How to Turn Yoga Into a Cool Exercise With Advanced Poses
Yoga can be more than just a relaxing way to spend a day of relaxation. This can be a problem in and of itself : you can develop serious strength by taking impressive poses such as The Crow or The Dancer.
Advanced poses require strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, and balance. Performing a difficult pose is a fitness goal in itself, as important as wanting to run a mile in a certain amount of time or wanting to bench a certain number of pounds. If you are using yoga as a cross-training exercise for another sport, these challenging poses can be a side goal that keeps you interested instead of bothering you with another batch of dogs.
I’m not going to say that you should learn difficult poses to impress people in yoga class, because (deep breathing yoga) all bodies are individual. Comparing yourself to others doesn’t help anyone. But if you can do difficult poses, you will certainly impress yourself (and maybe your friends at parties). I can testify that the three seconds that I was able to hold in the Crow Pose on the paddle board are considered one of my main sporting achievements.
Start by choosing a suitable target
Whatever your current level, some poses will be available to you and some will be outside of your league. If you are new to yoga, start by doing the exercises at the beginner level (preferably in a full-time class) until you understand what is easy for you and what is difficult.
Focus on a position that is not available, but in which you can see progress compared to your current fitness level. This may include modified versions of the pose, additional exercises to help you develop the necessary strength and skills, and options that use props (such as blocks or straps) to help you along the way. There are some helpful videos at the end of this post, or explore your chosen poses on sites like Yoga Journal’s Challenge Pose series . Don’t forget that your friendly yoga instructor next door is another great resource.
Get instructions and practice at home
Most yoga practitioners fall into one of two camps: those who practice on YouTube and dare not venture out of the privacy of their living room, and those who practice yoga by attending classes without worrying about finding time or place to practice. in the other place.
While either approach can work when you occasionally use yoga as a strength or flexibility exercise, a combination of both is your best bet if you want to get serious about achieving your goal.
A good teacher can criticize your form and help you understand exactly what you need to stretch, strengthen, or focus on improving. And unless you have a class that casually works on the skills you are trying to improve, you will want to spend time in what yogis call your “daily practice” working on what you need to work on.
Document your progress
Don’t be surprised if what you thought you could almost do is farther than you thought. When you really start learning the important components of a pose, your progress may seem to be reversed at first. Perhaps you could hold a certain posture for 30 seconds, but your instructor will tell you some of the key mistakes you are making. Now that you have corrected your shape, the pose has become much more difficult – perhaps you can only hold it for five seconds.
But if you do the pose better , and that is progress. Consider having a friend take a picture of you (or turn your phone over to shoot a video from across the room) so you can see how your shape improves over time. And if you are one of those who keep a workout diary, do not forget about your progress in yoga. This way, you can mark important milestones, such as the first time you were able to do a headstand without falling, and look back to see the progress you’ve made over time.
Some specific paths to advanced poses
How you work on an advanced pose depends on the pose and your body – what exactly is preventing you from reaching that pose?
Typical development involves a multi-pronged approach:
- Work on strength, flexibility, and balance over time with other postures and exercises.
- Warm up before trying a difficult pose. Remember that stretching temporarily changes your perception of pain , so you can stretch a little further without causing pain .
- Doing modified versions of the pose that are less difficult but will help you develop the strength you need to work to a more advanced version.
- Using objects to support your body or otherwise alter the physics of a pose. These can be blocks that lift or stabilize you, straps to help hold a leg you haven’t reached yet, or even pillows under sensitive parts of your body (such as your face) in case you fall.
- In some cases, psychological preparation: you can freak out if the posture seems intimidating – for example, if you are afraid of falling.
Here are some advanced poses with lessons on how to work with them.
Low Plank (Chataranga Dandasana)
A low plank is found with every sun salutation, but many of us miss it by simply dropping to the floor a few seconds earlier. When you do it right, you are essentially holding the bottom push-up position, which seems like forever, and pretending it’s okay.
The video above is a quick demonstration of some of the techniques that can help you develop strength for this pose, starting with a movement that is essentially a negative (downward) push-up . For a detailed breakdown of how to position your body and which muscles to contract, check outthis 20-minute video that goes into all the details.
Crow Pose (Kakasana)
The crow falls into the category of “hand balancers” when your weight is completely resting on your hands. This requires not only arm strength and balance, but also core and leg strength. Its older sister, the bakasana crane pose, requires you to raise your hips even higher and is even more challenging.
The video above shows a warm-up sequence to help you prepare for Raven’s attempt, and then at around 7:45 a key trick appears: Erin uses a yoga block as a “perch” so her feet are higher than her arms. This will make it easier for you to place your knees on top of your elbows, which is the entry point for the pose.
Another modified version of the pose is the crow , which Yoga Journal calls “the world’s smallest and cutest arm balancer.” You keep your entire forearm on the floor so that when you place your knees on your elbows, your knees and nose are just inches from the ground. This makes balancing easier as you have a more stable base and some of the fear of falling is eliminated – you only have about two inches to fall.
Headstands
There are many poses in yoga for headstands and handstands, thanks to the dubious theory that it is good for your health to spend time upside down. However, learning these postures can only be beneficial for developing strength and balance; The handstand also allows you to work on handstand push-ups, which is an amazing movement in itself.
The video above provides a sequence to help you transition to the headstand version where you support your weight on your forearms. In a modified version, you leave one or both feet on the floor. When you are strong enough to carry more weight on your arms than on your head, you can move on to the lift on both legs. At this stage, you canpractice headstands in front of a wall and move from there to more complex ways of raising your legs to the desired position.
When you’re ready to try the handstand,this half handstand will allow you to practice aligning your upper body vertically while your feet are resting on the wall; The trick is to measure the position of your arm so that you are about leg-length from the wall.
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