How to do bakasana to develop arm strength and balance

What is Bakasana

Bakasana, or Crane Pose, is an emphasis on straight arms in which the legs are bent and lifted off the floor, and the knees rest on the shoulders near the armpits.

This difficult exercise is often confused with another yoga asana, kakasana, or crow pose. The positions are indeed similar: both involve handstands and bent leg raises, require a good sense of balance, shoulder and core muscle strength.

At the same time, in bakasan, the hands are completely straighten upCrow Pose | Crane Pose/Yoga Journal in the elbows, and the knees do not lie on the shoulders, but only rest against them in the armpit area. Due to this, the crane posture requires much greater mobility of the wrist joints.

It can take months or even years to master a pose, but you can start at any level.

Why Do Bakasana

This posture helps:

1. Build muscle strength in the upper body. While performing bakasana workL. Kaminoff, E. Matthews. yoga anatomy
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   in statics, large and small pectoral and anterior dentate, deltoid and triceps muscles of the shoulders. In fact, all the muscles of the upper body are in tension.
2. Strengthen the muscles of the body. Despite the fact that in the pose of a crane, the weight of the body is on the hands, abdominal muscles strongly strain to keep the body in the desired position.
3. Improve balance and body control. You will learn how to balance on your hands and adjust your posture so that it is as stable as possible.

If you are able to hold out for at least a few seconds in bakasana, it is no exaggeration to call you a well-trained person.

Who Shouldn't Do Bakasana

If you have problems with your wrists, elbows or shoulders, doing bakasana and even preparing for it can aggravate them and end up with overload and injury.

It is also worthwhile to carefully perform the pose with a lot of excess weight, since in this case the load on the hands and elbows increases.

What exercises to do to prepare for bakasana

It may take several months before you can move on to mastering a difficult asana. Here are a few exercises that will help prepare the body for the Crane Pose and master it without injury.

Crow Pose

This asana will teach you to maintain balance, strengthen your arms and shoulders.

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, lower yourself into a deep squat and spread your knees out to the sides. You can place a yoga block or a folded blanket under your heels to deepen the pose.

Place your palms on the floor a short distance from your feet and bend your elbows. Spread your fingers to the sides, making a "frog's foot". Press your knees to the back of your shoulders (toward triceps) and smoothly transfer the weight of the body to the hands, while slightly lifting the pelvis up.

Feel how the bulk of the body is held on the hands, and the legs are practically freed from the load. Leave only your toes on the floor, and when you feel more confident, tear them off as well.

In the process of holding, spread the shoulder blades, rounding the back, and keep the press in tension. If you are afraid of falling forward, you can put a yoga block or a rolled up blanket under your head.

Do the Raven Pose progression that suits you three times a week. Do five sets with 30-60 seconds rest in between. Hold the pose for as long as you can.

When you can hold out in kakasana for 20-30 seconds, you can move on to mastering the crane pose.

Lying forward tilt

This movement will help increase the mobility of the wrist joints, strengthen the arms, abs and shoulders, and understand what position the shoulder blades should be in.

Get on all fours, spread your fingers and slightly turn your hands to the sides. Roll your shoulders forward so that they are not directly above the wrists, but in front.

Rise up into a lying position, tighten your abs and spread your shoulder blades so that your back arches up. Hold this position for 30 seconds, get back on all fours, rest and repeat 4 more times.

Each workout, try to move your shoulders forward a little more, if this does not cause acute pain in the hands. Do the exercise three times a week.

Standing forward bend

This exercise will help to stretch the muscles on the back of the thigh and increase the mobility of the hip joint, which will make it easier to get into bakasana.

Stand up straight, put your feet together and extend your arms above your head. This is the starting position.

Bend at the hips and lean forward with a straight back while lowering your arms through your sides. Place your palms on either side of your feet and press your stomach against your thighs. Let your head hang down freely, relax your neck.

