Bikram Yoga Challenge: 24/60.

I have been doing Triangle wrong.

Funny enough, though, the way I had been doing it was the way a teacher once told me to do it. And it was always "off" for me. But a newish teacher last year told me to do it that way. (And when a teacher tells me to do something, I do it.)

The teacher told us in class (last year), "When you do Triangle, focus your weight on your bent leg. You should be able to lift your straight leg's foot off the ground and balance almost."

So that is how I did the pose. And since then, I stopped getting compliments on my Triangle. Even though I had always gotten them before in class.

Today, I was corrected. One of the studio directors clarified how the pose should be done, and it made complete sense.

"Your weight should be evenly distributed in both legs," she said. "You should be getting your entire straight leg foot and toes on the ground. You're like a triangle, everything is distributed evenly."

And BAM! My body makes sense of the pose.

"Oh duh!" it says in response to the dialogue. "I get it!"

You can't stop progress.

Only 36 days left to go!

Comments

Mimi (from the Boston studio) corrected me once and for all on this pose with almost that exact same instruction. I was always putting way too much weight on my bent leg---still sometimes do, if I'm really struggling. But, in a way, I the pose is actually easier when you distribute the weight.

Ohhh, isn't it funny how much sense these things make in hindsight?!
Mimi at the Boston studio corrected me once and for all on this pose with almost that exact same instruction. I was always putting way too much weight on my bent leg---still sometimes do, if I'm really struggling. But, in a way, I the pose is actually easier when you distribute the weight.

Ohhh, isn't it funny how much sense these things make in hindsight?!
cath said…
When doing triangle, let say on the right side, I never know which of the two ways to do it: (i) I can slightly "drop" my right hip down, which adjusts the pressure away from my quads and allows me to get lower down in the pose (feels more hip stretchy), or (ii) I can focus the pose more using my leg strength and not drop the right hip, but I don't get down as low. It's a sublte difference and you can't really tell too much of a difference between the two when looking at me, but the two use very different muscles and I never knew which way was better/correct. Any thoughts?
Me said…
Mimi is genius! She is one of the people who really encouraged me to go to TT this fall.

Cath: I have the same issue as you. If I drop on hip on the straight leg, I don't seem to go down as far. It's an on-going battle. What my teachers have told me is, "Just continuously keep sinking into that bent knee. Push the knee back with your elbow, and drop your hip on the straight leg forward and down."

Does that help? You're rolling your hip forward and down.
thedancingj said…
... and of course, then you take the weight off BOTH legs by stretching your arms apart and UP. You know, just levitate. It's easy. ;-)

That IS actually why you don't "sink", I think. You've got to get your hips all the way down, right leg upside down L like Linda, and stay down there the whole time, but the more you get down in the legs, the more you stretch up with the arms.

It's complicated!!
Me said…
Word! It definitely is!

It's not called the "pinnacle of the standing series" for nothing!

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