Strenthen your Body with the Classic Warrior Yoga Pose

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Strenthen your Body with the Classic Warrior Yoga Pose

Hi, I'm Leslie Nesbit for About.com Health. Today we are going to look at two classic yoga poses, the first one warrior two strengthens the legs....
And the next one, Exalted Warrior, often called Reverse Warrior, helps to stretch the sides of the torso.

Yoga Poses for Leg Strength

Ok Let's get started, we're going to reach the arms out and i want you to position those ankles right under your wrist- so you see it's going to be a fairly wide stance. Go ahead and let those arms drop.
Now we're going to take our left leg and turn it out from the hip and you want to make sure that your front heel lines up with your back arch.

Going into Warrior Yoga Pose

Lifting those arms again without crunching those shoulders up to the ears, you want to keep it nice and relaxed. We're going to go ahead and bend into that front leg. As you get stronger and more comfortable with this position you'll be able to get that front thigh almost parallel to the floor. Keep in mind you want that front knee to track over the pinky toe not over the arch....

Reverse Warrior Yoga Pose

Breathing, and just slightly shift your torso to the center so it's perpendicular to the floor. There is a tendency to lean forward here. We want to be up nice and tall. So let's go from Warrior 2, where we are right now, to Reverse Warrior. We're going to drop that hand, just lightly place it on the thigh, spinning the palm up, reaching to the sky.

Now note here the legs don't change, we're just adding that nice torso stretch here along the rib cage. And you can look in the position in which your neck is most comfortable. Your gaze could be up or it could be down at the front knee, or at the wall in front of you.

Yoga Pose Variations

One adaptatiuon is to straighten that front leg , reaching up again and increasing that stretch, It feels so great.

Yoga Pose Sequences

Slowly come down, we're going to pivot the front foot in and turn the other foot out so here's how the sequence looks on the other side. Coming into Warrior 2, shifting the weight back just a little bit, breathing, palm turns up, reaching, stretching, excellent.

After you're there straighten that front knee and enjoy that stretch.

Thanks for watching. To learn more, visit us on the Web at Health.About.com.