Warrior I and II for Beginners: A Morning Alignment Flow

On a yoga mat in a quiet room, a teacher's voice does most of the work. In Liza Colpa's 30-minute beginner class, posted to her channel in October 2020, that voice moves students from a seated breath and a single intention into child's pose, cat and cow, downward-facing dog, and a run of sun salutations, then slows everything down for the two standing postures that intimidate newcomers most: Warrior I and Warrior II. The class is the second installment of a beginner alignment series, and its central argument is simple and easy to underrate. Alignment, as she frames it, is not a photograph of the perfect pose. It is a set of questions you ask your own body so you can discover what it needs. Below, we unpack that approach, the sequence she teaches, and the handful of cues that make Warrior work for a body that is not the one in the magazine.

Why does a beginner yoga class start at the bottom up?

Colpa's channel description says the practice "will begin our practice from the bottom up," and the class honors that promise. Before anything stands or balances, she spends real time on the feet, knees, hips, and spine. The early work is not a warm-up in the throwaway sense. It is an orientation, teaching students where their weight sits and how their joints move before asking them to hold a shape.

Her framing of the whole series is equally deliberate. At the top of the class she tells viewers the series is "going to be like a yoga practice in and of itself," adding, "we're going to take it a little bit slow and then we're going to bring it up a notch bring it up a notch bring up a notch and then eventually bring it on down." That arc, building intensity and then easing off, is a shape worth borrowing even if you never take her class. It gives a beginner permission to find their edge gradually instead of trying to match the most flexible person in the room on day one.

What does the practice ask of a true beginner?

Colpa is direct about who the class is for. Early on, she acknowledges that newcomers may feel lost: "if you are new you may be like i don't know what any of that is that's so confusing which is okay." She also speaks plainly about the body types that dominate yoga imagery, noting that many teachers in photos "don't look like me," and then makes her point without hedging: "anyone can practice yoga if you're pregnant you can practice yoga if you have one leg you can practice yoga."

"Yoga is so much more than an asana practice it's about learning about yourself on the mat so you can begin to take that information off the mat with you."

Liza Colpa, in her beginner morning warrior flow (approx. 1:12)

That line is the thesis of the class. Asana, the physical postures, is the vehicle. The destination is self-knowledge that travels with you into the rest of the day. Her opening meditation reinforces this. She asks students to take a few deep breaths, to set an intention, and she offers an example that is refreshingly modest: "whatever intention you need even if it's just that i take it one step at a time." She also describes the practice as "a doorway" to learning about yourself and gaining "more confidence as well as connection with your physical body." For a beginner, that reframing matters. You are not failing a test. You are getting acquainted with a body.

How do the warm-up postures prepare the spine and hips?

The early postures are a masterclass in small adjustments. In child's pose, Colpa asks students to bring the big toes together, let the knees fall wide to the width of the mat, and sink the hips back toward the heels. She is honest that this may not be comfortable: "if that's too much" you can curl the toes under or keep the legs wide, "and i promise you over time it will happen." Her attitude toward flexibility is patient throughout. The goal is not to force the hips down. It is to let them arrive.

From there she moves into tabletop and then cat and cow, the spinal flow that many beginners find the most approachable entry into breath-linked movement. She cues wrists and hands with specificity: she likes to "turn the webbing" between the first finger and thumb slightly outward, and she explains why: "because i have super broad shoulders so you can try that too." That single sentence is a model of the teaching style that runs through the class. She does not present her own adjustment as the rule. She shows you the reasoning behind it and invites you to test it on your own frame.

The same spirit appears when she notes that joint noises are not an alarm. During the spinal work she says, "snap crackle pop is normal as long as there is no pain." Many beginners treat every sound or wobble as a sign of damage. Colpa's cue draws a clear line: sensation is information, pain is the signal to back off.

What is sun salutation A doing in a warrior sequence?

