The Joy of Learning Crow Pose

I figured out how to hold ‘Crow Pose’ (pictured above) a couple months ago and it felt like suuuuuuuuuuuch an accomplishment.   It took weeks of practice but now looking back, I realized why it took so long.

• In the beginning I wasn’t able to hold the pose for more than a second because my wrists, forearms and shoulders weren’t strong enough.
• As they got stronger, I realized I kept falling back because when you start to fall forward, your head goes upside down and it feels scary.  It’s almost a terrifying feeling because it’s totally against your instinct.
• Then a couple more weeks passed and everything came together when I realized I had to engage my core really hard and be very active in the pose to hold it for more than a few seconds.  You can’t just passively get into it and expect to stay up there.

Now it is such a great thing because my arms are strong enough to now start learning how to do handstands! Life is so cool!!!

To make the pose more challenging:

• Do it with arms straight (elbows bent is a good variation for beginners)
• Put the knees up higher on the triceps.  The higher they go, the higher your center of gravity will be.
• Try to deliberately (and carefully) rock back and forth or side to side.  At this moment, doing that even the slightest makes me lose my balance almost instantly, but that too will change with practice.

Want to try crow pose?  Follow Esther Ekhart’s beautiful 3 minute instructional video: