Now we're on to crow pose in Sanskrit, It's called Bakasana.
So how do you begin crow pose?
Let's talk about the hands first, whenever you place your hands on the floor, like an all fours, or in Downward Facing Dog, you always want to have your fingers spread wide. That way you have more grip on the mat.
What you're aiming for is your wrists are about as wide as your shoulders, This way, your wrists are as wide as your shoulders, So for this pose, when you actually have your wrists wider than your shoulders, for beginners, it makes it easier because you have more of a stable base.
So you can either have it, shoulder width, or wider. And then bend elbows. I'll show you the easy version, in and out. As I do that, I create a shelf with my triceps.
And this is where I place my shins. So I'm on my toes. Place my shins on the shelf that I've created. Bring my toes together. And then for beginners, you just want to feel how you're transferring your weight onto your hands.
Do that a couple of times. And maybe that's it for the day. Transferring my weight, getting used to moving forward. Now if you feel like your students have the strength in their arms, shoulders, and core muscles, you can ask them to lift one leg at a time. You don't have to do it on both legs, just one leg at a time, just one lower, and the other one lower.
You know the students are ready when they're not showing any fear when they can show they're balanced. And also when they're looking forward, not with a head down. So remind your students to look forward-looking beyond the mat.
Lift one leg up and the other leg up. Once you've worked with that version, for a while, you can try another version with your knees all the way up to your armpits. And what you're doing is you're really pushing through the shoulders and you're pushing down with your hands and round through the shoulders.
How to use the block with this pose. You can use it as a stage for your feet. So place the block just by the toes of your student so that they can perch on it. And it kind of takes them halfway there.
Now some students have a really hard time with this pose because they're afraid of falling flat on their faces. You're not going to fall flat on your face if you have strength through your arms. So what you do is to practice safety, you want them to get used to just placing weight on the hands before you even ask them to take both legs up. Just practice placing weight onto your hands. And then one foot up. The other foot up.