UTTHITA TRIKONASANA
uttihita = extended
tri = three
kona = angle
asana = literally “seat,” usually interpreted as “pose” or “posture”
It’s not uncommon in the long history of yoga asanas for several much different poses to have the same name. Such is the case with trikonasana, popularly known today as Triangle Pose. According to the Encyclopedia of Traditional Asanas, trikonasana is the name of four different poses. Two of these four are fairly similar–and what seem to be very uncomfortable–sitting poses. The first looks like a wide knee Hero Pose (virasana), with the feet set slightly away from the hips and turned onto their inner edges (everted). The second is a variation of the first, with just one leg in the position just described. The third is a squat in which the elbows rest on the knees and the head is held in the hands. The fourth is the standing pose we all know so well.
Our trikonasana, in comparison to a venerable pose like Lotus (padmasana), which is more than 1,500 years old, is a baby among the stock of asanas, likely added not much more than 100 years ago. The pose is aptly named. Typically we see in it a pair of triangles, one formed by the two legs and the floor, the other by the front leg, the underside of the torso, and the bottom arm. But if we look closely at Mr. Iyengar’s photo of the pose in Light on Yoga (plate 5), we see there’s actually a very small third triangle, the formation of which needs a slightly wider stance than most of us take. If we do widen out a few inches more, then the bottom hand can be pressed to the floor behind the front foot’s heel, and voila, triangle number three.
PREPARATION
To begin, step (or hop) your feet apart. The usual distance given is about a yard (or meter), but this is only an approximation, the proper distance for you will depend in large part on your height and length of your legs. Shorter students might have the feet somewhat closer, taller students somewhat wider.
By convention in the Iyengar school, the two-sided poses are always performed to the right side first. A teacher once told me this is done because the word “right” in Sanskrit is dakshina, “able, clever dexterous,” a symbolic meaning that gets the pose off on the right foot, so to speak. Left, on the other hand, is vama, “perverse, vomiting,” a much less appealing leading thought. It seems to me though this is one more example of the ancient prejudice against lefties, and so to all you southpaws out there, if you want to start to the left, feel free to do so.
Once the feet are placed at the appropriate distance, they’re rotated to the right, the left foot just slightly, the right foot, as convention has it, 90 degrees, so that the inner edge of the foot is parallel to the long edge of the mat toward which you’re facing. Your pelvis should also turn slightly to the right so the left hip is closer to that same long edge.
This instruction, to slightly rotate the pelvis was at the center of a heated controversy many years ago. Back then it was generally taught that the hips should be “flattened,” as if the pelvis were secured between a pair of parallel plates. But this positioning tended to inwardly rotate the front thigh, which in turn twisted the front leg knee, a hinge joint, out of its crucial alignment with the ankle. Repeated over time, this twisting could potentially lead to knee problems. Some teachers then wisely began to instruct students to allow the back hip to come as far forward as needed to outwardly rotate the front thigh and maintain the knee-ankle alignment. The “press back” instruction was transferred to head of the back leg’s thigh bone (femur). I strongly urge you to follow this instruction, not only in trikonasana but in the other two-sided standing poses like virabhadrasana 2. Be sure though that as you rotate the front thigh, you press the base of the big toe firmly against the floor to keep the weight on the inner foot.
The standard alignment of the feet has the front foot heel in line with the back foot arch. What isn’t often recognized, though, is that even with both feet on the floor, many of the standing poses, like trikonasana, are balancing poses. So if you feel a bit unstable with this heel-to-arch alignment, then it’s acceptable to slightly widen your base of support and align the front heel with the back heel.
When the feet and pelvis are properly positioned, it’s almost time to move into the pose, but one more thing is needed. Every pose has an anchor, and for standing poses like trikonasana, it’s the back heel. To create this anchor, press the inner left thigh actively off to the left to ground the outer left heel firmly to the floor. This grounding can be intensified if you also press your back heel to a wall. If you use a wall in this way, be sure after exiting the pose not to step forward directly onto the front foot. Always turn the feet forward to parallel, balance the weight between them and step or hop them together.
MOVING INTO THE POSE
Now inhale your arms up parallel to the floor, palms down, being careful not to raise your shoulders as well. Then with an exhale, from your anchored heel start to stretch out through the right arm. Keep your torso over the plane of the forward leg, imagine the legs drawing to the left as your torso extends to the right.
As you do this, draw an imaginary line of energy up along the inner right leg from the ankle to the groin, then continue this line through the pelvis to the left hip (imaginatively draw the inner left leg up from ankle to groin to help maintain the strength of the foot’s inner arch). At the same time, release the head of the right thigh bone deeper into the pelvis to encourage the length along the under side of the torso. Remember that trikonasana isn’t a side bend, and once in the pose, both sides of the torso should ideally be more or less equally lengthened.
Unfortunately, less experienced students are often reluctant to use props and have their heart set on pressing their bottom hand to the floor. But many don’t have the flexibility to do that comfortably, so the torso ends up in a side bend, the upper side overstretched, the under side compressed, a reflection of what’s happening to the spine. This is certainly not ideal. In each and every pose, the attempt should be made to re-create a Mountain Pose (tadasana) spine, that is, evenly extended front and back and along the sides. If a side bend is what happens when you bring your hand to the floor, I highly recommend you support it on a yoga block, positioned at a height against which you can spread your palm and press it flat. Doing so with your palm on the block will create a response in the shoulder blade, which will widen across and firm into your back, helping to support the lift of the chest. More importantly the two sides of your torso–and your spine–will be much more evenly lengthened.
The position of your arms depends on the angle of your torso relative to the floor. For beginning students, the torso is usually at a slight angle. The arms then should be parallel to the line of the shoulders. Only when the torso is more or less parallel to the floor should the arms be stretched perpendicular. You might also imagine there’s a wall right in front of you and “press” your top hand against it, using the imaginary resistance to do with the top hand’s scapula just what you did with its bottom mate. Keep all the fingers pressed together
The rotation of the head to look up at the top hand is a tricky movement. If you have any neck issues at all, major of minor, it’s best to keep your head neutral and gaze straight forward. If you do rotate the neck, always be sure to start with a neutral neck, that is, with the two sides (like the sides of the torso) evenly lengthened, and bring your chin close to the top shoulder. Never turn your head from a drooping neck.
It’s usually recommended to stay in the pose anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute, but longer stays are not unheard of. Always breathe as slowly and smoothly as possible in the pose, rough breathing indicates struggle, something you want to avoid no matter what the pose. Come out of the pose with an inhale, pressing down heavily with the back heel and reaching up with the top arm. Try not to wobble.
It’s beyond the scope of this breakdown to detail the symbolism in yoga of the triangle. Briefly then, as
Betty Heimann writes, geometrical symbols–triangles, circles, squares, and the like–are “equivalent to the concrete personal expression of the unapproachable Divine,” often used as “seeds” for meditation. An upward pointing equilateral triangle represents the fire element and the universal human urge to transcend the material world. Its downward pointing opposite represents water and the contrasting urge of the Self to become embodied. When these two triangles are interpenetrated the world is created, when separated the world disappears.