Achieve mental clarity and engage your muscles through a deep stretch.
Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasana) Step-By-Step-Guide
Step 1
Start by standing in Tadasana. Next, with an exhalation, move your feet further apart from each other.
Raise your arms parallel to the ground, palms down, while keeping your shoulder blades engaged.
Step 2
Slowly rotate your left foot to the right, and then the right one as well. Align the left heel with the left one while keeping your thighs engaged.
Create even more distance between your feet while keeping your left foot pointed forward.
Step 3
With an exhale, move your torso toward your left while lowering it over your left leg. This movement should come from the hip, not from the waist.
Improve your balance by applying more pressure on your left leg and anchoring your outer heel on the mat.
Step 4
Place your hand on your ankle or the mat near your right leg.
Lift your arm up and stretch it towards the ceiling while keeping your neck neutral and gaze upon your left foot.
Step 5
Hold the triangle pose for anywhere between 30 seconds and 60 seconds, and release with an exhale.
Use the other foot and repeat the pose for the same amount of time.
Triangle Pose Variations
The first variation impacts your obliques and leg muscles by forcing you to put some extra work in to maintain your balance.
When you enter in the triangle pose, you can stretch your arms up, keeping them perpendicular with the floor to deepen the pose.
If you are comfortable with challenging variations and feel like you are ready to take a step further, you can always make your palms meet under your left leg as you hold the pose.
Take your right arm down and make it meet your left arm behind your back in a bind. Before you do so, make sure your back is not stiff and do a quick warm-up.
Also, if you have never practiced a bind before, do not do it alone, or place a mattress near you, as you might lose your balance and fall the first time you try it.
Another variation that challenges your obliques is the angular triangle pose. It is ideal to do this near a wall.
Enter the triangle pose first. From there, make sure you modify the position of your torso and your left hand by drawing a line that goes up from your feet to your fingers.
Your torso should be leaning towards your right, and your right leg should be bent to support the stretch.
Common Mistakes
Most Yoga poses are safe, even for people who are sedentary and do not have a lot of mobility in their joints. However, holding a pose the wrong way can lead to injuries.
If you are experiencing pain or discomfort while holding the triangle pose, you might benefit from reading about the most common mistakes that beginners encounter.
The Right Hip Is Not Balanced
At times, it is easier to hold a sluggish back and torso posture instead of engaging all of the muscles involved. The problem with this is that you lose balance and can easily tip over.
You want to keep your core balanced.
The Inner Thighs Are Not Drawn Together
The triangle pose can be considered a light full body workout. It touches all of the major muscle groups, but only if you know how to keep all the elements of the pose engaged.
A common mistake is to forget about the inner thighs, which should be drawn together and lightly engaged.
The Chest Area Is Open
When your arm goes up, it should be easier for you to keep your ribcage area open, but you can stumble upon difficulties if your your shoulders are not open either.
Bring your shoulder back and forth to get rid of the stiffness in your back, and you will find it easier to keep your ribcage open as well.
Beginner’s Tips
While the triangle pose is often considered one of the foundational asanas, that does not make it necessarily easier for you.
Make sure you begin with a light warmup followed by a few stretches to get your body prepared for the pose.
Triangle Pose Benefits
The triangle pose can benefit you both mentally and physically by increasing your flexibility and stretching areas in your body that are easy to neglect, small muscles that you rarely use in your daily life.
The triangle pose can also help those who are active but do not have enough variety in their workouts as well as those who put a little bit too much pressure on some muscles while neglecting others.
But it can also help you release negative emotions and become more positive, playful, and open-minded by stimulating the second chakra in our body.
If you want to find out more about how the triangle pose can benefit your body and your mind, read on.
Stretches the Muscles Around Your Waist
Most of the time, we focus on major muscle groups when we workout and we forget about the smaller ones, such as the muscles around our waist.
The triangle pose can help us develop some definition on the sides of our waist and get rid of the extra layer of fat that may build up on the abdomen.
Improves Your Balance
It is no surprise that the triangle pose improves your balance since it involves a standing position. But if you try some variation that deepens the pose, you will be even more amazed by the progress you make when it comes to balance.
The triangle pose can help you build a strong foundation for other poses that are more challenging too.
Relieves a Stiff Neck
Any asana that teaches you to gaze in a certain direction forces your neck to become stronger and more flexible.
Your neck muscles are extremely important, not only because a weakening can cause pain, but also because muscles prevent premature aging by keeping the skin on your neck from sagging.
Helps Your Posture
The triangle pose opens the rib cage and lengthens the spine, which can help you in the long-run by adding some mobility to your back and ultimately improving your posture.
We are often told that we should keep our back straight, but we rarely focus on the side muscles of the back, which contribute equally to our posture.
By practising this asana regularly, you will strengthen those neglected small muscle groups and prevent many spine related ailments.
Tones Your Arms, Abdomen, and Thighs
While you are holding this pose, you are toning both of your arms, abdomen, and the thighs by stretching them.
Your core will be engaged heavily. The inner thighs will have to hold some of your body weight too.
As a result, if you combine this asana with a diet high in protein, you may experience a growth in lean mass in those areas.
Improves Mental Clarity
Paired with pranayama, the triangle pose can help you achieve mental clarity and improve your focus during work or school.
A combo between mediation and the triangle pose can help as well, especially if you are experiencing negative thoughts while trying to get things done.
Meditation helps us become more stoic and makes us aware of the ephemeral nature of all things. It allows us to focus on the only part that is undying, which is our spirit.
Improves Coordination and Body Self-Awareness
Asanas that require alignments boost both your self-awareness of how your body works and your coordination.
To hold the triangle pose, you have to be aware of where your legs and arms go, and you also have to be on top of it engage your back, chest, and neck.
All these efforts will pay off, especially if you had problems with coordination in the past. This will help you become a little bit more confident in your day-to-day life skills.
The Triangle Pose And The Sacral Chakra
If you want to find out more about the emotional and mental benefits of the triangle pose, you might be interested about its impact on the sacral chakra, the second energetic point in the human body.
The sacral chakra deals with your life mindset, pleasures, and playfulness. It is blocked by guilt.
If you are often told that you are too serious or insensitive to the joys of life, or if you simply cannot convince yourself to love your life at the moment, it could be a sign of a weak sacral chakra.
The triangle pose along with mediation can help strengthen your sacral chakra and push out the guilt that stops your from enjoying your everyday life.
On the flip side, if you have a sacral chakra that is a little but too strong, you will be overly excited by all of the aspects of your life and blind to the needs of others. If you feel like you fit this description, avoid any asanas that open the hip area.
Contraindications
The triangle pose is not recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as Yoga practitioners who suffer from high blood pressure.
Also, make sure you have not had a rich meal before starting your Yoga practice.
Marcus Stone
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