The Benefits of Trikonasana aka Triangle pose

My dear yogi friends, I am back with one of my favorite yoga postures of all time. Let’s talk about why you should practise trikonasana and what the benefits of trikonasana are for your body and mind! It’s one of those foundational pose you’ll find yourself doing almost every time you practice hatha yoga, power yoga, or any type of yoga really.

Extended triangle pose is a foundational standing yoga pose; once you get familiar with the trikonasana yoga pose it will help you with more challenging standing poses, deep hip openers and intense hamstring stretch like forward folds. So introduce trikonasana to your yoga practice to get a taste of all the health benefits of trikonasana, and check out some cool variations below once you are familiar with the basics covered below.

Trikonasana also feels really, really good as a deep stretch for your abdominal organs (and not all yoga poses can say that for themselves)!

Need some inspiration to get on the mat? Check out these yoga retreats, my favourite yoga movies and yoga quotes!

Utthita Trikonasana Instructions

1. Start standing in Tadasana at the top of your mat.
2. Step out to the side, so you face the long edge of your mat, and take your feet wide, approx. one leg-length apart. Place your hands on your hips. As it is often the case traditionally in yoga, we start with the right side of the body
3. Turn your right toes (the front leg) so they point forwards to the top of your mat. Turn your left toes in about 5-10 degrees (this makes it easier to push firmly through the outside blade of the foot).
4. Engage the right quad so the knee cap firms up and lifts slightly. If you are hypermobile, keep a micro-bend in the right knee. Push firmly into the outside blade of the left foot, so the inner arch remains lifted, and engage the left quad. The muscle contraction of both legs creates a sense of energy drawing upwards, making you feel both strong and light.

1. Extend both arms out in a T shape. Keep the shoulders softly drawn down the back, so the neck is long and spacious. Lengthen through the waist by slightly engaging the core muscles (think “sides of the waist” as a cue might help).
2. At the same time, on an inhale, slide the hips to the back of the mat and reach the right hand forward; your torso will naturally shift and lengthen in the same plane as the right leg. (You can also visualize a string pulling the left hip back and right fingers forward.)

1. On an exhale, tilt the arms so the right-hand comes down and the hand rests either on your shin or a yoga block (or you’re right foot if you are very flexible), and the left hand raises to the sky, the palm turning open. Make sure to keep the core engaged and the waist long, so you are hinging at the hip joint and not folding at the waist.
2. Look either up to your left arm, straight ahead, or down at your big toe (whichever is most comfortable). Keep your neck in a neutral position. If you have neck problems, let the head go heavy and dangle to release unnecessary tension.

1. Take deep breaths, particularly into the left side of the body which is being stretched.
2. Stay for as long as you like.
3. Repeat on the other side.

Benefits of Trikonasana:

• Great for hamstrings and hip flexors which we all need in our daily life and for overall health
• Gentle hamstring opener that helps prepare the body for deeper forward folds
• Builds leg and back strength
• Opens the shoulders, chest and back muscles
• Gentle core work, therefore supporting weight loss if that is your goal
• Helps improve deep breathing
• Beginner-friendly
• Has lots of variations, helps cultivate body awareness
• Yoga is generally associated with lowering high blood pressure, improving mental health and mental clarity, and calming the nervous system down

Trikonasana Tips, Tricks and Variations

Which Variation is Right for you?

If you take a look at images of trikonasana online, you will see there are A LOT of variations possible: hips stacked on top of each other, top hip rolling in, hand on the floor, hand on the shin, fingers hooking the big toe (hi, Ashtanga!), legs really wide, legs sort of close, bound (aka. baddha trikonasana), … So which is the best for you? Well, that depends on your unique body type and level of flexibility. The intention of the pose is to strengthen and lengthen the entire back and side of the body into a straight line, so explore different widths with your feet and arm positions until you feel strong, open and can breathe freely and deeply.

Basically, don’t get too caught up in all those trikonasana images and do what’s best for you! A regular practice of trikonasana will over time make more variations avaiable.

Tight Shoulder Variations

1. Tight upper body? No worries. To create more space around the shoulders and release the neck, on step 5, rotate the palms so they face up towards the ceiling and note the shoulder blades’ engagement. Either flip your palms back down, but keep the shoulder engagement, or keep the palms facing up.
2. Once you are in the pose, add a half bind with the top arm. Reach the arm behind you and bend the elbow so it either rests on your lower back, or grab hold of your hip crease.

Core Blaster:

If you want to add some extra core work, reach both arms towards the top of the mat in line with your ears. As soon as you lift that bottom arm your external obliques have to fire up, or you will completely collapse!

Sequencing Trikonasana

If you are developing a self-guided practice, are a yoga teacher, or in the last hour yoga teacher training sequencing, figuring out what yoga asanas go where in a sequence can be challenging. Triangle pose can go pretty much anywhere in a standing sequence, but because it opens up the body so nicely, I like it as one of the first poses after warming up with some sun salutations. I then follow it up with its counter-pose parivrtta trikonasana (revolved triangle).

That is everything you need to get started with trikonasana, let me know how you get on with triangle in your yoga practice!

Amélie

Amélie is a health and wellness junky. Certified yoga instructor with Yoga Alliance in the Vinyasa and Ashtanga styles, she has a Yoga Instructor Certification – Level I (300 hours) and Yoga Instructor Certification – Level II (200 hours) under her belt. She also has a certified Open Water Diver certification with PADI and SSI Scuba Schools International Freediving Level I certification with SSI Scuba Schools International. She’s been vegan for over 15 years and is obsessed with anything wellness-related.