Virabhadrasana III

Pronunciation: (veer-ah-bah-DRAWS-ahna)

Derivation: In Hindu mythology, Virabhadra is the name of a fierce warrior hero born from a hair that Shiva, the chief of the gods, threw on the ground when he was distraught over an affront to his wife, Sati.  Ultimately Virabhadra leads an army and prevails over the perpetrator.  In Sanskrit “Asana” means “pose”.

In this pose one can embody the ferocity of this warrior who is said to have a thousand heads, eyes, and feet and carry a thousand clubs. It is a challenging pose that brings out your inner warrior. Sequence the pose in the middle of class or practice. Virabhadrasana III is a standing and balancing pose on one leg.

Technique: In order to perform Virabhadrasana III, start by doing Virabhadrasana I, also called Warrior I. 

To get into Virabhadrasana I, begin in Tadasana, the “simple” standing “mountain” pose.  Lightly jump the feet apart to a distance about a foot wider then your leg length.  Land with your feet parallel to each other.  Activate your legs and turn your left foot inwards sixty degrees and your right foot out ninety degrees.  An imaginary line drawn beneath the center of the forward right foot should bisect the center of the arch of the rear left foot.  Stretch your arms to the sides with the palms facing the sky.  Extend the arms maximally stretching through your fingertips.  Keeping this full extension, bring the arms up so that the fingertips are pointing straight overhead.

Turn your torso and pelvis fully to face your right leg.  The line between your side hip bones should be perpendicular to the line from the center of your forward right foot to the center of the arch of your rear left foot.  Rotate the outer rear left leg forward and the inner real left leg back and bring the inner thighs toward each other.  This will help turn the pelvis.

Your legs should be active and straight.  Use your quadriceps to lift your kneecaps.  Keep weight on the outside of your rear left foot and the inside of your forward right foot.  Keep your arms extended, lean slightly back and arch your head back so as to look at the ceiling.  Further adjust your pelvic angle by bringing the inner thighs close together.

Keep the back leg active and rotate your rear left foot’s metatarsal bones backwards raising the foot’s arch.  Descend the pelvis by bending your front right leg to a right angle with the knee over the ankle. You may need to change the distance of the feet from each other so that when you reach a right angle the outer knee bone is directly over the outer ankle bone.  Keep your back left leg straight with the outer left foot pressing into the floor.  Keep your arms extending directly overhead.  Use your arms to lift your rib cage up from your descending pelvis.  As the renowned yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar says, "Arms ascending, groins descending."  Keep your hips and your shoulders parallel.  Keep active in the arches in both feet and maintain an even weight distribution through the toes of your standing right leg.  Sense a strong foundation. 

This is Virabhadrasana I.  This pose should be kept for a few seconds prior to moving into Virabhadrasana III.

When you are ready, bring the rear left foot’s heel up so that your weight is on the balls of the foot, the foot is perpendicular to the ground and the left knee faces the ground.  Keep the right leg bent at ninety degrees, the arms extended overhead and rib cage raised from the pelvis.  Bend at the waist and position your extended torso parallel to the floor resting on your bent right leg.

Shift your weight over the front leg and gradually straighten it into a balance with the right leg totally straight and perpendicular to the floor.  The pelvis and raised left leg should be parallel to the floor.  The left foot should be perpendicular to the floor.  Keep the left leg’s quadriceps muscles actively raising the left kneecap.   Keep the arms extended overhead with the palms facing each other.

Extend the arms forward and the rear left leg backward with a flexed foot.  Look at a point on the floor ahead of you to help keep your balance as you move into the pose. Your neck should be long and your shoulders should relaxed away from the ears, not scrunched up.

Alignment in the posture is critical.   Keep both groins parallel to each other.  The buttocks and arms should also be parallel.  Your head should be in line with your heel.   Keep the back of the head down, gaze downward and the raised leg up so that it is parallel with the floor!

Extend your legs and lift your kneecaps with your quadriceps muscles throughout the pose.  Keep your legs active in the pose to prevent possible knee injury and hyperextension.

Come back down with control to Virabhadrasana I.  Straighten the bent right leg.  Reverse the position of the legs and do the pose to the left side.

Build up your duration in the pose until you can hold the balance on each side for at least 30 seconds.

Beginner’s Tip: If your balance is shaky, try placing your hands on your sides instead of in front of you. Or extend your hands but put them on the wall or a Pune pony or a chair for something to hold onto gently. The raised leg’s hip is often higher than the hip of the standing leg.  If this happens, bring the raised hip down until it is even with the other hip. Extending the leg as you rotate the hip down helps this to happen in a controlled fashion.

Variation: Place the lifted foot on the wall behind you. Make sure your body is parallel to the floor in this pose. Try holding the pose for gradually increasing times starting with 30 seconds on your yoga timer. Work up to longer times like a couple of minutes. Alternatively, you also might want to do the pose as part of a vinyasa (yoga flow) sequence and hold it for a shorter amount of time.

Benefits:

Builds core strength in the torso, abdomen, spine and pelvic floor
Back muscles get work
Legs and arms are toned
Builds balance and works the brain in a new way that enhances coordination
Quiets the mind and reduces anxiety
Calms the nervous system
Builds concentration and focus, one of the goals of yoga
Feet and ankles get work
Helps digestion
Clears the head mentally
Posture improves
Contraindications:
Don’t do the pose if you have high blood pressure, foot, ankle, knee, leg or hip problems.
If you are pregnant, do the pose in a supported way with the hands and lifted leg on chairs or some other support of the correct height.

Thanks to Victor Oppenheimer of Yoga.com who lends his yoga expertise to the editing of this
article. He is an Iyengar yoga teacher with decades of experience. He recently
returned from the Yoga Journal Yoga Convention in Colorado featuring BKS Iyengar, his teacher.

Copyright Yoga People, LLC
All Rights Reserved