The Right Triangle

No two styles of yoga teach the same pose the same way, and nowhere is this more evident than with Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). So who's right? We asked five instructors to show us their approach to Triangle and compared their methods.

By Todd Jones

If you've taken classes from more than one yoga teacher, you've already discovered that any yoga pose can be approached from an infinite number of angles. Different schools of yoga, different yoga teachers—even the same teacher on different days—will take different approaches to the same pose. Some of the instructions you hear probably sound straightforward and obvious to you, some inscrutable or mysterious—and some downright contradictory.

And nowhere is this more true than for Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). You might think it's a reasonably simple asana. After all, it's one of the very first poses introduced to beginners in Iyengar Yoga. In the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga, the flowing style taught by K. Pattabhi Jois, Trikonasana is the first in the long series of asymmetrical standing poses. It's one of the 12 primary poses taught in Sivananda Yoga and one of the 26 poses in Bikram Choudhury's basic series—though it turns out that both of these versions are very different from the Ashtanga and Iyengar versions, as well as from each other.

Let's see: Should you separate your legs 4 to 5 feet apart—or one leg-length's distance apart—or even less? Turn your back foot in 10 or 15 degrees, or keep it perpendicular to your front foot? Narrow your hip points, or broaden across your belly? Or, somehow, do both at the same time? Rotate your upper leg out, yet draw your inner groin back? Draw your front leg buttock toward your sacrum, or broaden across your sacrum? Just where is your pelvis supposed to be, and how in the world do you get it there? Help!

The variety of instruction is enough to bewilder anyone. But are there some consistent principles that run through all these details? Are all these different approaches just alternate paths to the same destination? Or are there lots of different agendas all masquerading under the name Trikonasana? And how does all this focus on physical detail relate to the deeper levels of benefit that asana practice can provide, like increased strength, flexibility, and ease in the muscles and skeleton, enhanced functioning of the internal organs, greater peace and calm, and the experience of unity and freedom that is yoga's most profound promise?

To try to answer some of these questions, we approached experienced yoga teachers from five traditions—Iyengar; the vinyasa (flowing) Ashtanga of Pattabhi Jois; Kripalu Yoga; Sivananda Yoga; and the "Hot Yoga" method taught by Bikram Choudhury. We asked them how they teach Trikonasana—and why. What do they think are the keys to the pose? How does it benefit the body? And where does it fit into the whole enterprise of yoga?

Iyengar Yoga

"In Iyengar yoga, we start with the base of the pose," says Leslie Peters, director of the Los Angeles Iyengar Yoga Institute. "The alignment of the feet is the first thing we focus on. Standing in Tadasana [Mountain Pose], you jump or walk the feet wide apart—and wide means as much as 4 to 5 feet apart—turning your right leg out and your left foot in slightly. If you draw a line from the center of your right heel straight back, it should bisect the center of your left arch."

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