Like so many yoga poses, this one is deceptively difficult. It’s also a pose that taught me a lesson – what is an asset in one place can be a liability somewhere else.

I’ve always had a naturally flexible back. Backbending came easy for me. I thought, wow, this is great! Then someone told me to stop bending my back in warrior 1.

"What?"
"Try not to arch your lower back so much – you’re collapsing in to it."
"I am?" I asked, concerned, then noticed that he was right. "Okay," I thought to myself, make it straight.

Nothing happened, "Right here." He said, pointing at my belly which was protruding forward, "push this part back."

"Ah, gotcha." I said, pushing it backward. I smiled contentedly as I went back to focusing on how well I was doing with the pose.

"You just pushed your chest back too. You’re back is still arched the same as it was before.

"Huh? Oh." I just couldn’t do it. My lower back kept collapsing. Every time I thought I’d managed it, I’d look down and notice that my front knee was no longer bent. "Keep trying." I was told.

Great.

Eventually, I learned to get control of that pelvic tilt, tuck the tailbone, and engage the lower abs (particularly focusing on uddyana bandha), and found that core strength that this pose is all about. But along the way I learned that much of yoga is about overcoming not your weakness, but your strengths. For me that strength was a hyper-flexible lower back that I had to work hard to control. For you it might be something else.