Hot Yoga Pose Forums > Chapter: Trikonasana
When memorizing this pose, I started thinking about the difference between 'press' and 'push'. You're pressing the knee back with the elbow, but you're also pushing the elbow against the knee - isn't this just the same thing, creating the torque for the torso?
I guess my question is about the knee - when does it move? With the 'press' or with the 'push'?
KristinaS
I personally have a particular affinity for the word press. It gives me the impression of a less forceful movement. You feel a pinch in your hips when you do this pose right... I got that recently.
AlexandriaS
This pose is fascinating to me. So many opposing parts--pushing the knee back with the elbow while pressing the knee against the elbow, pushing the outer corners of both feet away from each other while pulling the inner corners towards the center of the body, stretching your arms in equal and opposite directions, opening one hip while tucking in the other. I imagine if one was to exactly balance all opposing forces, they would simply float in blissful stillness and enlightenment.
Laura
Whether you say press or push (I find the movement the same but on a subtle level, "press" feels I'm flowing deeper into the movement while "push" feels like I'm fighting some imaginary resistance), constantly activating elbow against knee thrusts your chest forward, your hips back, and puts your upper body into a slight twist - yet another of those opposition forces you mention Laura, this time upper body twisting/lifting, lower body grounded and stable. Another great tip is to align your ear (the one inline with the downward-pulling arm) with the wall directly in front of it - this subtle movement turns the head and again thrusts the chest forward, re-energizing you in the pose with more upper body twist thing. I do love this pose - but only after I learned where the energy of it is: the chest!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Keeping my thigh parallel to the floor helps my arms 'windmill' into position without curving my spine down to make the elbow to knee contact.
Pressing elbow to knee, doesn’t feel like a 'hip opener' as an 'upper body twister' - it’s twisted deeper to face the extended knee and wall. This helps plant chin to shoulder and look up to fingertips.
Rhonda - can you divulge more the belly-thrusting and pinched shoulder blades? I don’t know what I’m supposed to be feeling as a result. I lose this when my foot twists forward to bend my leg down. Tips?
Melina
Melina, the set up move of "chest and belly forward, shoulder blades pinched back" is a marvelous alignment-before-movement I learned from Master Teacher Mary Jarivs who healed her entire spine after a motorcycle accident left her in constant pain and with advice to have her spinal cord cut (which would have left her paraplegic). When someone like this tells you a secret, you listen!
The chest/belly/shoulderblades set up throws your weight properly before you move. You can do it again after pivoting on the heels, and, once in the pose you can regain this alignment as follows:
Push the elbow against the knee for leverage;
then thrust the chest forward and UP
Chin toward the shoulder, "pulling" the ear towards the side doors
Now STRETCH UP and see how many inches you grow!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Question: Should the arms on the downward side of the windmill reach for the big and second toes or the outer toes as the Masterclass book instructs? Or does it matter?
Mallory Maier
Aimee you are going to end up with the first two fingers between the big and second toe....but you should almost not get there. If you aim to place the fingers first, you will invariably sink too low. Keep stretching both arms and eventually the fingers will reach but once they do, thats just your cue to stretch up more.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Oooooh the feet slide! I remember struggling with that ages ago. I still however need to watch my foot alignment - my back foot specifically. I definitely need to be aware of even distribution of the weight to both feet and not just the front.
HeatherS
Heather: try also pressing the weight onto the OUTER edge of the foot behind you. You may not realize til you do that the outer edge is off the mat. Grounding that helps distribute the weight more evenly and keep you more stable.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
I have never really paid much attention to where my fingertips on my downward windmill are. I have always just looked for my "triangles" and that my thigh is parallel to the floor. Next class I am going to look and see where my fingers are at.
Gabby
I do notice you glancing in the side mirrors in poses, Gabby. It can be nice to see those triangles for a brief second but I recommend mostly keeping your gaze steady and forward in all poses; less gidgeting is best even if that fidgeting is with the eyes
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
If I lose my balance in this pose I can usually see that my foot alignment isnt right when that happens. So being aware of my set up. Especially the back foot. I have learned from our scripting to turn the back foot and hip in 45 degrees. That helps with balance and also MUCH less slippage as I can really get the outer edge of the foot pressing down.
KimA
I practiced this pose while imagining I was on a block of ice. While it did amazing things for my balance and my holding a nice tight pose, I had a lot more muscle fatigue, a lot faster. It just tells me I need to do this more and balance the strength in the agonist muscles.
