Tips to Safely Practice the Elusive Forearm Balance, Pincha Mayurasana
This pose took me years (yes, literally years) to find. I used to practice it a lot because, well honestly, I thought it looked cool and challenging. I feel like I should be embarrassed at my logic behind that one, but honestly, I’m not. I’m grateful that I decided to start practicing this posture. It doesn’t really matter how trivial my original intentions were because they brought me here. What I thought would be a fun challenge to learn a “cool” pose turned out to be an amazingly important practice in patience, surrender and consistency. But that’s yoga, right? It’s not so much about WHAT brings you to the practice, but HOW you work through your journey.
As is usually the case in life, the moment I stopped trying to do the pose and let myself enjoy the struggle and beauty of consistently trying (and failing/falling/bumping the wall, you know…) is when I finally found some steadiness. Pincha Mayurasana, Feathered Peackock Pose A.K.A. Forearm Balance, is an incredibly liberating posture. But it requires a ton of patience to build it up.
Here are a few tips that have helped me find strength within this beautiful beast 💥
1
Stack It From The Bottom
Set yourself up well. Place your elbows under your shoulders, under your hips, under your feet. When you build it from the ground up you will naturally find more steadiness. In this case, elbows are on the ground and feet are in the air, so start with your base, elbows on the ground and then align the rest from there.
2
Press, Don’t Jump
You have definitely heard this one before! Stretch one leg in the air, PRESS your forearms downward and engage your core. Keep doing these two actions, pressing down and stretching up, and eventually, the bottom leg will start to float off the ground. It will probably take longer to find this pressing action than jumping up, but you will also build more strength, control & ultimately, hang time along the way.
3
Inward & Upward
Physically you want to feel your body pulling inward and upward. Firing the inner thighs and drawing your body upward (which does get a little confusing while you’re upside down. More on this in another post!) allows you to connect to your deep, lower abs and your pelvic floor lock, Mula bandha.
4
Play With Your Legs
Pictures of traditional Pincha Mayurasana will show two legs pointing straight up. Let’s work toward this - sure, yes, GREAT! But also know that it’s ok to change the position of your legs. This may allow you to get upside down and stay there. Plus, it’s just fun to play! Have a peek at the photos below for a few of my favorite variations on leg positions.
Most importantly, BREATHE. Learning to breathe through challenge and uncertainty (is tough and it sucks) BUT it will help you become more patient with yourself through your journey. We are all on a journey and as much as we might like to, we simply cannot predict the path. So, we build ourselves up with tools and strategies and then we let the F go and trust that we will be able to breathe and use all the strengths that are already within us to
