Lower back, hips, knees and ankles

Triangle: Classic

Opens your side body through lateral spinal flexion with a rotational component, improving the flexibility of your lateral chain and helping to reduce one-sided stiffness.

How to do it

1. 1

   Step your feet wide apart along one line

   Front foot turned out, back foot turned slightly in, hips and chest facing the long side. A shorter stance is always available.

2. 2

   Reach out over your front leg before you go down

   Lengthen sideways first. That reach is what makes the room for the bend that follows.

3. 3

   Lower the bottom hand toward the shin or the floor

   Only as far as the side of your body stays long. A block, or the forearm on the thigh, catches the hand higher up.

4. 4

   Keep the top shoulder stacked and the front knee soft

   A micro bend in the front knee keeps the work in the hip and the side of the body rather than the back of the knee.

5. 5

   Hold 30 to 60 seconds on each side

   Come up slowly with a long spine, then set up on the other side.

What to watch for

Chasing the floor with the bottom hand. As soon as the chest starts turning down toward the front leg, you have gone past the shape and the side bend and the turn begin stacking on each other.

Ways to adjust it

• Block
• Forearm on thigh
• Short stance
• Micro bend cue

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

• Triangle: Back to Wall

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Triangle Pose versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

• Triangle: Back to Wall
• Triangle: Chair

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.