Listen to the Pronunciation of Virabhadrasana. Courtesy of the Online Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide.
[audio:http://www.ihanuman.com/media/audio/Sanskrit/Asanas/virabhadrasana.mp3]
The Virabhadrasana Series of Yoga Asanas require challenging work in several areas of our physical body. Although Virabhadrasana is often translated as Warrior Pose in English, the meaning of the word is the name of a great warrior, Virabha, who was a fierce incarnation of Lord Shiva.
While Virabhadrasana II may be the easiest of the 3 Virabhadrasana poses, all of the poses require considerable strength in the legs. It is helpful if you can get a view of yourself in Virabhadrasana II because you will want to work on bending your front knee over the front ankle bone. This may be further down than you think without the help of a mirror. After several sessions learning how to the practice this pose without a prop, the use of a chair as a prop in this pose is phenomenal.
Using the image above as a reference, place a chair on your yoga mat and facing away from your chair, place the hamstrings of one of your legs on the seat of the chair. Extend your back leg back away from you and without the strength required to hold up your front leg, notice the freedom of extension in your back leg. What a treat!
Additionally, enjoy the video instruction we created of Senior Iyengar Teacher, John Schumacher below.