Above the Surface: The 3 Must-Do’s

1) Make sure you are grounding properly through the right leg and make sure you do not allow the knee to lock out. Keep a micro bend in the leg.

2) Do not allow the right hip to rotate up. Keep the hips as square as possible.

3) Keep a straight line from the back heel all the way through to the crown on the head and out through the fingertips.

Under the Surface

Warrior 3 takes a deceptive amount of overall strength to hold yourself comfortably in the full pose.  Don’t rush this one.

Front Foot

Like all poses where you are balancing on one leg, it’s important to get the grounding of the foot correct.  Make sure you are actively pressing down with all four corners of your foot and lifting the arches.

It’s especially hazardous to knee in balancing poses to allow your inner arch to collapse in.

Back Foot

You can do whatever you choose with the back foot.  You can flex it or you can point it.  Understand how that effects the back leg though.  If you flex you are going to take more of the stretch in the lifted leg into the hamstrings.  If you point the foot you’ll feel more of a stretch in the quadriceps.

Front Leg (Grounded)

Draw your shin bone back slightly but do it in a way that allows the upper body to more naturally shift itself forward.

As much as you possibly can, attempt to lift your quadriceps up toward your hip socket.  This will help to solidify your entire leg.

Your primary goal with the grounded leg is make sure that it is engaged enough so that your body weight doesn’t sink into the solo ankle bone that is holding you up.

Back Leg (Lifted)

In general, the engagement of the back leg hinges upon what you decide to do with your back foot.  You’ll feel either a stronger engagement in the hamstring or the quadriceps.

However, one thing you do want to try is to slightly roll your inner thigh down.  This will encourage a more natural squaring of your hips.

Hips 

You are trying to square your hips as much possible.  Rolling the back inner thigh down helps with this but it is still a difficult ask.

Think of Warrior 3 as Warrior 1 rotated on its side.  Remember how tricky it is to get the hips squared in Warrior 1?  Same deal here except you have to worry about keeping your balance at the same time.

Torso

Your goal is to get your torso parallel to the floor and right in line with your back leg.  Essentially with Warrior 3, you are trying to make a “T” shape.

Also, you do not want your rib cage to ever dip lower than your hips.  As I said earlier, if you can get the hang of drawing your shin bone back just a tad you’ll be able to shift your ribs more forward without worrying about them collapsing.

Watch out for This: Lower Back

Sometimes its possible to feel excess tension in your lower back or maybe even a slight tweak from time to time.  Generally, this comes from your lifted hamstring just not being quite flexible enough.  For now, just bend your lifted leg a little bit and that should solve the problem.

Shoulders & Arms

Don’t clench your shoulders and keep them back as much as possible.

You can do a couple of things with your arms. 

One, this is the full version of the pose and the most difficult, reach your arms out in front of you.  Make sure your biceps are in line with your ears.  You should have a straight line from your back heel all the way out through your fingers.

Two, you can take the arms along side your body.  This is the version I recommend you start with.  Pulling body weight back toward your grounded leg makes the balance easier and less intense.

Head & Neck

Lengthen from both sides of the neck, draw the shoulders back, and take your gaze either to the ground about a foot and a half in front of your big toe or you can look straight forward if it doesn’t put any excess pressure on your neck.