This side stretch and lunge strengthens your core, hips, and back, while making your spine, shoulders, and hips more mobile. It’s useful for improving your posture, increasing power and range of motion for twisting or swinging motions, and helping prevent back pain and injury by strengthening the entire core.
Side Angle Pose Target Areas
- core
- spine
- hips
- shoulders
Side Angle Pose Benefits
- Stretches chest muscles to improve posture
- Strengthens middle back, spine, hips, and knees
- Improves spinal mobility
How to Do Side Angle
– click images to enlarge –
- Start in Warrior 2 (see p48) with your feet 4 to 5ft (1.25–1.5m) apart, your right foot perpendicular to the left, and front knee bent directly over the ankle. Extend arms outward, parallel to the floor and palms facing down. Square hips to the middle.
- Bend at the waist to move the torso over your bent leg. Reach your left arm toward the ceiling, palm facing forward, and extend right arm toward the ground. Tighten the left side of your body, lengthen your torso, and use your core to roll back the top shoulder and open chest. Turn your head to look up at hand. Hold the posture, inhaling as you lengthen the torso, and exhaling as you deepen the twist. Repeat on the other side.
Cues for Side Angle
- Lift ribs away from hips
- Keep knee over ankle
- Extend arms in opposite directions
- Engage core and obliques
- Keep weight in hips
- Keep both legs engaged
- Press into right heel
WHAT YOU SHOULD FEEL
- Stretch in groin, chest, shoulders, biceps, and back
- Intense engagement of core and thighs
WHAT YOU SHOULDN’T FEEL
- Lowered arm forcing the rotation; use core to twist
- Strain in neck; if you do, create more length in spine
PRO TIP: To challenge your core and get a deeper stretch, firmly engage the muscles on the exposed side of your body, drawing ribs toward your core to firmly engage obliques and strengthen core.
SIDE ANGLE MODIFICATION
To help maintain balance and stability, rest your hand on a block placed just inside the front foot.
About Dean Pohlman, Founder & CEO of Man Flow Yoga, Author of Yoga Fitness for Men, Expert on Yoga Fitness for Men.
Dean Pohlman is an E-RYT 200 certified yoga instructor and the founder of Man Flow Yoga. Dean is widely considered to be an authority on Yoga for Men. He has worked with physical therapists to create yoga programs for back health and spinal recovery. His workouts and programs have been used by professional and collegiate athletes, athletic trainers, and personal trainers; and have been recommended by physical therapists, doctors, chiropractors, and other medical professionals.
Dean is a successfully published author through DK Publishing (Yoga Fitness for Men), selling 35,000 copies worldwide in English, French, and German; in addition to being a co-producer of the Body by Yoga DVD Series, which has sold over 40,000 copies on Amazon since its release in 2016.
Man Flow Yoga has been featured in Muscle & Fitness Magazine, Mens’ Health, The Chicago Sun, New York Magazine, and many more major news media outlets.
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