How to: Crow

“I’ve done yoga for years and still can’t do crow!”

Let’s grow our crow! So many yoginis have practiced for years, even decades that still don’t have a crow. This is NOT because you’re not strong enough. It is as simple as stacking and finding the building blocks to a successful crow! This is broken down into 3 sections: Crow progressions, Proper crow warm up, and Actually practicing crow.

Crow Progressions

Here are three progressions to get to crow. Add this into your flow or do this series three to four days a week, doing three rounds of:

1. 20 seconds of reclined crow
2. 20 seconds rabbit pose, inch the nose closer to the knees and round the spine upward
3. 20 seconds circular shoulder shifts in plank
4. 20 seconds of crow marching

Add 10 seconds every two weeks until you reach one minute in each posture / movement.

Proper Crow Warm Up

Regardless of how long you have been crow, you can still get injured without properly warming up. What we should always do before practicing crow:

• Wake up the supportive shoulder muscles – 2 sets of 10 reps of each progression.
• The shoulder is a circular joint, wake up all angles – shoulder circles, wrist circles, and neck stretches are always a good idea before bearing weight on your hands.

Actually Practicing Crow

Okay, let do this! Now, we have excited tipped into crow before, perhaps accidentally kissing the floor. This time, we will ease in super slow keeping these 3 cues in mind:

1. Place each fingertip as far away from the next as possible. This offers a wide standing base to balance with higher chances of success!
2. Place your knees literally on your tricep or in your armpits. This will feel uncomfortable (but shouldn’t cause any harsh pain!) for the first couple weeks but rest assured, it’ll get super strong super fast if you practice more than 3 times a week (imo!).
3. Keep your gaze to the front of the room, not on your hands. This will ensure you can feel when you are tipping beyond the hands since you are most likely used to being upright in your head’s placement to gravity than being upside down. Later on, we can gaze down to the hands.
4. Never jump into crow, when you are a beginner. If you for any reason, do not have the flexibility or strength yet to position properly for the crow set up, then welcome in the time it will take to fly into crow. Do not force past these crucial elements of setting up for crow by jumping past them, you will find yourself kissing the floor more often. 😃🥳

Takeaway: Remember that falling on your face, what I like to call “kissing the floor”, is a major part of this process. This whole finding our tipping point with gravity while on our hands! Finally recall the 3 cues that will help the most when practicing crow:

1. Wide fingertip placement = wide base to balance
2. Knees on arms, not sliding off the edge (you can do it that was but it isn’t stacking, nor can you add variations on later!)
3. Gaze to the front of the room
4. slowly tip toe into crow, not jump

So what’s next? Let’s dive deeper into balancing mechanics and techniques.

Titled – MYTH: “I’m not strong enough to do arm balances in yoga”