turns out, you're actually standing on that leg out to the side, but the rest of your body should be in alignment as if you were standing upright on an invisible wall underneath the lifted foot.

It's worth running with this mental image a little. In fact, think of yourself standing upright on the actual ground, perpendicular to a wall. You take the leg on the side facing the wall, and lift it straight out to the side pressed into the wall, with the toes pointed straight up. There's your alignment in this pose.

Unfortunately most of us can't really bring our leg out directly to the side lifted at hip level. Lord knows I can't. So in Arda Chandrasana, our top pelvis isn't really perpendicular to the floor (most of us, that is). But what we're working towards is getting it as perpendicular as we can. And once again, external rotation of the thigh is the key to this for most of us.

In Arda Chandrasana, you can also try to access Pada Bhanda, energetically rotating your foot outwards. It's possible, but difficult, to do the manual rotation of the bottom thigh with your top hand. It's hard because you're balancing, right? And if you're not balancing, you've probably got your back against a wall. But if you've got good balance, you can reach for the bottom thigh with the top hand. You can also start in side angle with the top hand on the thigh, and then move into arda chandrasana keeping the hand there. But this is pretty difficult to do, so I would just try to work with the Pada Bhanda trick.

That's all I have for now on the warrior 2 poses. There will be more to come, for sure.