Arm Balance Yoga | Learn Crow Pose

Welcome to this arm balance yoga practice to learn crow pose. If you want to start playing around with arm balances, then this is a great way to start your journey.

In this yoga class I will help you build strength and stability and give helpful tips to get you into crow pose.

Transcript

Hi lovely people, Welcome to this arm balance yoga practice. Today we'll be working towards crow bows, Which is one of the first arm balances most people play around with. Don't be intimidated. This practice will be doable for all levels, Which means that I will give you modifications to either make postures more accessible or a bit more challenging where needed. You won't really be needing anything for this practice. Over, A pillow or a cushion might be nice as kind of a little fall cushion. Alright, If you're ready, Grab your mat, Grab some water and let's begin. So come and sit onto your mat. Let's just start by taking three nice deep breaths together. Gently closing your eyes, Sitting nice and tall. And breathing in through your nose. And sigh out. Two more times. Nice deep breathing. And release. Last one deep breath in And let it go. Open up eris and let's come on to all fours hands are coming shoulder width distance underneath your shoulders knees hip width distance underneath your hips Spreading your fingers nice and wide. And I really want you to start pushing into your mat already. So really grip. You're met as if your life depends on it. I want you to start practicing this because this is what will allow you to go into your arm balances much easier later on. So from now on, Any practice you're doing yoga-wise, As you are planting your hands down, Really grip your mat and plant them down. Gently push your shoulders up and nice and wide to really start finding that nice white face. I'm just coming into a few nice cat cows on your inhale making a hollow back open it just keep pushing down for them Exhale round back and really push your shoulders up and So you're in, Open, All of that. Keep pushing into the mat. And exhale around, Back and really push your shoulders up towards the ceiling. Nice and strong. Just repeating that a few times for yourself. Are you already starting to feel your hands working? I hope you are. Alright, Last one. And just finding a nice long spine in the middle. Coming into a few wrist stretches, Let's start by pointing our fingers towards our knees. This might feel very weird and very intense, Especially if you're not used to it. And then from there, The closer your hands are towards the knees, The more gentle the stretch, The farther away, The more intense the stretch will be. And just start moving back and forth a little bit. So as you're leaning your heads back, You really feel that stretch intensify and gently. Forward to release a bit of the tension. Leaning into it and releasing. All right. Bring the fingers to face each other. I'm just moving left and right the further away your hands are from each other the more intense the closer together the more So feel free to play around with placement. Try to keep your arms as straight as you can. So straight, But not locked. Your wrists facing each other, So fingers pointed away. This time, The closer your hands are, The more intense the stretch will be. Then just moving. Left and right for a moment. Gently at least shake out your wrist. Maybe circle them. Using any pressure and then we're going into even more stretches. Yes, You heard me right. All right, If you're ready. Placing the tops of your hands onto your mat, Fingers facing each other. This time the further away, The more intense your stretch will be, So feel it again. Feel free to play around with the placement. And try to straighten your arms as much as possible. I know this can feel very intense, Especially if you are not used to it. Keep breathing through it. Right, Fingers pointing towards the knee. With the tops of your hands in tune. Leaning back and forth. This time the further away your hands are, The more intense your stretch will be. Fingers pointed away from each other, Still the tops of your hands into your neck. Closer your hands are the more intense it will be moving left and right Maybe even circling if that feels good. Last one. Fingers pointed away. Still with tops of your hands onto your mat, Moving back and forth. This time the closer to the knees, The more intense your stretch will be. And gently release shake out your hands for a moment maybe circle your wrists i am definitely feeling that Let's plant our hands back onto your mat. Again, Fingers spread nice and wide, Really pushing into your mouth, Gripping your mouth. Curl your toes under and lifting hips all the way up and back into your downward toe. First hour of your class so feel free to bring some movement into it maybe bending one knee then the other so if you're walking on the spot And again, Really grip your meds wherever you are. All right so check again for yourself fingers spread nice and wide really gripping that next your inhale bring your weight forward shoulders over the wrist as high as you can. And exhale gently back into your downward. So in your inhale, Shifting forward, Shoulders over your wrist, Maybe even further forward. And shift. Just repeating it a few times for yourself. This is a really good practice to start to feel some weight into your hands as well as practice. The strength of your arms, Your hands, Your wrists and your core. Which are all things that we need to go into our M and R members, Into Cropos. And back into your downward look, Taking a nice deep breath here. Your inhale shift forward coming into plank. Exhale, Chaturanga. So maybe placing your knees on your mat for more gentle variation. Bending your elbows coming all the way. Inhale up in your chest. Exhale, Cross those under, Hips up and back, Downward dog. Nice deep breath. Do that again. Inhale going forward