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In today’s day and age, you have to be gritty, resilient, mentally strong, physically tenacious and disagreeable at times if you truly want to get to a position of respect. If you lack in any of those areas, you can perhaps be looking at a handful of physical and mental ailments later in life, especially if your physical and mental health are not on par. However, having healthy levels of all of the attributes mentioned above can make you an urban warrior of sorts. If you are someone who is looking to improve in those departments, this article is for you, as it talks about Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose, the third of the Virabhadrasana poses that are practiced by millions of people around the world to eventually awaken the warrior within.
Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose is the last Yoga asana in the Virabhadrasana series of Yoga poses. This particular position is practiced by Yogis primarily to gain body balance as well as promote the overall health and strength of their entire body.
Much like in the case of Virabhadrasana I and Virabhadrasana II, the name of this pose also comes from Virabhadra, an incarnation of Lord Shiva that was known for his valiance. However, this pose, as is implied by its position in the series, is relatively the most complex one and requires a significant amount of body awareness and balance. But, if you are someone who indulges in a Yoga session regularly, you will perhaps be able to execute this pose with relative ease.
Some of the benefits of the Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose are as follows:
Virabhadrasana III Calms Down Your Sciatic Nerve: Sciatica is essentially a condition that is categorised by the pain, weakness, numbness or a tingling sensation in one of your legs, which could be a symptom of a medical problem. Practitioners of the Virabhadrasana III pose who previously suffered from Sciatica have reported less instances of the same after beginning to practice the pose, which is to say that this position calms down your stressed sciatic nerve.
Virabhadrasana III Increases Your Focus: Another cornerstone of warrior 3 pose is focus, which is something that is required at all stages of this pose. Given that you need to be aware of all of the movements in your body while performing this taxing Yoga asana, practicing the same will enhance your focus level, which will practically pay off every time you need to complete tasks that ask for a considerable amount of your attention.
Virabhadrasana III Increases Your Balance: One of the primary cornerstones of warrior 3 pose is balance as it is essentially a balancing act. That is to say that if you practice this pose regularly, you are bound to improve your bodily balance over time, which would indicate that your body is getting stronger as a whole.
Virabhadrasana III Strengthens Your Lower Body And Core: This pose requires the practitioner to balance their entire body on one leg at a time, which directly benefits the leg by strengthening them with regular practice. Another ancillary yet a notable benefit is the strengthening of your abdominal muscles, which in turn improves your overall body balance.
Virabhadrasana III Strengthens Your Back: Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose elongates almost all of the back muscles, which aids in their strengthening. A strong back eventually improves body frame, posture and as a result of the same, you will never stand a chance of walking around with a hunched back later in life.
Before attempting the Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose, you must ensure that you have done a handful of warm up poses for the same already, such as the Virabhadrasana I, virabhadrasana II, Uttanasana and Vrikshasana. Once you have done the recommended number of rounds of them, follow the step-by-step guide below in order to execute Virabhadrasana III position perfectly.
Virabhadrasana III Step 1: Stand in an upright stance with your feet close to each other and your hands besides your hips.
Virabhadrasana III Step 2: Bring both of your hands to your heart centre in a namaste stance and then distance all your fingers from one another.
Virabhadrasana III Step 3: Begin the process of folding your torso forward while keeping it straight. Simultaneously, you must lift one leg of yours at the same speed as that of your torso until you bring your lifted leg and torso in a 180 degree alignment.
Virabhadrasana III Step 4: Point the toe of the lited leg foot and look down on the ground in order to find balance. At the same time, you must make sure that you use all four corners of your grounded foot to maintain the said balance.
Virabhadrasana III Step 5: Lift the knee cap of your grounded leg enough to engage the outer thighs and then squeeze your inner thighs to engage them as well.
Virabhadrasana III Step 6: Take a deep breath in to elongate your spine.
Virabhadrasana III Step 7: Exhale and tilt your upper body a little bit while reaching out ahead with your arms.
Virabhadrasana III Step 8: Tuck in your lower belly and shift your tailbone a little bit towards your left foot in order to give some support to your lower back.
Virabhadrasana III Step 9: Hold on to this position for 5-10 breaths.
Virabhadrasana III Step 10: Retreat to your original position and repeat the steps mentioned above, but this time around, use your other leg to ground yourself.
Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose should be ideally practiced as a part of a yoga routine since the other poses help the body warm up for this incredibly challenging asana. Additionally, you must keep you stomach and bladder empty for at least 4-6 hours prior to practicing to avoid unnecessarily time-consuming breaks.
People facing the following circumstances should avoid executing the Virabhadrasana III pose:
Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose is all about balance and focus, which implies that it engages the lower half of the body the most. As you begin to enter this position, you will begin feeling a series of simultaneous expansions as well as contractions in your lower body.
When your body and lifted leg become parallel to the floor, you will essentially be engaging the hips, the quadriceps (outer thighs), calves, hamstrings and inner thighs.
When you begin to extend your arms in front of you as if you are reaching out for something, you will truly begin to engage your upper body as well, and while doing so, you will elongate your back, tone your abdominal area, inflate your chest, put your shoulders to use and stretch your arms, which aids in its strengthening with regular practice.
Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose gets its name from the firecest known incarnation of lord Shiva, Virabhadra. The term, which also translates to the phrase “Humble Warrior”, was given to this pose as it is supposed to invoke, awaken and/or strengthen the physical and mental warrior within.
Some of the alternative techniques of Virabhadrasana are as follows:
Virabhadrasana III airplane pose: This asana requires the Yogi to get their arms to their sides like wings on an aeroplane in order to provide more balance to the body.
Half warrior pose: This variation of the Virabhadrasana III only requires the student to bend their torso as well as lift their leg by 45 degrees instead of the 90 in the case of the original version.
Virabhadrasana III with blocks: This variation requires the practitioner to keep a block in front of them after achieving full motion so that he/she can hold on to it for balance.
Virabhadrasana III squat pose: In this variation, the Yogi is supposed to squat with one leg after achieving full motion in order to increase the difficulty level.
Virabhadrasana pose III with chair: This is your standard Virabhadrasana III pose, but with the difference of the practitioner keeping a chair in front of them in case they feel the need of some upper body support while doing the repetition.
One can only get better at Virabhadrasana III also known as warrior 3 pose, or any pose for that matter, with practice and determination. In order to get better, you can perhaps even challenge yourself by practicing various other challenging versions of this Asana. Additionally, you can always come back to BalanceGurus and go through the step-by-step guide for Virabhadrasana III once again.
If you would like to read about the other Warrior yoga poses feel free to read
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