Crow Pose or Kakasana is the foundational pose for most arm balances in yoga, so it's a good idea to understand the basics of Crow Pose first.
The crow pose strengthens the upper arms, forearms, and wrists. Additionally, it tones and strengthens the abdominal muscles and the organs of the torso while stretching the upper back and groins. This pose also improves balance and full-body coordination.
Here is a tutorial on how to practice the crow pose for a beginner.
0:01
You know I was always fascinated to see people how they are able to balance themselves on their arms I always wanted to try it. After a few efforts, I was able to do it, but that was not the end of the journey, this was the beginning of my yoga journey and it's still going. I'm learning so many things new, it helped me to get better not only as a person but also made me a stronger person.
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In today's video, we will be learning how to break down one of our favorite asana Crow Pose. Learning how to make it easy for ourselves and also learning how to upgrade your practice in case you're looking to upgrade it. Welcome everyone to Shavsa.com, my name is Gaurav Chauhan, and let's get started.
0:51
Now to start the practice, firstly we have to come up into a deep squat, starting with a deep squat also called Malasana. You have to join your hands to the heart center and start pressing the knees out with the elbows, allowing your hip to open, now even though it's an arm balancing posture your hip mobility plays a major role in this which we will be learning as we progress with the practice.
1:13
Try to open your spine by lengthening it, taking a deep inhale, and exhale. This is really important to relax yourself because if you're nervous about your practice you'll not be able to give your 100%. Now with that note, all you have to do is you have to slowly slide the elbows down and slide the entire upper body down. Now in order, when you do so, you can clearly see my knee and my upper thigh, inner thigh, slowly moves on my tricep, so you will be using the upper part of your arm as a base, where you have to place your knee and your inner thigh right. To start with again come up in a deep squat, slowly slide the elbows down, when you feel the knees are on your tricep, you release the arm to the front and also not too close to the body, also not too far right.
2:04
Let me show you how it looks from the side so you get a better understanding about the practice. Now, this is how we started in a deep squat, I'm going to slowly slide the elbows down and place the arm in a medium pace, it's not too far, somewhere you feel confident and fingers are wide open, and you're keeping your fingers softly bent. So if the weight goes forward you can use the tip of your finger as a suspension, now once the placement part is done you start shifting the weight on your toes and keep your chin slightly lifted up, but chin lifted up doesn't mean you're trying to look up all you're doing is you're trying to look to the edge of the mat.
2:41
Now when you feel confident go a little more forward and when you feel that your elbows are right above your wrist start lifting your one leg up, try to breathe here. When you feel confident with control lift the other leg up point your toes down or out and stay. Try to maintain it for as long as possible or you can also give yourself a 10 count.
3:04
Keep your core tucked in tight, once you feel comfortable and once you feel confident then you slowly come out by slowly dropping your one leg followed by the other leg and you come back to a deep squat and relax. So, this is the actual posture. Now if you're a complete beginner and if you're a little scared of doing the practice and you feel that you're going to fall forward, what we can do is you can keep a small pillow in front of you in case you lose your balance.
3:33
You're going to end up on your pillow and nobody gets hurt when you fall on the pillow right. So we'll break it down this way, imagine there is a pillow right in front of you you start with the same position in a deep squat chest up. This is the scale down right, so you slide the elbows down, nice and slow pace, the palm not too close, not too far. Remember, where you feel comfortable, when you go into the final practice, all you have to do is you only have to lift one leg, just try to gain that confidence to be in this practice with one leg up, hold it here for at least five to ten breath then switch and do the same on the other side.
4:11
Try to maintain your balance, try to maintain your core, and that way you are able to do it in a scaled-down version. But if you've been practicing this for a long time and you wanted to challenge yourself now, this one the next variation is going to be a scale-up variation, where the placement is going to be slightly different. So watch me first, i'll turn to the front so you can see it better, again from the deep squat but this time the tricep part will go on the kneecap also called the patellar bone, so I'm placing it nicely like this, the other elbow goes like this and this is how the placement of your arm is going to be right. So quickly switch, now you place the tricep on the kneecap drop your hand forward, as we discuss not too far, not too close, bend the elbow slightly towards your body and shift the weight, just like the last time we did one leg up, balance, goes the other leg up, remember to look to the edge of the mat or you can also look down on this one, maintain with your core engaged.
5:17
Slowly release one leg at a time, squat down completely and relax. Just observe what you just did and be proud of yourself. You can also sit down and remember what you have learned today is something that can always help you to progress, this is not the end there are many more asanas that you can progress and you can unlock by practicing it regularly. But before we do that, you have to understand your body and you have to take one step at a time.
5:47
I hope you enjoyed this video, and we would love to hear it from you guys that's something we always want right. So if you were able to learn something new, you try this posture post it on your social media tag Shvasa.com. We would love to see you doing the practice! I'm a little excited as you can see right now and for more videos like this, join us for our live online classes at Shvasa.com and I'm looking forward to seeing you there, till then take care, and Namaste.
