Warrior 1, Warrior 2, and now we move through to Warrior 3. A balancing pose, firing up your core, turning on those stabilising muscle and general badassness. Let’s get into it!
Virabhadrasana III (veer-ah-bah-dras-ana three) – Warrior 3
We often transition into our Warrior 3 from a high lunge. This gives us a good foot foundation and a nice point to transfer the weight out of the back leg in order to lift it into our balancing posture.
Feet and Legs
Foundation of this pose:
One foot, pointing straight ahead, as it would be in Tadasana, Warrior 1 and Warrior 2. Ensuring the corners of the feet and pressing down firmly and equally, this will help the body weight to come directly down through the centre of the foot rather than having the foot roll in or out.
The standing leg can have a slight ben in the knee.
The back leg is lifted, is strong, straight and engaged. Engaging the muscles in the lifted leg will help it feel lighter and will make it easier keeping it lifted.
**Flex the back foot and point the toes towards the earth.
Flexing the foot means it looks how it would be if you were standing on it) and pointing the toes down stops the legs and hip from rotating outwards.
**Imagine you are pressing the back foot into a wall behind you.
Keep the energetic line all the way through to the heel of that back foot.
Pelvis and Torso
The pelvis is in a neutral position, facing the front. From there all that happens is that it hinges forward as the back leg lifts. It doesn’t roll out, it stays neutral.
The torso extends from the pelvis, much like it would in Tadasana. Just keep it nice and straight. Standard pointers, drawing the bellybutton back towards the spine will mean your core starts to activate, which will help keep your balance.
It may feel like you need to lift the chest a little, but this is just to counter the natural instinct to let it drop.
Try to avoid rolling open the hip as above, look how wonky it makes you!
Arm and Shoulders
There are a few variations for the arm positioning in Warrior 3. The traditional posture has both arms extended straight out in front, palms facing towards each other.
My personal favourite is having the hands in prayer at the heart centre. Personally, it helps me to keep my chest from feeling droopy and it draws the attention to the centre of the body helping with balance.
Another option is to have the arms extended alongside the body, with the palms facing towards the body.
Your teacher will instruct which variation you should take.
Head and Neck
Take the gaze slightly towards the front edge of your mat. You mostly want to keep the neck in a straight line, not craning it up to look forwards. However, having the gaze slightly forward will probably help just a little with your balance.
Bida bing bida bong. Vira III. Over and out flying warrior xo