Warrior 2 - everything you need to know!

Would you like to have everything you need to know about Warrior 2 in one place ..well look no further my friends, we've got you covered! Here at Yoga Course we want to give our students not only the ability to verbally teach postures, but to also safely adjust their own students when they need to. That's why we have a whole module dedciated to assisitng on our 300hr Yoga Teacher Training and our 500hr Yoga Teacher Training, along with a CPD course Mastering the Assist that will soon be launching - so if you're already qualified, but 300hr training isn't for you right now, you can still have the option to learn what is an incredibly powerful tool!

Although verbal cues and self adjustments are always best, there are of course occasions where a passive or hands on assist can really bennefit a student, and not just in that moment. The beauty of assisting is that you can really shed a light of awareness on a posture for some stuents that will stay with them forever, they will feel that posture in a whole new way, a way in which verbal cues alone wouldn't have helped them reach.

So a few things to note before we look at how to adjust:

Who shouldn’t do Warrior 2?

Anyone with high blood pressure should not extend arms overhead for an extended period.

Anyone with hip or knee injury/issues should shorten the distance between the feet and lessen the bend of the knee.

Anyone with a neck injury should keep the head in neutral rather than rotate the head.

What are the benefits of Warrior 2?

Stretches the groin.

Opens the chest and shoulders.

Strengthens and tones the thighs, ankles and shoulders.

How do you do Warrior 2? (right side)

From Downward Facing Dog step the right foot forward between the hands. Ensure the right knee is stacked on top of the ankle and at around 90 degrees. Turn the left foot in to around 45 degrees and lower the foot to the mat grounding through the outside edge. The heel of the right foot should be in line with the arch of the left foot. Engage core muscles by drawing naval to the spine and lift the torso opening the hips and heart space out to face the long edge of the mat. Raise the arms to shoulder height, palms facing down. The gaze can be in the direction of the hips or the middle finger of the front hand.

How do you adjust or assist students in Warrior 2?

Whenever we adjust a student there a few things to consdier first. Firstly, have you offered a verbal cue? If the answer is yes, then you need to consider offering it in a different way. If you do this and it's still not having the desired effect, then it's time to consider stepping in, after you have sought permission from your student - the most important rule! 

With any adjustment we should work from the foundation up. So check in with the feet first to ensure they are where they should be. So for Warrior 2 the front foot should have the toes pointing forward, and the ankle sitting directly underneath the knee. The back foot should be at about 45 degrees and should be pressed firmly into the mat, with particular focus on the outside edge of the foot - this is where we find a common misalignment in that some students do not press actively through the outside edge of that foot, and therefore it lifts from the mat, and in doing so means that the back knee starts to rotate inwards which can cause injury. So to simply adjust this we can step onto the outside edge of the students foot with our foot, and gently press down. If that assist isn't quite for you, we can offer the same with our hand. This should encourage the knee to become straight, however if it doesn't we can place the palm of our hand to the inside of the students thigh, just above the knee and gently encourage some straightness.

Next we would look at the front knee, we want that knee to be stacking directly over the front ankle. A common misalignment here is that the knee will either sit too far behind, overshoot the ankle, press out and away from the body too far, or fall inwards. To correct this we can place our hand in front of the knee, and ask the student to bend further in towards the hand to bring the knee over the ankle, unless there is a reason that there is less bend in the knee such as an injury. If the knee is overshooting we can place our hand onto the knee and gently press it back whilst communicating our intention with the student. If the knee is pressing out to the side or falling in, we can place the palm of our hand on the relevant side of the knee, and ask the student to move the knee towards our hand to square it over the ankle.

Next we would look at the hips, and here we want the hips to be open and square towards the long edge of the mat. If your student needs assistance here, we can come behind the student explaining thats where we're approaching them from, and place your hands on either side of the hips and square them into the correct direction.

Moving up from the hips we're going to be looking at the shoulders and arms, so here we want the arms level with the shoulders, palms facing down and the shoulders relaxing down. A common misalignment here is that the back arm doesn't lift in line with the shoulder, so simply just lifting underneath to bring it level with the shoulder can assist here, and if the shoulders are lifting up towards the ears, we can place the palms of the hands gently on top of the shoulders and ask the student to relax down, aiding them in understanding that they need to drop their shouldrs. 

So your whistlestop tour of Warrior 2 is complete, you now know who shouldn't be doing Warrior 2, what the benefits are of Warrior 2, how to bring the student into Warrior 2, what to watch out for and how to assist your student if you need to. If you'd like to see some of these assists in action, you can download our free Warrior 2 assiting video right here. This video is directly from our new course, so not only will this give you tools on how to assist Warrior 2, but it will also give you an insight into what training with us is like! 
 

Want to know more?

If you'd like to know more about about the history of the warrior pose you can visit our blog The Story of Virabhadrasana which covers the history of Warror Two, and if you'd like to learn more about assisting, keep an eye out on our social media pages (Instagram and Facebook) along with our main Yoga Course website for updates on the launch of our yoga assisting course, mastering the assist.

Of course if 200hr Yoga Teacher Training, 300hr Yoga Teacher Training or 500hr Yoga Teacher Training, is something that you're interested in, you can view our syllabus for all of these courses on our website, and if you have any further questions please send us an email to info@yogacourse.com