Yoga Tips - Don't Link Vira 1 & 2
With Vanessa Rudges
Linking your Warrior 1 with Warrior 2 could be causing you a real pain in the knee.
Both of these poses have completely different foundations in the foot, knee and pelvis alignment. Trying to flow from Warrior 1 through to Warrior 2 can create torsion in the knee that twists it. This is bad news for this joint that should largely only hinge.
They are completely different poses, with vastly different foundations so they make no sense to be put in the same yoga flow. Though I’ve done it plenty in Ashtanga & Power.
Warrior 1 the toes need to face forward. Warrior 2 the toes face out more. Yet no real instruction is given about the finesse of this. Probably because it’s some fancy foot work. Which is why we at Being Yoga don’t do it. It’s true that some people with very open Achilles tendon can manage it, but they are the minority.
If you are desperate to link these two postures together, or you are in a class where it is happening and you don’t have a choice about it, there is a sneaky way around it.
Do Anjayneyasana instead of warrior 1 keeping the back heel lifted, then turn the heel in and down to land ready for warrior 2. That way you have the long stance and you knee isn’t compromised.
They great news is that you can do plenty of other wonderful yoga flows that work better. When sequencing you can think of the warrior 1 families of poses and put them together in a flow. Then warrior 2 families of poses & create sequences with them together. That way you don’t need to change the foundations and they will flow into each other more elegantly.
In the video below, I go into more detail on why you should never link Warrior 1 and Warrior 2.
We hope you enjoyed this Yoga Tip Blog post and Video.
