Subtle Rooting in Warrior Yoga Poses

My Yoga Online - Our Warrior Yoga poses bring warmth, strength, and expansion into our yoga flows. These standing asanas offer higher levels of physicality, thus requiring fine-tuning and continuous attention to detail in order for these poses to deliver maximum benefits. Besides our requirement for proper alignment and energy locks, we can also apply subtle rooting effects to further improve the reception of benefits from Warrior poses.

Once we have properly aligned our lower limbs and have positioned the front knee over the heel (perpendicular line to act harmoniously with gravity), we can explore light variations of what can be termed rajastic rooting. In Ayurvedic philosophy, we strive to move into a sattvic state-an existence of calmness and harmony. Rajastic states are typically considered to be disturbing one from the existence of harmony-unfocussed states of creating heat. In the context of our subtle rooting, this rajastic rooting will be done so with mindful control, which will facilitate a sattvic state in later stages of the yoga practice.

As our heel floats over the knee in our Warrior pose, we can discernibly feel the effects of gravity. The quadriceps (thigh) and gluteal (buttock) muscles contract to hold the lower limbs in place. The longer we hold the pose, the more we develop our endurance in the muscle tissues. When the knee is taken into this flexed position against gravity, sheer forces act directly on the knee joint. If we start off the pose or collapse the pose so that knee drifts over the heel, the angle of knee flexion increases and the sheer forces increase in the joint structure. Over repeated applications of misalignment, the sheer forces may generate chronic injuries in the knee.

Rajastic rooting through the foot can help reduce the effects of sheer forces on the knee. We can feel the various pressure points coming into our feet-the toes, toes mounds, and heel. With controlled rajastic rooting, we wish to lightly feed down through the contact points with the intention of lightly pressing the earth away from us. As with the laws of physics, the earth reciprocates and presses back. This energetic pressure can be received up the body through to the crown. This energetic lift helps emphasis expansion in the pose, creates lightness, shifts us away from collapse and increases our endurance capacity.

More importantly, the rajastic rooting protects the knee. But in order for the knee to receive the full benefits of the rooting, we should be aware of exactly how and what the foot should be experiencing. It is very common for yoga practitioners to allow Warrior poses to ground into the toes-generally manifested as grabbing of the toes into the mat. This effect of grabbing creates tension in the arches of the foot and can often encourage the knee to collapse forward. Therefore, we strive to relax the toes, bring lightness into the arches, and to avoid rajastic rooting with the toes.

The ideal contact point to explore rajastic rooting is in the heel. With subtle pressure, we can ground down through the heel point while visualizing the knee floating back over the heel line. Many often feel a shift of energy out of the knee joint and into the quadriceps (thigh) muscle. The muscle takes better control of the standing pose and we experience less sheer forces in the joint. As we work through the heel, we continue to emphasis expansion in the foot, right down through the toe mounds and toes. This lightness, again, flows up through the vertebrae and often is received into face.

As we increase the depth of our Warrior poses, we continue to apply this rooting principle along with our protective core locks. The posture retains integrity and purpose. We can also appreciate how this rajastic rooting can be taken into other standing yoga poses like Chair Pose (utkatasana) and Crescent Moon Pose. Exploring and enjoying new techniques like rajastic rooting brings growth to our practice and encourages holistic progression.

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