There are dozens of ways to enter and exit any of our poses.

It wasn’t until approximately two years ago that I started asking myself,

“Is this the best way to build this pose for me?”

And the answer I kept running into, over and over again, was: no.

I’m interested in building a yoga practice that straight up makes sense—a practice that makes me feel physically capable and free, and a practice that allows me to simply enjoy the experience that I’m having.

My intention is to enter every pose in a way that simply feels good. And when I feel good, everything about me is stronger.

One of my favorite project poses is Warrior II.

When I come into my Warrior II, I feel strong, open, soft and completely lightweight in my strength. But when I enter into it less than optimally, I feel crunchy, squishy, sharp, stiff and breakable.

This is what I love about Warrior II:

• Develops strength and steadiness through the joints of the legs—ankles, knees and into the pelvis.
• Engages the inner-thigh meridian to empower muscles close to the skeletal structure and take pressure out of outer hips and low back.
• Opens the pelvic girdle and allows full hip expression in the front leg.
• Encourages entire core engagement—from the front belly to the side waste, and wrapping around to the quadratus lumborum in the back spine.
• Encourages softness through open shoulders.
• Extension of the arms builds strength.
• Archetype of the pose is set up in such a way that we make ourselves open and vulnerable to our opponent, yet we face away from them. There are huge implications there!
• We are given the internal dynamic of figuring out how to engage where necessary and soften everywhere else. This is how we feel buoyancy in our poses.

When I enter into my Warrior II in a canonical, mindless way, I don’t feel these things. Often I’ll feel pinching in weird areas, weak in other areas and overall stressed out.

If this at all rings true for you, I’ve made a video that may help elucidate common pitfalls of entering into our Warrior II and how to build the most dynamic pose possible!

Like elephant yoga on Facebook.

Ed: Catherine Monkman