Warrior 1 is one of those poses that beginners can master, but is quite difficult to perfect. Releasing the glutes and external rotators on the posterior hip of the back leg and engaging the medial line to create internal rotation and placing the hips forward can be difficult for many and can create compression in the SI joint, in due to psoas restriction. and pyriform.
Why is this? Personally, I don’t attribute all of this to tight psoas, weak adductors, and tight external rotators; this returns to the rear foot position. Traditionally, we are told to diagonalize the back foot at an angle between 45° and 60°. 45o creates easier balance but makes it harder to square the hip. 60° may be a little easier on the back, but the balance may not feel as stable.
Many teachers position the back foot at 45°, then adjust their students’ hips to place them forward. However, this alignment creates an incongruity between the direction of the foot and that of the knee, which in my opinion is not healthy on a neuro-muscular level.
The compensation pattern called pronation distortion syndrome involves the foot pointing laterally, while the knee squints medially, creating internal rotation through the leg and hip. This pattern creates a knee valgus which in turn causes the inner arch of the foot to pronate. The similarities between this compensation model and the universal signals we use for Warrior 1 are obvious.
Lateral positioning of the foot, combined with medial rotation of the leg, places inappropriate pressure on the knee, particularly the ACL. This also creates a muscle imbalance on the side chain. The peroneal muscles on the outside of the calf can become excessively tight as they attempt to orient the knee forward. Leg tension can continue up the inside and outside of the thigh, through the adductors (medial thigh), the vastus lateralis (lateral quadriceps), the biceps femoris (lateral hamstrings). These side chain muscles contract eccentrically to create stability in the knee joint and maintaining the balance of these muscles with the other muscles of the leg and hip is essential for healthy alignment.
The muscular imbalance involved in pronation distortion syndrome can also continue up to the hip and spine, creating bursitis, facet and disc pain, lateral pelvic tilt, and even extreme scoliosis.
The pronation distortion syndrome pattern can be avoided on your yoga mat by following the simple rule that whether for standing poses, squats, lunges, seated poses, or backbends, the knees should follow the direction of the toes and of course, tolerances must be taken into account. for individual postural support models. For Warrior One, you can let the hips tilt slightly to the side, diagonalize the back foot from 45o to 60o, and widen the feet from a tightrope to a train track to create more space for the SI joint. Or, if like me you want the back foot to be completely away from the diagonal and completely in line with the hips, use crescent pose instead.