POTW: Crescent Warrior

Intro: If you’ve ever been to a yoga class, you’ve probably done it. Crescent Warrior is a very popular yoga pose that works on endurance and flexibility in the whole body. For beginners, the best way to get into crescent warrior is from a lunge position. With your knee above your ankle in your front leg, root your back foot so that your toes are pressing into the ground, and straighten your back leg by engaging the hamstring and pressing down into your back foot. The hip of the foot in front pulls back, and the back hip pulls forward to align the hips. Engage your lower core, reaching your tailbone to the ground to straighten the spine. Your arms reach straight up, but make sure that you do not arch you back to do this. The flexibility should come from your arms reaching back to bring your arms to be perpendicular to the ground.

Tips: A lot of people put too much weight in the front of their front foot. Squeeze your thighs toward one another and lift the toes of your front leg off the ground. This is going to help you balance out the weight distribution in your legs and engage your front hamstring more. Don’t puff your chest out either, Superman.

Modification: If this is too hard, drop the back knee to the ground and flip your foot so that the top of your back foot on is the ground. You can still work on flexibility, core strength, and endurance with just the front foot planted.