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Asana Analysis: Triangle Pose/Trikonasana
This is the sixth installment of Lisa’s Ansana Analysis series, reviewing various yoga postures, including instruction in anatomy and alignment of the pose. She has included “PT Notes” for physical therapists looking for ways to incorporate yoga postures into assessment and/or treatment of clients. The other installments in this series can be found on Lisa’s blog.
Triangle/Trikonasana: A standing pose that is wonderfully balanced. It’s a great posture for both stretching and strengthening of the legs, shoulders and torso.
Muscles Strengthened in Triangle Pose: quadriceps, hamstrings, external rotators of front leg, adductors of the back leg, transverse abdominus, obliques, rhomboids, middle trapezius, scalenes, sternocleidomastoid,
Muscles Stretched in Triangle Pose: hamstrings, adductors of front leg, gluteals and tensor facia lata of the back leg, pectoralis major and minor, anterior deltoid,
Points of Body Awareness:
*Are your legs strong and rooted?
*The front hip is rolling out, the back hip is rolling in slightly.
*Press the ball of the front leg down to avoid hyperextending the knee.
*Feel the spine lengthening.
*Can you feel the ribcage (on the side of the forward leg) move toward the ground to allow for greater lengthening of the spine?
*Can you feel a sense of freedom and mobility in the ribcage (on the side of the forward leg) as you breath while holding the posture?
*Open the heart by rolling the top shoulder blade back, in line with the bottom shoulder blade. Feel the arms reaching in opposite directions.
*Can you feel the lines of energy in the pose? Ground down through the legs, lengthen through the spine and open from the breastbone through the arms.
To Modify: If you can’t reach the ground without curving the spine, place the bottom hand on a block, or the seat of a chair. If there is any discomfort in the neck, keep the gaze forward or down but be sure to continue lengthening through the neck.
To Challenge: Use a wall to ensure full rotation and chest opening. Feel three points of contact: the buttocks of the forward leg and both shoulder blades. If you can’t reach the wall with your top shoulder blade, use a block or chair as described above. Try unweighting the bottom hand for a greater core strengthening challenge (but only if you can maintain a strait spine).
PT Notes: This is a good pose for patients who are working on thoracic rotation and scapular coordination. One common mistake people make with this pose is that they reach too far back with the top hand (horizontal abduction) rather than increasing scapular retraction or thoracic rotation (intervertebral and/or costovertebral). This can place stress on the anterior capsule of the shoulder and can perpetuate dysfunction of the humeral-scapulo-thoracic complex. Using a wall as described above is helpful for cueing the patients for the correct alignment but they should be able to progress to pain-free, proper alignment without cues in order to demonstrate normal proprioception and scapular awareness. This is a good posture to try after doing joint mobilizations on the thoracic spine and/or after manual PNF for increased scapular recruitment and ROM.
Tightness of any of the pelvic girdle muscles will cause a compensation of spinal side bending. If a patient is unable to perform this posture without side bending then use a block or chair as described in modifications. Then assess which pelvic girdle muscles are tight and give the patient separate stretches to isolate those muscles. For example if gluteals are tight, gomukhasana or cow’s face stretch is a good pose to work on. If the adductors and hamstrings are tight, reclined strap stretches are a safe and effective way to increase flexibility.
For more details see Yoga Journal
I’ve recently discovered the book, Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff. It’s a good resource and has wonderful drawings of muscles in many different poses. I highly recommend it for anatomy geeks like myself!
Lisa Minn is a licensed physical therapist and yoga enthusiast. She has been incorporating aspects of Yoga and Pilates into her physical therapy practice since 2001 and became a certified yoga instructor in 2004. Her experience ranges from working with athletes at West Point and Georgetown to instructing elderly and wheelchair-bound clients in the fundamentals of Hatha Yoga. Lisa has conducted several lectures and workshops across the US, as well as in Honduras and Peru, where she volunteered her services. She currently resides and practices in Northern California. This and other articles by Lisa can be found at The Pragmatic Yogi.
The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.
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