If there is pain in the back of the thigh or discomfort in the lower back, bend your knees and continue to lengthen your back from the tailbone to the crown. As you hold, try to straighten your legs as far as possible.

Do this stretch every day for three sets of 30 second holds. To better pump flexibility, you can add other stretching poses.

How to warm up before bakasana

Before you start mastering the pose, it is worth doing a little warm-up to gently warm up the muscles and increase the mobility of the joints.

Do warm up exercises

Take turns doing the following warm-up exercises 10 times:

• flexion and extension;
• rotation;
• stretching with folded hands;
• rotation with fingers in the castle;
• finger clenching;
• stretching the inside and outside.

Work on hip mobility

Lie on your back, straighten one leg and bend the other at the knee. Weave your fingers into the castle and put on your knee, pulling it closer to your chest. As you exhale, lift your shoulders and shoulder blades off the floor and twist your torso closer to your knee.

Move your hands to the shin, closer to the foot, relax the neck and shoulders. Hold the pose for 2-4 seconds and then return your back to the floor.

Without straightening your knees, make three circles with your thigh out and then in. Watch to small of the back remained pinned to the floor. If it comes off, you can bend the other leg at the knee and place the foot on the floor 20-30 cm from the pelvis.

Warm up your back and shoulder muscles

Stand in an emphasis lying, place your wrists under your shoulders, tighten your abs. Then spread your shoulder blades to arch your upper back.

Imagine that you are trying to reach an object. At the same time, pull your shoulder blades down and your arms toward each other. This position will provide stable support in any exercise with emphasis on the hands.

Return to a regular plank with a straight body, and then repeat 2-4 more times.

How to do bakasana

Sit on your haunches, place your straight arms shoulder-width apart. Spread your fingers and slightly turn them to the sides, as during execution slats with shoulders forward.

To protect your wrists, bend your fingers as if you're about to grab onto the floor to help spread the load evenly across your palm.

Raise your pelvis up as high as you can. Lift your heels off the floor on your toes and place your feet as close to your hands as possible. Bend your knees and place them as close to your armpits as possible - on top of the triceps.

Roll your shoulders forward, keeping your elbows straight. When you feel that the weight of the body is almost completely transferred to the hands, gently tear off one sock from the floor. If you managed to resist, raise the second.

If you feel severe pain in your wrists, try turning your hands further out to the sides so that your forearm leans forward clearly over the notch between your thumb and forefinger.

For starters, 1-2 seconds in bakasan will be enough. Come back to your squats, shake your hands and repeat 5-6 more times. After a few sessions, when your hands get used to and stop hurting, you can gradually increase the time in the pose.

How to simplify bakasana

If the static crane pose is not yet given to you, try doing it dynamically or with support in the form of a block.

Put a block under your feet

Before doing bakasana, place a yoga block, rolled-up blanket, or other low, stable support on the floor. Stand on it and go into the pose of a crane, leaving the toes of the feet on a raised platform.

Due to the support, you will be able to take a pose more smoothly and comfortably, as well as hold it without losing contact with the surface. Spend as much as you can in the position.

sway

Stand in the starting position, swing into bakasana and after a second roll back. Observe all the technical points described above.

Perform 5 sets of 6-12 swing reps. Move smoothly and try to hold the pose a little longer each time.

Take your toes off the floor one at a time

Stand in bakasana with the toe of one foot on the ground for balance. Alternately change legs, trying to lean on the feet as little as possible.

Do 5 sets of 6-12 leg changes.

How often to do bakasana

Since this exercise puts a lot of stress on the wrists and shoulders, you should not do it too often - three times a week will be enough. Be sure to take a rest day between workouts so that the soft structures of the joint have time to recover.

As for the holding time, there is not much point in holding this position for a long time. If you can hold the position for 20-30 seconds without problems, move on to more complex variations. For example, try transitioning from Crane Pose to Handstand or mastering planche.