Crow Pose Tutorial - How To Do Crow Pose For Beginners Bakasana

Hi , everyone .

Welcome to my channel .

My name is Cassandra and today I'm doing a short and sweet video for you guys to show you how I get into C propose .

So C propose or I would say is probably the foundational arm balancing pose .

So many , many arm balancing poses are built off of C propose .

So pro is really like the first one that I would encourage students to learn , practice and master and then you can start to get into some fancier variations like side pro and playing with iota one and two and fallen angel and all those other kinds of poses .

But really , for me , I needed to be able to learn and do crow pose before I was able to attempt any other kind of arm balance pose .

So because it is an arm balance pose , obviously , it's going to demand a lot of shoulder strength , arm strength , core strength and it's also going to demand a lot on your wrist .

So you need to be in a place in your practice where you can do things like plank pose and down dog and not have any kind of wrist pain if you feel like you are the student who gets a lot , a lot of cramping and pain in your wrist .

You'll need to start practicing how you distribute your weight on your PBS .

So I say this a lot in my videos , but whenever I'm in hands and knees plank or down dog and the fingers are spreading wide , most of your body weight into the fingertips and knuckles as opposed to the wrist , that's really what's going to build the uh strength in your forms , the strength in your hands .

And it's what's going to help you take some of the pressure off of the joints because over time repeating these poses over and over , you can absolutely strain it .

So let me show you what crow pose is and then I'll break it down for you and give you some tips and tricks if you're still just trying to learn it .

So crow pose , I remember the first time I saw my teacher do this , I looked at her and she was like , ok , now you go try it and I looked at her and I thought she was just absolutely crazy because there's just no way in the world I would ever be able to do C proposes .

And now , to be honest , it's not that challenging of a post because I've been doing it , you know , regularly for years and years now .

But if you're looking at me going , there's no way I'll ever be able to do C propose , just know that I totally understand you because I have the exact same opinion .

So let me break down , break down the foundation of c propose .

It all starts with the way you place your hands and your arms hounds are shoulder with distance of parts on the floor .

Fingertips are spreading wide .

I like to have the middle finger and index pointing towards the top of the mat .

For some people they need to externally rotate a little bit more so that it's the index finger pointing to the top .

But for me , that's too much .

So play around with it .

I'm gonna suggest middle and index pointing forward and really spread the fingers wide .

You do not want your knuckles to start bending or your fingers to start bending .

You want to keep them super straight and already from here start to shift your weight into your fingertips and knuckles .

And now from here , I'm kind of in a low squat .

So I have my heels in my toes out and my knees are to the outer edges of the shoulders .

So for people who have limited mobility in the hips already , this is going to be very challenging .

You might be a little bit higher up from here , which is OK .

I'm gonna show you how you can get into crow pose without doing a squat first .

But let's assume you are in your squat pose .

So you have your hands flat on the ground the elbows are slightly bent .

Number one thing you want to look out for is that a lot of the time when we're in proposes the elbows want to bend out to the sides .

We don't want that .

If they're going to bend , it's going to be back .

So always back .

It's more like a tricep , push up as opposed to a bicep , push up like we're used to doing .

Ok from here , you're gonna lift onto your , uh , lift the heels off the ground .

So you're on the balls of your feet and then sort of straighten your legs a little bit and bring your knees to rest as high up the arms as you possibly can .

So kind of all the way up to the armpits and once you have them up nice and high , see if you can wiggle your toes a little bit closer towards your wrists .

Now , this is where people start to freak out , but try not to from here .

You do need to start rocking your weight into your palms and taking some of the weight off of your feet .

The fear of falling is very real and you know what guys , I've fallen quite a few times on my face , but you will survive .

Sometimes it just takes one fall to get over the fear , start to bend your elbows as if you were doing a chatter on the push up .

So remember , not out but back and then lean forward once you feel like you have a lot of weight in your hands and a little bit less in your feet .

Practice just lifting 1 ft off the floor and hold it for a few breaths .

This is already super hard .

You want your hips to be up nice and high .

So toes come back down and then try the other foot .

It's important here that you're not looking down and back , but that you're looking down and forward about six inches in front of your palms .

