Arm balances can be a fun and exciting part of the asana practice. I, myself, love crow pose. It was the first arm balance I was able to take flight in so it has a special place in my heart. However, one of my favorite variations to teach is crow pose on the forearms – a.k.a. baby crow (bakasana).
Here are 3 reasons you should give it a try…
- It’s cute. I mean, come on it’s like a tiny baby yoga pose. Baby stuff is cute. Plan and simple.
- Less intimidating for beginners to arm balancing. Unlike full crow pose, baby crow only requires you to be a few inches away from the floor making falling out much less scary.
- Switch things up! We get used to doing the same old arm balances and poses in the practice. Shifting our perspective and routine from time to time is good for the mind AND the body.
Let’s get to it!
Warm-up | Several rounds of Sun Salutations are always a good idea before hopping into a pose. The following two exercises are also great tools for warming the correct muscles for baby bakasana.
Time to fly!
Is it better to start with baby crow and work from there to full crow? If I try crow, I can’t balance for more than a second. But I can hold baby for about 20 seconds. About how long would it take to be able to go from baby to full crow?
Hello Oliver – Everyone is different. Some folks find baby crow more difficult than regular crow. I would not say there is a specific correlation between the two. They are two separate poses not exactly meant to build as their names might imply.
If regular crow is your goal, there are a few stages and techniques you can try to help get there. Prop a block under your feet before starting is one way. We commonly have workshops if you are in the area and we also have an On-Demand Library with some content specific to this.