into blank. Exhale, Chaturanga. If you're in the open go, Or maybe pushing all the way up into an upward goal. And Excel. Downward dog. Nice deep breath here. Inhale again. Really grip your mat. Shift your weight forward. Shoulders over your wrist. And exhale down hard to do more. And else is forward. And eggs. Last one. And where do? Exhale, Placing your knees onto your mat, Nice and white, Big toes together, Sits yours. Hips towards the heel. Coming into Chelsea's pose. Feel free to maybe circle your wrists for a moment, Taking a bit of pressure out. Maybe shaking out your hands if stuff is good for you. Let's hold here for one more breath. With your next inhale. Curl your toes under, Hips up and back, Going back into your downward dog. Nasty brother. Inhale, Bend your knees, Look forward, Really grip your mat. And then from there we are stepping forward. Again, Shoulders coming high, High, High, High, High. One foot forward. Second foot forward. Feet nice and light and sit your head. Down, Coming into my last night, Yogi squat. All right we want to have our full foot on our mat so if you notice that you cannot get your heels down Maybe roll up a blanket and place it underneath. Ideally you want to have a full contact. Off our feet. Hands in front of our chest. Really using your elbows to push your knees nice and wide and from there push your chest. Feel nice deep breaths. Let's hold for one last breath. And then come onto your knees for a moment. And I will. . . And explain a few things before actually going into this. All right. So we will be playing around with our crow pose. If you want a bit more. Cushioning. Just in case you fall, Feel free to place a pillow in front of your face. So you don't fall onto your mat if you do end up falling forward. You absolutely don't have to do this, But it might make you feel a bit more safe to play around with the posture. Whatever feels good for you. We are coming back into somewhat of a malasana on the back of our mat, Except this time our heels are up, Which makes it usually a bit easier to go into the posture. Blend your hands back onto your mat shoulder width finger spread nice and wide so again really grip your mat as we are coming into the posture and from there we're going to lift our hips and then you have two options you can either place your knees basically onto you into your armpits so really onto your upper arm this usually is a bit easier to balance however you might get a little bruise on your upper arm so The options there, You don't have to take this option. The other option, Which is a little bit more intense because it asks a bit more strength from your body. Sorry, Not stacking, But really using our strength to stay up. And that is to really. . . Squeeze your knees again. Your arms so you're not leaning on your arms you're squeezing again So those are your options. Feel free to play around with it. Both are okay. Then before even thinking about balancing. At all. I want you to spread those fingers really nice and wide and really grip your meds and then find a non-moving point just in front of you to gaze towards your gaze your sight really helps to keep your balance You might have noticed that with any balancing posture, As you're closing your eyes or if you're looking around, It's much harder to keep your balance. That also goes for arm balance. So before even thinking about coming up, Find that non-moving point and focus your gaze. Nice, Soft focus. So you don't have to glare a whole interior mess or interior wall. Just a nice soft focus. But definitely. Like I said, Grip your mat, Hips coming up. Choose where you are placing your knees. And then maybe gently lean forward. Step one. Maybe this is where you are going to stay just leaning forward coming out and trying again. Maybe this feels good, Feels nice and stable. And you can start to play around with lifting maybe one foot. Sing it down. And left in the other. I sing it out. So that's also where you can stay. If that is what feels good for you today, If that's what you want to stay, That's fine. If you would like to go on even further. Again, Lift the hips, Place your knees. Lean forward, Lifting one foot, And then maybe lifting the other and staying up in your arm. As you're up, Try to bring your feet together and then try to bring them as close to your hips as possible. Coming into your football show. Again feel free to just play around with what feels good for you. You don't have to stay up. But it's something that's really fun to play with Choose what is good for you. It's actually kind of a challenge to talk and do postures like this at one. Okay then gently come out. Coming into Child's pose for a moment. Knees nice and white. Big toes together, The walking dance floor. And just resting into your child's pose. Just allowing your body to really melt into your mat for a moment. Letting go of any tension. Allowing your heartbeat to calm down. Your breath to calm down. Let's stay here for one more breath. And gently walk your hands. I can see the position to close off our practice. In your inhale circle your arms all the way up until your hands touch you overhead. Your exhale gently bring your hands down in front of you. Taking a nice deep breath for your soul. Taking a nice deep breath for Summon Yula. Finally taking a nice deep breath for the worlds in which we live. Gently bow down towards yourself to thank yourself for your practice that you took the time out of your day to follow the clock. Can gently open up your eyes again. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. I hope you enjoyed this class. For me, Our balances have always been such a hard posture. Strength has never been my strong suit. It's never come easy to me, But. . . Practice you can definitely get there if you have any questions or specific class requests please let me know i wish you a lovely rest of your day and i hope to see you soon bye