Utthita Trikonasana (Extended Triangle Pose)

(oo-TEE-tah trik-cone-AHS-anna)

utthita = extended

trikona = three angle or triangle

Triangle Pose is the quintessential standing pose in many styles of yoga.

Benefits

• Stretches and strengthens the thighs, knees, and ankles
• Stretches the hips, groins, hamstrings, and calves; shoulders, chest, and spine
• Stimulates the abdominal organs
• Helps relieve stress
• Improves digestion
• Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
• Therapeutic for anxiety, flat feet, infertility, neck pain, osteoporosis, and sciatica
• Relieves backache, especially through second trimester of pregnancy

• Diarrhea
• eyestrain
• varicose veins
• depressed or extremely fatigued
• Headache
• Low blood pressure- gaze downward in final pose.
• Heart Condition: Practice against a wall. Keep the top arm on the hip.
• High blood pressure: Turn the head to gaze downward in the final pose.
• Neck problems: Don't turn your head to look upward; continue looking straight ahead and keep both sides of the neck evenly long.

Step by Step

• Stand in Tadasana. With an exhalation, step or lightly jump your feet 3 1/2 to 4 feet apart. Raise your arms parallel to the floor and reach them actively out to the sides, shoulder blades wide, palms down.
• Turn your left foot in slightly to the right and your right foot out to the right 90 degrees. Align the right heel with the left heel. Firm your thighs and turn your right thigh outward, so that the center of the right knee cap is in line with the center of the right ankle.
• Exhale and extend your torso to the right directly over the plane of the right leg, bending from the hip joint, not the waist. Anchor this movement by strengthening the left leg and pressing the outer heel firmly to the floor. Rotate the torso to the left, keeping the two sides equally long. Let the left hip come slightly forward and lengthen the tailbone toward the back heel.
• Rest your right hand on your shin, ankle, or the floor outside your right foot, whatever is possible without distorting the sides of the torso. Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling, in line with the tops of your shoulders. Keep your head in a neutral position or turn it to the left, eyes gazing softly at the left thumb.
• Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Inhale to come up, strongly pressing the back heel into the floor and reaching the top arm toward the ceiling. Reverse the feet and repeat for the same length of time to the left.

If it isn't possible to comfortably touch the floor with the bottom hand or fingertips, support the palm on a block.

Instead of stretching the top arm toward the ceiling, stretch it over the back of the top ear, parallel to the floor.

Brace your back heel or the back of your torso against a wall if you feel unsteady in the pose.

Deepen the Pose

For more experienced students, align the front heel with the back foot arch.

More yoga poses >