How to do a Side Crane Yoga Pose

Video Transcript

"GINA KENNEDY: Faith is going to help me demonstrate Parsva Bakasana, or the side crane balance. As with any balance poses, especially when you're upside down, fear is the main factor. So, if you can learn to get over your fear, you'll find the arm balances aren't that hard at all. And we're going to try to help you overcome your fear by using blocks, so that you have a little bit more leverage, a little bit more parts of your body on the ground and a little less fear of falling. So, we're going to have Faith come forward. Yeah. She's going to come up on the balls of her feet and just be in a little squat. Yeah. And now, she's going to rotate over to the side. She's going to bring her back elbow in line with her back hip; this is really the key, so that you can just lean on your elbows as a little shelf. She's going to bring her front elbow to the outside of her front knee. She's going to press her hands, spreading her fingers wide. Good. She's going to inhale and lift her hips up, and then, just roll forward onto her elbows, notice how she is just making a shelf out of her elbows, and then we place the block under her head and blocks under her feet. In fact, I think I might be able to make this a little higher for you, Faith. Good. And so then, she has more points of contact with the ground, and hopefully, is able to lose her fear about balancing, and then pretty soon, you'll be able to move the blocks, and she'll be balancing on her own."