Marguerite
Thats correct, Kim - really using that back foot to ground you will help alot with the "slippage." If you notice that the outer edge of the foot is lifted off the mat always press it back down - you'll find the leverage in your heel to keep your balance in the pose
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Here's another level for the block of ice image Marguerite: you know what happens when you stick warm skin on solid ice: it sticks! And so your feel are not glued to that ice and you've got two solidly planted balance points - no slippage possible!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
It would be awesome actually to do it on the block of ice! The block of ice may actually melt because this pose generates so much power and energy! There is always a deeper level to go in this pose and I love to discover it more and more. This pose represents so much to me. One day, I have said to myself "I will always hold my Warrior no matter what!!!" It is also important to understand that the Warrior is not about the war.This is my Vortex! This is my home - Beautiful Glorious Heart to the Sky!
Alfia
Two things I was told recently that brought me into a much more enlightened place with Trikonasana…
Don't windmill the arms and bend the torso to the bent-knee side in order to get the elbow against the knee and fingers pointing towards the toes.
DO bend the knee, face your palms forward, and when you windmill- just windmill the arms. Nothing else. Look up at the hand pointing toward the ceiling, and movement by movement, bring your downward pointing elbow toward the knee in order to press lightly against it.
When I first started hot yoga - I used to just bend right over until I touched the mat with my fingers in between my toes. Wow, I thought to myself - this pose isn't so hard!
Haha. Laugh/cry. Not so much. I am still in the beginning chapters of this pose. But I am happy about that! There is so much more to go! It would be boring if I were already at the (imaginary) finish line of Trikonasana. In fact, I want there to always be something more to achieve in this pose and in every pose.
Reach up as if you were trying to touch the ceiling….Reach down, trying to touch the floor - opening your heart so wide it can't help but smile and beat as hard as it can!
Grace
Glad to offer these nuances for the pose for you Grace.
And here's another nuance to consider: you are RIGHT! You are ALWAYS at the beginning of "this pose!" and rarely at the "finish line" of anything - because this Universe has no finish line. It is always expanding and you are a child of the Universe.
And Thats where the fun is. If you knew how the game was going to turn out, would you really want to play? And play it is!
And like all games, you learn the rules, experience all that they have to show you, and find your way of fun on the well-traveled path of yoga, which is both your own AND the path of a long lineage that came before you. You feel like an explorer and yet you feel a deep gratitude for those teachers who went first and offered the nuances that make your journey more light-footed.
Ah, yoga!
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
In the last couple of months I can think of only a handful of times when I felt weightless and light in this pose. I wish the right alignment of my hips came more easily to me, but my hip just wants to pop up all the time. My. Favorite part of the pose comes near the end, when my chest and heart are stretching to the ceiling and my arms are pulling up to come down. The stretch and weightlessness come together when I look past my shoulder and twist... That's when the magic happens.
danielle bumber
Next time you're practicing at Riverflow and in my class, follow those secret Mary-Jarvis inspired set up alignments: chest forward., belly forward, shoulderblades pinch together (or as I like to picture in, wings at the read)...you'll be flying in no time! And if those alignment set ups arent cued at other studios, well, lucky you: you know them from your script
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
In Dandayamana Janushirasana we say your leg is soild like a tree trunk, lamp post .... In Trikonsana I feel BOTH my legs are solid, even though one is bending (if this makes sense), they are BOTH grounded to the floor. This allows for a solid base for which i can stand on my block of ice and hold the asana!
My AHA moment in this pose was when Rhonda told me the triangle is made between the thigh muscle, torso and upper arm! Windmilling the arms are a key component to making this perfect triangle!
Stretching up with the fingertips, down to the big and 2nd toe, lifting the chest and allowing for that first spinal twist in the series, opens my heart to the sky! Anahata is now balanced!
TinaA
Yes I too now understand that that the triangle is from the thigh, torso, and upper arm. I was previously bending at the waist and making this pose so much more than it was!
Becky
oh and it feels so much better to keep the chin on the shoulder and not cranked up to the sky. I mis took other scripts for look up at the sky... for bring your chin up and look up. keeping my chin down and looking up with my eyes feels so much better.
Becky
Tricky, tricky, Trikonasana! The revelation moment came for me during a Master Class, when Mary Jarvis told us to thrust the chest and belly way forward and squeeze the shoulderblades before pivoting into this pose. From that moment on, I felt like I could hold this one forever. Have any of the tips in the books helped you?