May 2019: Parsva Bakasana
Parsva Bakasana
(side crow pose)
There’s two ways you can approach this pose. Our “training wheel” version will involve having both elbows on the body, the full expression will only have only one.
Steps to the beginner version:
Start in a knees together squat. If your body allows you to be on the balls of the feet with heels high to give you more lift, go for it.
Bring your palms together and twist your torso to the right wall, hook your left outer arm above the elbow to your right outer thigh above the knee.
Let the palm and fingertips face the right wall, and do the same with the left hand, only the left elbow will be right in front of your right hip.
Use your feet to lift your hips and fully connect left elbow to right upper knee and right elbow to right hip and gaze forward (so important always!).
Start by teasing the idea of leaning forward and bringing all of your weight into your hands. You might explore bringing both feet off the ground into the arm balance. To support yourself from dropping the the floor, think energy up and forward.
Gaze forward and keep shifting forward, but to get energy to go up, as you press your hands down, hug your forearms towards one another and press the back of your heart up, creating and action that spreads your back shoulder blades away from one another (protraction).
Steps to the second version:
Start in the same position of a low squat.
With hands together you will again hook your left elbow on the outer right thigh, just above the knee.
Instead of twisting the torso and direction of the hand to the right, keep both the chest and hand facing forward with the knees.
Bring the left hand down to the ground, and then bring your right hand down facing forward as well and a shoulders distance away to the right.
This arm will connect to nothing so really remind yourself to press away with that arm!
Lift the hips and bring the weight of your legs onto the left arm.
Again we gaze forward and shift forward. Pick those toes up and protract those shoulders!