Virabhadrasana II “Warrior II/ Pose for the sage Virabhadra”
Virabhadra was a fierce and auspicious warrior, an incarnation of Shiva – pictured with a thousand arms and a vicious demeanor. Consider this a call to summon up your own courage!
Some benefits:
- can invite a deep and grounded feeling of empowerment
- stretches the soles of the feet, the hips and the chest
- strengthens the ankles and the thighs
- increases stamina
- therapeutic for carpal tunnel syndrome, sciatica, flat feet, and osteoporosis.
Contraindications:
- diarrhea
- neck injury (do not turn head to look over bent knee)
- knee injury (keep front knee anchored in line with front ankle)
Entering the pose:
Beginning in Tadasana, inhale the arms straight out to the sides, palms down and shoulder blades working in towards the heart and down towards the waist. Step the feet apart so that they fall just under the wrists. Come up on to the right heel, swivel the right foot out 90 degrees. Tuck the left heel back, pressing down through the outer left heel.
Inhale to feel the spine floating up, with the torso perpendicular to the floor. Exhale and bend the right knee and press it open until the knee comes in line with the ankle.
If the neck is feeling good, feel it lengthen and then turn it to look out past the right fingers.
Within the pose: continue to feel the feet grounded, the tailbone lengthening towards the floor, the energy radiating out through the fingers. Find your strength at manipura chakra, just at the base of the ribcage. Dive into this energy as you inhale and feel it spread outwards as you exhale. Take courage to drop the right thigh bone towards parallel with the ground, without losing the alignment of the right knee and the right ankle. Press back into the back of the left heel to stay grounded in this intention to go deeper.
Exiting the pose:
Inhale to lengthen the back of the right leg. Turn the feet so that they are parallel to each other and step the left foot back to the right, coming into Tadasana. Repeat on the left side.