One
In traditional lineages, Warrior 1 encourages a heel-to-heel alignment of the feet on the mat. For most of us, this positioning is too narrow. With both “feet on a balance beam” alignment positioning, it is impossible to “square the hips”. Trying to do this creates a tremendous amount of torque on the back of the knee and the low back. I strongly dislike the square your hips verbiage used too often by instructors. It is not realistic and not possible for most of the poses practiced in yoga. When you practice Warrior 1, you rotate your pelvis toward your front leg which in the yoga community has created an ambiguous final destination of trying to achieve squared hips.
Because one leg is behind you, your pelvis will never be square. Add the heel down to that back leg which differentiates Warrior 1 from High Lunge/High Crescent (where the heel is up and you are stabilizing via the ball of the back foot), and no matter how you try, your will have reduced rotation in that hip. You are not doing anything wrong. This is how your body is designed. Trying to get the hips square can lead to applying too much rotational force. If you apply too much rotational force and the pelvis cannot actually rotate more as you do this, you start to destabilize the SI joint.
What is the SI joint? The sacroiliac (SI) joint is located in the pelvis. It links the iliac bone (pelvis) to the sacrum (lowest part of the spine above the tailbone). These joints (left and right) transfer weight and forces between your upper body and legs.
Additionally, the pelvis often overly anteriorly tilts (an anterior pelvic tilt is when your pelvis is rotated forward, which forces your low back to curve more) in Warrior 1 due to tight hip-flexors and adductors. This also contributes to discomfort.
Trying to turn something that can’t turn any longer produces unproductive and undesirable stress. When your pelvis stops rotating toward the front leg in Warrior 1, stop trying to rotate it more.
How to Make Your Warrior 1 Feel Better
Stop trying to go so far! Forget about “squared hips” in this pose.
Keep neutral spinal curves, meaning you don’t need to tuck your pelvis to round the low back, nor do you need to exaggerate the curve in your low back.
Instead of having heel to heel alignment (front leg heel has an invisible line to the back leg heel), take your feet wider apart. Minimally take them hip distance apart. Take your feet to the side edges of the mat if you want!
That front foot wants to turn out? Let it!
Slight turn out of the back foot can help with ankle limitations.
You can shorten your stride. While this is an acceptable modification, you may lose the engagement of the lower half of the body in this pose. In all of our standing poses, we want that grounding sensation in the feet with that energy line active from the sole of the foot to the hips. Often, keeping your normal Warrior 1 stride and taking your feet wider apart (towards the sides of your yoga mat) will negate the need to shorten your stride.
Engage your buttock on the straight leg if this action does not irritate your SI Joint.
Play with bearing a bit more weight in the back leg. It is a subtle weight distribution difference between the front and back leg, but this engagement can help with the rotation of the pelvis.
All the above gives you space to find rotation in your spine separate from your pelvis, for Warrior 1. If it still feels uncomfortable, try this brilliant technique (and name) credited to Jason Crandell:
Warrior 1.5
In Warrior 1.5, you rotate your pelvis and spine so they are facing the front corner of your mat (if right foot is the forward leg, you would face the left front corner of your mat). You will find yourself midway between Warrior 1 and Warrior 2, hence the name. In this version, there is no independent rotation between the pelvis and spine. The pelvic points and shoulders are square to each other.
What about those shoulders?
When teaching yoga teachers in training, I had them go into Warrior 1 and asked those who did not like this pose to tell me why. Most did not like how their pelvis/hip/SI joint felt, which we discussed above. I had one student where that was not her complaint. It was her shoulders. When I watched her go into the pose, she was overcompensating, trying to get her arms aligned with her ears as she reached up. She felt constricted. I asked her why she was bringing her arms to her ears. She told me that is what yoga instructors told her to do, what she thought was the “correct” way, and what she saw on social media. This saddens me as so many of us go into this “I should do it this way as this is how I see it presented in other bodies”, vs. “I am am going to honor the uniqueness in my own body and adjust to how this best works for me.”
Those of you who can bring your arms up aligned with your ears (and I am one of them), GREAT!
Those of you who find shoulder discomfort. Try this:
Play with externally rotating the arms as your raise your arms up, turning the triceps toward the midline of the body.
Open the biceps away from each other.
Let your hands go slightly wider than the shoulders.
Shoulder blades wrap forward around the armpits.
Still can’t find relief when you bring your arms in line with your ears? Then don’t do it! Your arms can be forward of the head instead of alongside the ears. This will provide more integrity in the spine and shoulder area and should ease discomfort.