Way of the Warrior
Protect your knees and build strength and stability with this crucial standing pose.
By Julie Gudmestad
Page:
1
2
3
You'll probably never need to lunge forward, thighs burning, to desperately thrust a sword at a charging enemy. But the thigh and hip strength that ancient Indian warriors relied on is still useful in all sorts of everyday activities: climbing stairs, swooping to snag a wayward toddler, or bending your knees to lift a load of laundry without straining your back. Just as important, strong thighs and hips can help protect your knees from arthritis, injury, and chronic wear and tear.
Few poses beat Virabhadrasana II (Warrior Pose II) at strengthening your hips and thighs. As you might guess from the way your legs burn in a long Warrior II, the pose strongly works your quadriceps muscles, which make up the front of your thighs.
But Warrior II is not just about strength: It can also correct a common misalignment that can lead to many knee problems. To see if you have this misalignment, stand barelegged in front of a mirror. If your alignment is healthy, your kneecaps will point straight out over the midline of your feet. But you may find that your thighbone rotates inward in relation to your shinbone and that your kneecap points slightly inward, too. This position is bad news: It torques your knee, putting uneven pressure on the cartilage and straining the supporting ligaments and tendons every time you bend it.
Alignment First
Whenever you hear a yoga teacher say, "As you bend your knee, point your kneecap directly toward your middle toe," she's reminding you to stabilize your thighbone and knee in healthy alignment. But that's often easier said than done. Even if your alignment is fine when you're standing with straight legs, you may collapse your front knee inward when you come into Warrior II.
To correct this misalignment, you need to focus on two actions in Warrior II. The first is stretching your hip adductors. This large muscle group, which fills your inner thighs and pulls your knees toward each other, includes the pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, and gracilis. To get a good long passive stretch for these muscles, practice this pose lying on your back: Lie perpendicular to a wall, with your feet on the wall and your knees and hips each bent to 90 degrees, as though you were sitting on a chair that had tipped over backward. Then open your knees to the sides and move your feet farther apart so your shins remain perpendicular to the wall and parallel to the floor. Stay in this position for four or five breaths and allow your inner thighs to relax and stretch.
Next
 
| 
