REVERSE IT!

One of my favorite yoga poses is "Reverse Warrior." It's an interesting pose because you really work in two very different directions. In life, as in yoga, we often find ourselves with opposing priorities, and sometimes even opposing, contradictory views. What I've found, and what Core Strength Vinyasa Yoga teaches, is that when we are pulled in different directions, it's important

to remember our center, and to work on expressing from there.

In "Reverse Warrior," you start from Warrior Two. That is, you start from a lunge position, with the back foot flat on the floor, and the front toes and knee pointing in the same direction...straight in front of you. The knee should be over the ankle, or close. The back thigh is pressing back, the front knee resists the urge to turn in, but tracks along with the third toe---straight ahead. The torso is centered over the hips, and the sides of the torso are long.

The pelvic floor (everything below your belly button,) is lifted. Core Strength Vinyasa Yogis like to pull the naval in and up a little bit, and press the lower ribs back towards the spine. We then lift the heart, and relax the shoulders down away from the ears, and the arms extend out from the shoulders. Your gaze is right over the middle finger of your front hand...the one that corresponds to your lunging knee.

We're still just in Warrior Two. To go to Reverse Warrior, You take that front hand, and begin to reach it back, over your ear, and let your back hand slide down your back leg, which stretches the side body. What always happens in the pose is that the lunging leg begins to straighten, and we go out of the lunge...coming back towards a straight leg in front. I have to constantly remind myself and my students that just because we are reaching back, we don't have to let go of the forward direction in the front leg. If you can get that front leg to a 90 degree angle, and hold it there as you reach your front hand over your top ear...that's pretty cool and a beautiful pose.

You'll most likely find at this point, that while your reaching forward with your knee, and backward with your hand, you've lost your center, and your pelvis has left the building. So take a second to find center again. Lift that pelvic floor up, and re-engage your belly and low ribs. You'll then have a longer, more powerfully supported reverse warrior. Take a few deep breaths, long inhales and exhales. Lift your torso back to warrior two on an exhale, and take a few breaths there. That's working from your center.

In life, it's the same deal. When you're feeling pulled in opposite directions, you should always take a second to re-engage your center. What are your core beliefs and values? What do you hold up as an ultimate truth? When you're coming from that place, and reminding yourself of that, you get an innate sense of which direction to adjust, where to back off, and where to reach forward. It's a powerful thing to remember, and a wonderful thing to practice.