Crow Pose

I'm a stave body, hi, my name is Sanjana Prasad. We talked about a lot of risks and stabilizing of the shoulder and also awakening the core abdominal system in the body. Today's little segment is going to be short and really fun because we're going to start standing on our hands. One of the most basic arm balances, or the first arm balances that I'm sure a lot of us will encounter, is the crane or crow pose — some people call it crow, Bakasana. Even though it's an arm balance, the whole body joins in — there's the core, there's the chest muscles as well right here, the pectorals, and also the legs — just super important in Bakasana.

We're going to start in a downward-facing dog position first. So in dog pose, now if you want to find your legs here too, feel free to go ahead — you can bend your knees slightly if your lower back feels a little bit sore, a little bit fatigued, and then maybe start to stretch your legs a little longer here. You can walk out the legs here if you like; you still awaken the lower body. And then we're going to rise forward and up into a plank position.

Push the palms down — I'd like you to lift your chest up, lift the heart up, without rounding the rest of the spine. All right, so push your palms down and just lift the chest up. So there are two actions here: your palms are grounding down, and you're lifting the chest up away from your hands. You notice how strong the chest muscles start to fire — now this is exactly how you want to feel when you're in Bakasana as well, the contraction of the chest muscles, the lifting of the heart center.

Okay, and then something else to think about — remember, we're stacking joints, and that you can explore in Chaturanga. So as you move forward, you're bending the elbows — look at where my elbow joints are, it is stacked over my wrist joint. That's exactly where you want to go for your Bakasana as well. So remember: chest, and stacking of the joints.

Last one — a good prep to take before Bakasana. Come into a squatting position here, the elbows are pushing into the inner thighs, inner thighs are pushing into the elbows. Once you find this resistance here, almost immediately you feel those adductors, the inner thigh muscles, start to really fire up. Then find the rest of the core components that we have spoken of and explored in the last few videos — pull up of the pelvic floor and the contracting of the front abdominal muscles up, like wearing skinny jeans and drawstring pants here. Now keep this, all right — keep this, and in your mind's eye I'd like you to envision yourself, visualize yourself in a crow pose.

Not quite sure what it is? So I'm going to give you a demo visual here in crow — no explanations yet, but this is crow. All right, notice where my elbows are — they are stacked over my wrist. I'm pulling my navel up, my thighs hugging in, my legs are really strong here.

Now I'd like you to see, and notice where the center point of my body is — the center point of my body in crow. Did you see where the center point is on my body in crow? That is called the center of gravity. So in crow, it is about right here, maybe about where your solar plexus is, maybe about an inch or so above your belly button right here.

So, to find balance — no matter if it's an arm balance, or you're standing upright, or laying down, or in a one-legged standing position — we always want to make sure that the center of gravity is being lifted up. And you also want to make sure that you move the center of gravity that is considered in that particular shape. You want to think about where the center of gravity is and align it to the middle of the pose itself. So you have to always think about, all right, what am I doing? I'm doing crow. Where is the center of gravity? It's right here, just above my belly button. Where should I then position myself in crow pose to gain access to the shape?

Now look at me here — where is my center of gravity now? That's in crow. This is my navel — it is behind me, where my hips are. So if I'm not able to move my center of gravity forward to where it should be, which is right in the middle of the shape, I will not be able to lift my feet up.

The basis of arm balancing is to figure out where your center of gravity is when you're in the final position, and you need to move the center of gravity literally to the center. So it's more like a balancing position here — you're not trying to pop your feet up, all right, you're trying to move the center of gravity when you're in the shape towards the middle. And when you're able to do so, you spread that energy and balance out the rest of the body from the center of gravity itself — so it shoots out to your hands, to your feet, and that center of gravity is like your fulcrum point here. You find balance where that center is, in crow position.

All right, one more time — check this out. In crow, arms about shoulder-width distance apart. Remember everything that we talked about: fingertips, knuckles, base of your palms. And from here you want to make sure that you're able to move the center of gravity forward. Now, if you move the center of gravity forward like that with the hips still collapsing down, you're not able to move the center of gravity forward.

What you're going to do is: first, walk your knees all the way up, as much as you can, towards your triceps, the upper arms. Move your hips up, all right, and then you're able to move the center of gravity forward more — so much so that at some point your feet get light. So check this out: moving the center of gravity forward, pull the navel up, wear those two pairs of pants — pelvic floor, inner thighs — the hips get light, and the feet get light.