standing poses - FOR Building Strength and flexibilty

Standing poses are great for building strength and stamina, challenging your range of movement and balance.  Four of the fundamental standing yoga poses are.

1. Warrior 1

2. Triangle

3. Warrior 2

4. Extended side angle

Below is an introduction to these poses, benefits of athletes practicing them and a suggested mini sequence which includes the poses in the video. I like to start January with a refresher of all of these poses. These poses are great for beginners and intermediate students alike. They build heat and strength in your body whilst challenging your flexibility and muscle control as you are working against gravity. Big bang for your buck!

Some general tips for all the poses:

Tips:

• Try to keep good ankle - knee - hip alignment in all of these poses. When cycling we are clipped in, we want to keep good ankle, knee, hip alignment to push as much power into the pedals as possible and keep our knees healthy.

• Try to keep your pelvis in a neutral position so tail bone pointing down to the floor and lower ribs in. A similar good neutral relationship between your ribs and pelvis should be encouraged whilst running.

• Try to lift the inner arches of your feet and plug down with your big toes.

Mini Standing pose sequence

Warm up with cat and cow and downward dog pedal and a few planks.

Warrior 1

The video below starts with warrior 1. This is a gentle backbend; and a great pose for stretching the anterior chain, hip flexors and quads i.e the front of the body while strengthening the legs, hips, glutes, and upper body. Runners and cyclists are notorious for getting tight hips so incorporate as many hip flexor stretches as your can into your stretching regime.

TIP: Try to keep your hips squared, your front knee bending over your front foot and look up to encourage thoracic extension.

Triangle

This pose is a side stretch and you will probably feel it mostly in the topside of your back, especially in your QL (quadratus lumborm).

TIP: Don’t lean too far down to start and try to imagine your body between two panes of glass so that your lower hip, shoulders and head are leaning on a wall behind you. 

This pose also stretches the hamstrings, abductors, hips, shoulders, chest and spine, and strengthens the feet, ankles and legs.

Warrior 2

This pose is an external hip opener and stretches the inner thighs and groin.

TIP: Make sure the front knee is bent over your front foot to keep good ankle, knee, hip alignment and don’t let it down in.  Tuck your tailbone under, try not to stick your bum out. Relax your shoulders and look over your front middle finger. 

Extending Side Angle 

This is another side stretch, with lateral flexion for the spine. It incorporates warrior 2 legs so you may get the same stretch in the groin area. It also stretches many muscles in the legs and hips.

TIP: Try to roll your bottom hip under whilst encouraging your top tip, top ribcage and shoulder to point up to the ceiling.  However don’t let your front knee drop inwards, keep that good ankle – knee – hip alignment.

At the start of your swim stroke, you want to lengthen and stretch out, reaching your hand forwards like in this pose.

Finish with a wide knee child pose for 10 breathes.

Yoga is a great addition to your training to keep you injury free, move better and recover quicker.

Enjoy!