Warrior III

Balanced on one leg, torso and lifted leg forming one horizontal line. The single-leg hinge running is built on.

· 2 min read

yoga · balance · hamstring · glute · foot · ankle · standing

The lesson

  1. 1

    Root one foot, soften the knee

    Weight onto one foot, spread across big toe, little toe and heel. That leg stays long but the knee is soft, never locked.

  2. 2

    Hinge and lift together

    Tip your torso forward from the hip as the other leg lifts behind you. They move as one lever — think see-saw, not "lift the leg".

  3. 3

    One horizontal line

    Stop where your torso and your lifted leg make a single line, roughly parallel to the floor. Lower is fine. Higher than horizontal isn't the pose.

  4. 4

    Level the hips, flex the foot

    Your lifted hip wants to roll open toward the ceiling. Turn it back down so both hip points face the floor, and press back through the heel with the toes pointing down.

  5. 5

    Gaze down, arms wherever you're steady

    Eyes on one spot on the floor below you. Hands at your chest to start, alongside your body as you settle, reaching forward past your ears when you want it harder.

  6. 6

    The test

    You should feel the hamstring and glute of the standing leg working hard, and your foot making constant small corrections. If your low back is what's working, you've lifted the leg higher than your torso has come down — level the line out.

Warrior III

How to do it

Stand tall, then move the weight onto one foot, spreading it across the big toe, little toe and heel. Keep that leg long with the knee soft rather than locked. Hinge the torso forward from the hip joint and let the other leg lift behind you at the same rate — the two ends of one lever, tipping like a see-saw. Stop when the torso and the lifted leg form a single line roughly parallel to the floor. Turn the lifted hip back down so both hip points face the floor, and flex the lifted foot, pressing back through the heel with the toes pointing down. Gaze at one spot on the floor beneath you. Hands rest at the chest, reach back alongside the body, or extend forward past the ears — hardest last. Hold, then step back to standing and switch sides.

Why it's good for runners

This is the closest thing in yoga to what a running stride actually is: standing on one leg, hinged at the hip, with the pelvis held level by nothing but the glute on that side. The standing leg's hamstring and glute work hard to hold the line, the foot and ankle make constant small corrections underneath, and the deep hip has to stop the free side of the pelvis from dropping. That last job is the one that quietly fails in the back half of a long run, and when it does the knee starts collapsing inward on every footstrike. Held before a run, Warrior III wakes that whole chain up as a contraction, so nothing about it costs you freshness.

Common mistakes

Don't let the lifted hip roll open toward the ceiling — it's the most common fault in the pose and it takes the standing glute straight out of the job. Don't lift the back leg higher than the torso has lowered; that arches the low back and turns a hip hinge into a back extension. And don't lock the standing knee — a soft knee lets the foot and ankle do the balancing, which is the point.

Related

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Chair

Feet together, knees bent, hips back, arms overhead. A held squat that wakes the quads, glutes and ankles standing up.

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Crescent Lunge

Long split stance, front knee bent, back leg straight with the heel lifted. Hip flexor, calf and sole of the foot in one shape.

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Warrior I

Split stance with the back heel planted and turned in, hips square to the front, arms overhead. Hip flexor and calf on stretch under load.

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