Yoga Question about Crow Pose or Hand Stand

hsrunningmom

I am wondering how you progress in yoga to more advanced poses. I mostly practice my yoga at home with YouTube videos since I am unable to practice in an actual class. For instance, if I wanted to progress to the Crow pose or a head stand, are there other poses to should concentrate on to help prepare me so that I will eventually be able to actually do those poses? I have been practicing for about two years now and have slowly seen changes happening but still have a ways to go in some of the more basic poses. (For instance, the heels of my feet still do not touch the ground in Downward Facing Dog but I hope one day to be able to do this.) How often should I practice these poses? Everyday? Every other day? Once a week? I would like to eventually progress to some more advanced poses but not sure how to get there.

Spiegelchan

You can try googling progressions or preparation poses - that will show you steps you can take to get there. Here's one I found for crow pose - https://www.doyouyoga.com/5-yoga-poses-to-prepare-for-crow-pose-18130/

I can't do them yet because I have no consistency or follow-through, but I found that for crow pose, it really helps to stand on a stack of books and have your hands on the ground. It also helps to have a pile of pillows in front of you, so you're mentally more comfortable leaning out further forward. For handstands, you do hollow body, which is where you hold both your arms and your legs up at once, and then you do planks and gradually plank with your feet further up the wall. Anything to strengthen your shoulders may also help (though the planks will strengthen them on their own, especially once your feet pass a certain height), and you should practice wrist flexibility since that's one of the limiting factors.

canadianlbs

Spiegelchan wrote: »

Anything to strengthen your shoulders may also help (though the planks will strengthen them on their own, especially once your feet pass a certain height),

disclaimer: i don't yoga. but on the handstand topic, i want to mention that i lift and have watched other club members working on them. so my input is, it's also really really REALLY helpful to practice things that let you learn how to 'stack' your shoulders so the joints are really solidly socketed and your bones are taking most of the weight.

'waiter' carries with progressively challenging weight are one of my favourite ways to discover how that stacked shoulder feels.

hsrunningmom

Thanks for the suggestions!