Yoga Crow Pose for Upper Body Strength

Video Transcript

"So when you're feeling strong, you've done lots and lots of chaturangas, you've done lots and lots of one-legged plank poses, you've done lots and lots of dolphins and you're feeling the inversions and you're feeling the forearm stance, try this one. This is crow. You've seen this one before, probably. You're going to start in malasana, which is squat pose, with the feet a little more than hip-distance apart. I'm going to try and place my knees on the outside of my shoulders. This looks really bizarre, I know. So I'm going to rock up on my toes, get over my hands and slowly let my toes drift together, and I'm going to let my tail bone rise. This is crow. It's a fun, basic forearm...I mean, forearm stand...it's a fun, basic arm balance, and you can do it. Just don't take a header. If you're afraid you're going to fall forward then put a blanket in front of you. The trick to this pose, it's actually not in the arms at all, it's in the belly. You've got to engage the mulabandha and the uddiyana bandha, what the yogi?s call "the flying up-lock", right? So you're going to pull all the muscles on the base of your pelvic floor. You're going to squeeze them and pull them up, and these muscles here around your diaphragm, transverse abs and everything, you're going to squeeze them, pull them up, and that is what's going to make you rise into that crow pose. Good luck."