Around the 7-minute mark the class moves into Surya Namaskar A, the first sun salutation, which she presents as a warm-up for the warrior work to come. The flow rhythmically connects breath to movement: a reach of the arms overhead on an inhale, a fold on the exhale, a flat back on the inhale, and a return to plank. Colpa keeps the breath as the metronome. She tells students to "inhale reach the fingertips forward and up towards the ceiling lengthening lengthening lengthening," then to swan dive forward on the exhale and bend the knees as much as needed.

She also builds in a modification that reveals her priorities. Her cues constantly offer a way out. In plank she asks students to find "that sit bone heel connection," relax the elbows, and hug the inner thighs toward each other, then internally rotate the thighs to "bring that connection right to the core." In the lowering phase of the push-up-like movement she gives students the choice to come into child's pose "at any point in the practice," adding, "that may have been already a lot and that is okay." The sequence is not a test of endurance. It is a space in which you can stop and come back.

The vinyasas she mentions are the connecting tissue between these shapes. In yoga usage, vinyasa refers to a linked movement between postures, typically synced to breath. Colpa's sequence uses them to move through transitions rather than rushing into a pose, which is why the class feels slow even when it covers a lot of ground.

How do you find your feet in Warrior I?

This is the heart of the class, and Colpa treats it with the seriousness it deserves. Warrior I begins with a step forward between the hands, then a turn of the back foot. She cues the right foot down at what she describes as a 45-degree angle, and the front knee bends over the ankle. The cue she repeats most is about the core: "crown the head using your core." In other words, the posture is not held by the legs alone. It is built from a lifted spine, a grounded back foot, and an engaged midsection.

Around the 20-minute mark she speaks about the front knee directly, "bending on into that right knee," and invites students to take a few breaths there before rising. She also reminds students that the arms can lift overhead, with the palms facing each other, and that the gaze can rest forward or upward depending on comfort and neck health. The posture is complete when the body is organized, not when it looks a particular way.

"Warrior, I can be a tricky posture, but with a simple breakdown on alignment, it can begin to help you understand more about what your individual body needs."

Liza Colpa, from the class description published October 16, 2020

That sentence from the description is worth holding onto. The teacher is not offering alignment as a set of rules that make everyone identical. She is offering alignment as a lens. A beginner who notices that the front knee wants to drift inward, or that the hip wants to open less on one side, is doing exactly what she asks: learning what their body needs.

What changes when you move into Warrior II?

Warrior II is where the shape opens out. The feet take a wider stance, the arms extend to the sides at shoulder height, and the torso faces the long edge of the mat. Colpa's class uses the transition from Warrior I to Warrior II to show how a single change in the hips and shoulders reorganizes the whole body. Rather than memorize a new position from scratch, students are encouraged to notice what carried over from the first pose and what needs to shift.

She closes that section with a line that sums up the entire series: "it's all about practice." It is the kind of phrase that could sound like a platitude coming from many teachers. Here it lands because the class has shown the work. Practice in this context means returning to the same postures with a little more awareness each time, not reaching a final version.

What is the lasting lesson of this beginner flow?

The most distinctive thing about Colpa's class is not a single pose cue. It is the consistency of her invitation. Again and again she asks students to breathe, to check in, to take a step back if needed, and to treat their own experience as the authority. The closing section of the class brings the emotional thread together. She asks students to breathe "on into the heart space," and she tells them, in the final stretch, that they are "worthy" of the time they have spent exploring the sequence.

For a beginner, this is the most useful takeaway. Warrior I and II are not tests of flexibility or strength. They are two postures that teach you how to sense your feet, your hips, your spine, and your breath. If you follow Colpa's example, you do not need to look like anyone else on the screen. You need to bring curiosity to the mat and let the practice show you what your body is asking for.

Where to go from here

If this class is your first encounter with Warrior, start with the parts that feel accessible: child's pose, cat and cow, and a slow sun salutation with bent knees. Practice Warrior I with the back foot at a comfortable angle and the front knee tracking over the ankle, and check in with your core before you check in with your ego. Once Warrior I feels steady, try Warrior II and notice which adjustments carried over. Colpa's own description points to the series as a sequence to build on, and her channel's earlier beginner video covers lower-body work that sets up these standing shapes. Let the practice stay a doorway rather than a destination, and treat every session as information about the body you have today.