Depending upon the way that you practice triangle pose, and for sure there is more than one way to practice it, you may be attempting to laterally tilt your pelvis as you come into the posture in order to keep the top side waist short, the bottom side waist long, and to increase the stretch in the hamstrings. However, if you or your students are turning the pelvis too far to the side it may not be able to laterally tilt very far due to bony compression between the rim of the hip socket and the neck of the femur. In this short video clip, we demonstrate how turning the pelvis toward the front leg before going into the posture allows for significantly more range of motion in the pelvis. Once the pelvis has tilted, you can then place the hand on the leg (or a block or the floor), and use your core abdominal muscles to help rotate the trunk toward the side, allowing the pelvis to follow as much as it might like or need to. Check out the video, experiment and let us know what you think!

There seems to be two schools of thought regarding the position of the pelvis in parivritta trikonasana. Some teachers insist that the pelvis should be held in a level position and that the rotation should primarily occur in the spine, while others hold the view that the pelvis doesn't need to be level and that there are in fact benefits when you allow it to rotate (see a New Take on Twists by Jason Crandell, where he indicates how his view has changed about the position of the pelvis during rotated postures). I hold the latter view, that the pelvis should be allowed or even encouraged to follow the lumbar spine into the rotation, and in the following video present three benefits for doing so.

​The three main points that we explore in the video are that letting the pelvis follow the rotation of the lumbar spine will...

1. reduce the amount of torque at the sacroiliac joints,
2. adduct the front hip and create a unique and valuable opportunity to stretch the hip abductors, lateral rotators, lateral hamstrings and iliotibial band, and
3. create more freedom and ease in the neck and top shoulder.

As usual, please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

Related Posts

• ​​​Let's Do The Twist (Thoracolumbar Rotation)
• Spinal Extension Vs Flexion In Rotated Postures
• Anatomy of Asana: Revolved Chair Pose ​​​