Achieving Crow, or Bakasana, in yoga is perhaps one of the first significant achievements in a practitioner’s yoga career. However, the battle does not end after you have achieved the stance. The true difficulty for the majority of practitioners is to hold this yoga stance for more than a few seconds.
How to Perform Crow Pose (Bakasana)?
Step by step guide:
- Squat to begin (Malasana). Extend your arms out in front of you and rest your hands on the ground.
- Bend your arms in the same way as you would if you were doing a Low Plank (Chaturanga).
- Bring your knees to the outside of your upper arms and stand on your tippy-toes.
- To begin, spread your elbows wide enough for your legs to rest high on your upper arms.
- Lean forward and point your toes. With your fingers, create resistance.
- By drawing the ribs in and rounding the back, hollow the body.
- Incorporate the elbows and knees.
- Prior to entering the posture, move your body weight forward to increase your hold on the mat. Sensitize yourself to the activation of your upper arms’ strength.
- Instead of lowering the head to gaze backward, raise it forward, like a turtle does as it emerges from its shell.
- Continue forward leaning forward your fingers until your feet become light. You may choose to elevate the feet individually. It is critical that you activate your toes here.
- Hollow out again by drawing the ribs closer together, i.e. hugging the midline. Inhale deeply and bring your navel to your spine.
- Knees should be squeezed against upper arms, and upper arms should be squeezed against the knees.
- Bring your big toes together and then straighten your arms.
Suggestions For Beginners
One of the most significant impediments to achieving that position is certainly your fear of falling. When most practitioners try this yoga posture for the first time, they are fearful of falling onto their heads. To alleviate this concern, yoga offers a slightly different approach to Bakasana:
- In the front of the mat, place a blanket or cushion.
- As you enter Malasana, lay your head first on your cushions. There is no chance of falling over because the head is already on the ground.
- Elevate your buttocks and step your feet farther into the space.
- Bring your feet together and your knees up to your upper arms.
- Lift one leg at a time and keep your balance in this posture initially.
- Your forearms must be parallel to the ground at this point. Otherwise, this stance will be impossible to balance.
- In Happy Baby Position, you may first practice the contour of the pose on your back. This will also assist to warm up your back and hips, allowing them to release more easily in this posture.
- You can begin by raising only one foot and leaving only the toe of the other foot on the floor.
- This posture requires dedication in the upper body, wrists, and core, which you may develop by practicing Downward Dog, Chaturanga, and Plank.
- From here, move your body weight backward to allow your head to gently rise. Proceed cautiously.
- Contract your toes and recall steps 11-13 from the previous section.
How Long Can You Hold Crow (Bakasana) For?
1. Maintain Vertical Forearms
The majority of students struggle with Crow in yoga since their forearms are really not vertical. This indicates that the center of gravity is not parallel to the ground. Additionally, there is an excessive amount of weight on your feet. It is difficult to move oneself into Bakasana from this posture without jumping. As a consequence of losing control of your body, you will fall forward or backward.
Therefore, if you want to successfully do Bakasana in yoga, put your arms vertically behind your shoulders.
2. Maintain A Straight Neck
When students perform Crow in yoga, many are terrified of sliding forward onto their heads. This is why they may raise the head as high as possible in order to keep it as far away from the floor as feasible. If you elevate your head, though, your buttocks will descend. However, in order to do a perfect Bakasana yoga stance, you must elevate your buttocks.
Therefore, keep your neck’s natural curvature in accordance with your spine and free of creases on the rear.
3. Take a Step Forward
To enter Bakasana, bring your center of gravity toward your hands, allowing your buttocks to rise. With your fingertips, provide resistance such that you can feel your forearms engaging.
4. Hollow – Push-Pull
These three simple phrases are the basis for all arm balances:
- Remove your feet from the ground, wrap your arms over your back, and spread your fingers.
- By drawing the navel up and in, hollow out your stomach.
- To engage your core, bring your thighs to your chest.
Once in the posture, follow these steps to ensure that you can hold it for an extended period of time without slipping out.
What Are The Yoga Benefits Of The Crow Pose (Bakasana)?
Bakasana is a yoga practice that is beneficial for strengthening the shoulders, upper arms, forearms, and wrists. Additionally, it develops and tones the abdominal muscles and organs.
Additionally, crow is an excellent yoga position for mobilising and stretching the upper back and groynes. Additionally, it promotes the spine’s flexibility and suppleness and aids in the improvement of balance and whole-body coordination.
Nevertheless, this arm-balancing asana may help you build physical strength as well as confidence and self-awareness. This is because conquering your fear of falling forward on your face needs you to walk carefully and maintain an awareness of your surroundings. This concentration will assist to relax your mind, decrease worry and daily tension, and might even leave you with a sense of serenity and self-assurance.
To master the Crow posture, you must develop a stronger mind-body connection and thereby increase your body awareness. This asana strikes the ideal balance between facing your worries and cultivating bravery.
Once you’ve mastered Bakasana in yoga, you’ll feel as if it’s much scarier than it really is, providing a significant boost to your self-confidence.
Variations of The Crow Pose
- Assure that your wrists are positioned appropriately for Crow Pose. This is critical because if you achieve lift-off in the position, it may become quite addicting!
- Your upper arms – when you first begin practicing Crow Pose, it’s usual to get scars on the backs of your arms. This will diminish as you acquire a sense of lightness in the posture through repetition. If it is very uncomfortable, position your knees against the outside of your upper arms rather than on the backs of them.
FAQs About Bakasana
While Crow Pose (Kakasana) may seem “simple” in comparison to a one-handed handstand push-up, it is really rather difficult. To fly in Crow Pose requires strength, discipline, and a certain amount of boldness.
The following are some of the benefits of Crow Pose:
– Strengthens and tones the abdominal muscles.
– Strengthens the abdominal organs, which is beneficial for lower back discomfort and indigestion.
– Arms are strengthened.
– Back stretches and strengthens.
– Inner thighs are stretched and strengthened with this exercise.
– The groyne is opened.
– Wrists are strengthened! TRUTH! Practice.
– Increases endurance and concentration – mental concentration and calmness!
Even if you’ve never attempted conventional Crow Pose, with the proper preparation, you can master this difficult form of this arm balance. While yoga arm balances may seem difficult and straight out of Cirque du Soleil, breaking the postures down step by step will help you master them.
The Crow Pose develops your core, upper back, chest, front of hips (hip flexors), back of thighs (hamstrings), arms, shoulders, forearms, and back of wrists (wrist extensors).
Conclusion
If you’re looking to stretch and strengthen your entire body, the Bakasana or the Crow pose is highly efficient, One of the more complex yoga poses, effectively performing this pose can be very beneficial. Follow the steps above to make the most of it!
For more information on other yoga poses and their benefits, keep reading Seema.
