Flow into Crow Pose: How to Prep and Move into Crow Pose, Bakasana

Crow is one of the most basic arm balances in yoga and sets the foundation for a strong arm balancing practice. While it is one of the easier arm balances, that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult. Luckily there are tons of variations and preparatory poses to help us fly!

Healthy Hands and Wrists

Before we balance on our arms, we want to make sure we have a solid base to balance on. We can check in with our hands and wrists in a tabletop position. Finding a neutral spine, stacking our shoulders over our wrists and hips above our knees. Gently drawing the low belly in to reduce the sway in the back.

From here, take a peek at your hands. Make sure your fingers are spread nice and wide, grounding down through the base of the palms, the fingerpads, and the fingertips. We have a tendency to roll over to the outer edges of our hands during weight bearing poses, so make sure to press down through the L shape of the hand. It’s almost like our hand is a suction cup, the outer edges of the palm will be glued to the earth while the center of the palm is lifted.

We want to maintain this activation in the hands not only as we flow in practice, but also when we start to lift up and fly!

Protracting the Shoulder Blades

Next, we want to draw our attention to our shoulder blades. Protracting the shoulder blades means the shoulder blades spread apart from one another moving further away from the spine. We protract our shoulder blades to help bring stability and strength to the shoulders and arms in our arm balancing poses. There are a few different ways we can find protraction without lifting up into an arm balance.

The first way to find protraction in the shoulder blades is to move into cat pose. From your tabletop, press the earth away with your hands and round the spine up towards the sky. Take a couple rounds of breath here, drawing the low belly and pelvic floor up and in with your exhales. Not only does protraction help create stability, but it also leaves us room to breathe into the backside of the body. This can be helpful when our core is engaged.

Another pose that protracts the shoulder blades and opens up the shoulder heads, is eagle arms. We can find this pose in a comfortable seat. taking your arms out in front of you, cross the right arm under. If you’re tight in the shoulders you can grab ahold of the shoulder heads keeping the elbows stacked on top of one another. If you’re comfortable here, cross again at the forearms and meet the palms.

Once you find this position, draw your elbows up to shoulder height, draw the shoulder heads away from the ears. From here, gently press the forearms away from the body. Not only does this help us find protraction, but it is a great way to open up the shoulder heads.

Adding In Core

Of course, it’s not enough to have strong wrists and shoulders, we also need a strong core. Now before you worry that you’re not strong enough, know that physical strength does not require huge rippling muscles or even a toned body. Physical strength comes in many shapes and forms! Have a strong core simply means we understand and can utilize the proper engagements to help us lift and stay lifted.

One of the best core exercises for crow is one-legged core plank. This is because we utilize not only our core strength but our shoulder strength as well. Guess what else…we will be protracting our shoulders too!

Starting from donward facing dog, extend your right leg for three-legged dog. Start to shift the shoulders forward over the wrists as you draw your knee into your chest. To truly experience the core muscles working, draw the pelvic floor and low belly up and in towards the spine while simultaneously knitting the low ribs together.

It is best to move into this core plank on your exhale. When you exhale it is easier to find engagement in the core. Additionally, it will help engage our psoas muscle, the muscle that connects the abdominal muscles to the hip muscles. When our psoas is engaged, it is easier to hug the knee into our chest.

Opening the Hips

Finally, we want to make sure our hips are nice and open so we can hug our knees as high up on our arms as possible. One of the best ways to enter crow pose is through Malasana or garland pose. However, entering garland pose without previously opening up the hips can be quite the wake-up call.

Instead of going directly to Malasana, it’s nice to warm up with dragon pose. We can start by finding a low lunge on our yoga mat. From here, heal toe the front foot towards the outer edge of the mat. Make sure your toes are pointing in the same direction as your knee (about 1:00-2:00 depending on the hip flexibility). Once you’re here there are a few variations you can take. You can stay lifted on tall arms, lower down to forearms or find a twist (pictured below).

Dragon pose creates a similar shape in the hips as Malasana does, and allows plenty of options to ease your way into the posture. Not only does dragon pose open up the inner hip, but it opens up the outer hip of the front leg. The longer we hold this posture the deeper you will move into the hip space.

Moving into Crow

Now it’s time to combine our knowledge and move into crow pose! Starting off in Malasana, our hip opening squat, place the palms on the earth in front of you shoulder distance apart. Spread the fingers wide as you draw the eyes of the elbows forward. Think chaturanga arms here, bending the elbows, wrapping the arms in towards the body rather than splaying open like chicken wings.

Start to slowly shift your weight into the palms as the shoulders stack over the wrists. Protract the shoulder blades as you draw the low belly and pelvic floor up and in. Climb your knees as close to your armpits as you can get, this should lift you up to your toes. If this is enough for you, then stay here! You’re still working the same muscles and building strength as someone who is already lifted.

If you would like to go further, lift one foot off the ground. Draw the foot close to your bottom and stay active in the toes/souls of the feet. Hug the inner thigh and engage the quadriceps to keep your leg strong and steady. If you’re comfortable, start to lift the other foot off the ground. If you do not feel ready to fully fly, don’t sweat! You can practice lifting one foot, placing it back down and then lifting the other. This will train your body to get used to the movements and feel of flying.