I am a cheater!

I caught on quite fast to ways of cheating during Trikonasana (Triangle Pose). First there is always a way to put weight on your hands/fingers without the instructor catching on. I used to take advantage of my double jointed strong fingers by doing this. I have gained strength and stamina and no longer cheat here.

My favorite way to cheat is in the set up of the posture. The instructors say but don't always enforce that the set up in this posture is as important as the posture itself.. and they make you hold the set up part of it for sooo long. My set up is never a reflection of my full expression of the posture and so I wait as long as possible via fidgeting or playing with the position of my feet before I bend my font knee to go down.

I don't feel bad about cheating.. but it is time to come clean! At this point, my goal each class is to hold the posture for the full prescribed 30 to 60 seconds 2X each side. So I suppose when I am ready and don't feel like I am going to pass out midway through the pose- THEN I will work more on my set up.

We are told to move nothing but the arms when transitioning into Trikonasana from the set up. Once in the pose, I move my hips by pushing them farther down, my front stretched leg by turning the hip to the appropriate angle, and my torso goes down not quite strong enough yet to form a second triangle between my arm, chest, and leg.

So yes, I cheat. And it hurts so good.

Here is a video on how to properly setup and practice Trikonasana.