Once you feel comfortable and secure with that , you're lifting your hips up , shifting the weight forward , squeezing your inner thighs to towards one another as if you were using one of those old school thigh masters and maybe the toes will start to hover off the floor .

If the toes are hovering , you want to point them back and imagine you're bringing your heels all the way up towards your glute .

So squeeze , squeeze , squeeze , squeeze , squeeze , come out as lightly as you came in back into a little squat hands that the heart take a few breaths .

And that's how you would do croo .

So let me show you another way that you can enter crow .

Those of you who have limited flexibility in your hips and hamstrings , you can start it more from a forward fold .

So it's the same stance , heels are in , toes are out and bend so much that you can bring your hands to the floor .

So really , it's the same thing , fingertips spreading wide , lift the heels , bring your knees as far up the upper arms as you possibly can .

It needs to be above the elbow , bend , the elbows back .

Start to rock your weight forward .

Look forward , shift the weight into the palms .

Press into the fingertips .

Squeeze , squeeze , squeeze .

Maybe only 1 ft lifts up .

Maybe they both do keep the thumbs nice and straight gay is this steady and set it back down , lift back up and ok , so if none of those are happening right now , that's normal .

You will most likely not get this on your first try .

You need to have a lot of upper body strength .

I often find that fear is what holds a lot of people back from getting into crow pose .

So they might have been practicing yoga for many , many years and they are super strong , but they're afraid that they're gonna fall flat on their face .

So they don't let their weight tip forward enough .

If you don't let your weight tip forward , it's just not gonna happen .

It won't , it just , it's impossible .

So if you feel like that's what's holding you back , grab one block , I'm not a huge fan of this tip and trick , but some people find it super , super useful .

So give it a try start in your squat , have your block on its highest height in front of you .

So your squat heels are in toes are out and you want the block to be just a little bit in front of your palm .

So place your palms the same way you would have them if you were just doing your crow bows , shoulder with distance apart , fingertips spreading wide and prepare as if you were going into crow , lift the heels , start to straighten the legs a little bit .

So you can gently place the knees as far up the arms as you can bend the elbow back , rock your weight forward and then maybe just rest your forehead on the block .

So this should take the fear of falling away from you because you can't really fall .

You have the block pushing back into you and once you start to lean the weight , you might find it , it's a little bit easier to lift one or both feet .

So my block is just a little bit too close .

Yes .

So placing the block down and you're almost pushing into it , but just very , very lightly .

You don't want to strain your neck in any way .

This is really just to get you over .

The fear of falling .

Falling is not that big a deal .

It happens to everyone .

It happens to me all the time anyway .

So that's one way that you can use the block .

Another way that some people can use the block if you feel like you have a hard time getting your hips up is to place a block underneath your feet .

So instead of having the block in front of me , I'm gonna put it at about its second level behind me and then plant your palms first , start more like in a forward fold and then just lightly place the balls of your feet on the block and come back into a little squat .

So already from here you're much higher up than you were before .

So as you start to straighten the legs , your knees are pretty much already up the upper arm .

So it's not much you need to do to change that bend the elbows , rock , the weight forward , knees are up nice and high .

And now from here , you might just pick up 1 ft , the other foot may be both start to hover and float off the mat .

And if you lose your balance , it's fine because the block is right there .

So I hope you found this little tutorial helpful .

The most , most , most important thing to keep in mind when you're trying a more advanced pose like this one is to just not take it so seriously .

Take the pressure out of it .

Don't worry , you can do it or if you can't do it , you're still an amazing person and you are still a great Yogi , whether or not you can balance on your hands , honestly , just take the pressure out of it and know that it is going to take time , dedication and patience .

This can be the pose that really challenges you and pushes you .

But that's when the real yoga begins .

It took me years before I was able to do C proposes because I had no upper body strength whatsoever .

I couldn't even do um a half with my knees on the floor .

I was just very , very , very weak .

So , of course , it took me years and years to build up the shrink in order to be able to do crow pose and handstand and all these other crazy inversions and arm balances .

But just don't worry whether you get it or not .

You are still a good person .

If you have any questions about c propose or if you have any other tutorials that you'd like me to do about arm balances or anything like that .

Please leave me a comment down below and I would love to film it for you .

Thank you so very much for watching this video .

Do subscribe to my channel .

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Thanks so much guys and I'll see you soon .