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| Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle) - my title was too long!
yesterday i was in a foul mood and probably should have skipped practice instead of "motoring" through it. i admit it. i was pissed off. the dark side was strong in me. 
anyhoo...i fell out of P.T.
so there i was flat on my arse. it made me laugh. i finished up my practice (with my head IN the game  )
later in the day i was looking through some books and even pulled out a patricia walden video where she teaches PT. she said that it is ok to step the back foot out (off the line) to get balance. am i making sense?
i never thought of it but it would make it easier to balance when first learning the pose. do any of you who teach use this trick? agree/disagree?
i still remember how frustrating it was when i was first learning it and i know how frustrating it is for my students who are at that stage of their practice.
i usually go with the back foot against the wall for new students and later a smaller step out with a block down by the inside of the foot to ease into it.
i tried "unaligning" my feet and it is much easier to balance....
any comments?
seen it? done it? teach it?
tell me please  |
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| It's definately easier with the back foot slightly off centre from a straight line to the front foot. My main problem is I lose all sense of spatial awareness from the waist up in this pose - My raised arm could be on another planet for all I can tell! Not a favourite pose, you can tell 
Fee |
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| yes, i've taught it with feet roughly hip distance apart in order to promote balance. i always teach this post heavily modified. it's really easy to mess it up in any number of ways! |
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| In a weird way I like this pose because it *is* so funny when I fall over
-Laura |
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| My new ashtanga teacher taught it that way Monday night. He did mention that the feet were supposed to be in a line, but not until you could get your hips square. I've seen it that way in another video before too (can't remember which one right now, wasn't Walden). Killer pose. I tend to distrust myself in PT because it can feel so awkward when I am tight. |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Yes, a little space helps. I teach heel to arch alignment but don't correct unless students are VERY wide. I have a ton of different ways to modify and ease into the pose, like zoebird. One version I love is from the Back Care Basics book where the top hand is kept very high. I use the top of the back of a folding chair, table top or window ledge. Even a group of very unflexible seniors enjoyed that pose and it gives a nice long, relatively even stretch of the spinal muscles, especially if they really reach out and lengthen Falling out of the pose myself? Yep - many times!  More to come, I'm sure  |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | No doubt about the foot spacing. My teacher has broken this down in detail. Basically, you
want to have the pelvic bone parallel to the wall in front of you before you bend, and if you
are tight through the hips, keeping the feet a bit farther apart will help you maintain the hip
alignment is as you bend forward and twist. You can think of the starting point for this pose
as Virabhadrasana I, MUCH different than what you'd do for Trikonasana. The two poses are
unrelated so far as the hip alignment is concerned.
I find it very useful to work on the hip/leg alignment before bending/twisting to
go to the full pose. As you go in, remember the following --- the sacrum and hips stay
level and should not tilt to one side; the chest should not be curved into a forward or
backward bend; and the spinal twist should run through the entire spine from pelvis to
shoulders.
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| I love looking down a line of people in PT (especially when modified with the chair) and seeing the lovely diagonal folds in their shirts. It shows the great length and even twist. |
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| all of what you all say is so true! i find the hip alignment to be most difficult for most people--and it takes a long time to get the right feel for the hip alignment. i know that for me, the whole pose goes into the hamstrings for balance and then extension from the hips to the rib cage and there in the center (between hips and rib cage) the rotation begins really deep in the belly.
i find that many people (say right foot is foward in this PT) tend to drop their back (left) hip which leads into the stretch moving from hamstring into IT band--which isn't exactly healthy (can be over stretched, and then the only way to heal it is to rest it). This way, i fidn that i can 'feel' my hips in the pose. But, when i do the pose correctly, it's almost like i dont' feel my hips at all--just legs and torso!
i often tell students, when your hips feel like they've disappeared, you're probably in the right place! |
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| zoebird - 2005-08-05 9:17 PM
i often tell students, when your hips feel like they've disappeared, you're probably in the right place!
great quote!
thanks for all the comments. great suggestions by all of you. i have a students on saturday who despises PT - i am going to get her to try it with the foot out of line a bit. it might be the perfect modification! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State |
That feeling of lightness goes with a lot of good alignments.
It's a way to sense where you leg is when you do Eka Pada
Viparita Dandasana, for example....heaviness in the upraised
leg usually means it's tilting toward front or back.
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| Hi!
Just read your comments on Parivrtta Trikonasana....I have not had problems with balance myself, but my teacher sometimes tells the students to try it with the lower hand on their leg instead of the floor, and go a little lower every time. That is, begin with the hand a little below the knee, and given you can balance in that pose, try to go lower until you reach your foot, and eventually the floor. I think she does it this way because she's a great fan of hip/feet alignment....
anyway, good luck!
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| hey! thanks for the post....and welcome to the forums
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | Moonlight - 2005-09-01 2:26 PM
Hi!
Just read your comments on Parivrtta Trikonasana....I have not had problems with balance myself, but my teacher sometimes tells the students to try it with the lower hand on their leg instead of the floor, and go a little lower every time. That is, begin with the hand a little below the knee, and given you can balance in that pose, try to go lower until you reach your foot, and eventually the floor. I think she does it this way because she's a great fan of hip/feet alignment....
anyway, good luck!
That's good advice. You can also place a block on the floor beside the leg and
rest the lower hand on it. The block can go inside the leg (rather than outside)
to ease the twist, if necessary.
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revisting Parivrtta Trikonasan
