Yesterday in class we did standing poses lying on the floor. We’ve done it before. I requested that we do it again, particularly Parvritta Trikonasana (revolved triangle), because I got all bollixed up when I tried it at home. Several people in the class had injuries of one sort or another, which made it a good day to try it.
First we did Trikonasana (triangle) and Parsvakonasana (extended side angle) in the usual upright way. Then we put our mats lengthwise about a foot away from the walls. I’m going to try to describe this so that I can remember it for when I want to do it at home. For both these asanas, imagine that you had been doing them standing up and then you just fell over flat.
Trikonasana
- Lie down with your right hip on the mat, head toward the center of the room.
- Bring your right foot up and place the sole on the wall, right where it meets the floor. Your leg should be straight. At this point it’s sort of as though you’re doing a high kick on your side.
- Work your torso down the mat so that you are turning your chest towards the ceiling, and your right arm is grabbing your ankle, or some part of your right leg.
- Push your left leg, which until now has been ignored, back, straightening the knee and hooking the toes against the wall.
- With any luck your shoulders will both be flat on the floor. Stretch both arms out from the shoulders just as though you had been doing Trikonasana upright.
Parvritta Trikonasana
- Get into floor Trikonasana as in #5 above.
- Switch leg positions so that your left leg is in front of your face, and your right leg is behind you.
In both these poses, you use the mat to scrunch your torso towards the wall (the pretend floor).
The feeling is quite different from doing the standing poses. You don’t have to struggle with balance problems, and at least for me that makes it much easier to get more completely in revolved triangle. And in both poses the twist is deeper than in the upright version. It appeared that I got closer to the floor, too, but that could be wishful thinking. I loved doing these.
I hope my teacher Kim reads this and corrects any errors I have made.
Practice Notes 
I haven’t tried your instructions yet, but they look very cogent–and I do have some confusion when I try to do standing poses on the floor. I also love them (floor stdg poses)! I hope Kim gives some feedback, but if she doesn’t, let’s ask her after class sometime.