My Top 5 Tips For Mastering Hand Balances

Bakasana - crane pose

Hand balances are hands down (sorry!) my favourite type of pose - for me they bring a wonderfully fun and playful quality to our yoga practice. 

They also invite us to undertake a curious exploration of our perceived boundaries, patterns and possibilities - fear, striving, exhilaration and frustration are all likely to arise at different points in the exploration…and all can be held with friendly awareness. 

In fact they're a significant reason as to why I fell in love with yoga practice in the first place - I loved the challenge that they presented, even though I was rarely able to hold the poses for long (if at all). 

Over the years of practicing yoga I have increasingly come to appreciate that hand balances are not simply (or even primarily) a question of strength. Of course a degree of strength is involved  - but the practice of balancing on our hands is really more a question of refined technique. 

So...to help you take your hand balance practice to the next level, I have outlined below 5 key principles for safely exploring these wonderful poses. 

1. Use your hands as feet

This might sound obvious…but it's critical that we build the foundations through our hands correctly (just as we set up the feet properly in standing poses) by activating 'hasta bandha' (hand lock or seal - also know as the ‘cambered hand’ position).

Hasta bandha - or the cambered hand position - creates a strong foundation for hand balances

To do this spread your fingers wide with your index fingers pointing VERY SLIGHTLY away from centre and focus on actively rooting the hands down into the mat.

Most importantly ensure that there’s a strong connection into the earth through the undersides of the knuckles - and that the weight isn’t sinking into the heels of the hands and wrists.

Once the hands are set, squeeze the floor with your fingertips to create a subtle 'cupping' action of the centre of the palm.

Setting the hands up in this way helps to provide a much greater sense of stability and foundation in hand balances - it also helps to avoid injuries that can be caused by weight collapsing into your wrists.

2. Stabilise the shoulders

Our shoulders are built primarily for mobility rather than for stability - in fact they are the most mobile joints in our bodies.  

So in order to safely engage our shoulders during hand balance practice we have create as much stability as we can through these joints.

We do this by ensuring that the head of the upper arm bone (the humerus) is properly 'plugged into' the shoulder socket by rolling your inner bicep forward and the outer arm back (external rotation)…so that the 'eye' of your elbow is in line with your thumb. 

Additionally, broaden and flatten your shoulder blades across the back and draw them forward so that they don't wing upwards and away from the body - this can strain the muscles of the rotator cuff surrounding the shoulder joint (causing further instability). 

3. Hug your elbows to your centre line

When you bend your elbows, hug them in towards your mid line so that your forearms are parallel to one another rather than bending your elbows out sideways either side of the body. 

Again this helps to stabilise your shoulders and it also creates a strong skeletal structure upon which we can 'stack' the rest of body in some hand balance poses - reducing the amount of muscular effort we need to invest.

4. Use your whole body

You will never knowingly underwork in a hand balance - so if you’re struggling then pushing harder is rarely the answer. 

Instead you have to understand the relationship between each part of the body and how these work together in combination to take a particular posture.  

Plank pose

Think about a simple plank pose (a foundational pose for all hand balances) - in order to hold your plank you need to activate muscles throughout the entire chain of the body to avoid collapsing towards the floor. 

We can apply similar principles to more challenging arm balances. 

For example in Bakasana (pictured at the top of this post) we need to activate our hip flexors to draw the knees in towards the body and the adductors to hug the knees against the upper outer arms. 

Without understanding how to access and activate these muscles, the pose is simply not possible. 

5. Don’t cheat the process 

I know how tempting it is to want to ‘get the pose’ - I often fall into that trap myself. 

But when approaching hand balance poses we really need exercise patience and be prepared to spend time working on foundational movements that help us to build towards the particular posture that we’re looking to take.

This will help us to approach our exploration safely - building strength and technique without the risk of injury. 

Cat pose

Again, thinking of Bakasana…you can see from the above picture that the position of my spine is not too dissimilar from a basic cat stretch.

So spend lots of time in cat pose actively pressing down through the hands to slightly round the spine and feel a sense of the front body ‘lifting’ towards the back body. 

And then when it comes to actually practising Bakasana, be prepared to start with the elbows bent and with the tips of the toes still resting on the floor.

From there, and over time, you can explore raising one foot at a time (maybe with the forehead resting against a wall for more support) to build the strength required to eventually take the second foot up as well.

But do make sure that you’ve really mastered each stage on the journey before progressing to the next. 

Ok, so that’s it…my Top 5 hand balance tips. I hope you’ll find them useful. 

As I mentioned at the start of this post I love hand balances for the playful quality they can bring to our yoga practice. 

Embrace this playfulness and use the above tips to safely approach your exploration of these wonderful poses - it might take a little while to get the hang of some of them but with persistence, they'll come.

And if you have any further questions or would like to work with these poses on a one to one basis then please do get in touch.

The Benefits of Yoga for Feet

Our poor feet!

Squeezed into tight, uncomfortable, smelly shoes when all they want is to be free. Forced to totter around on high heels when what they really crave is to feel the earth between their dainty little toes.

The human foot is an incredibly complex structure containing 28 bones, 33 muscles, 31 joints, and over 100 ligaments – in fact the feet contain a quarter of all bones in the body.

As a result of this complexity, our feet are incredibly adaptable, with the ability to move in a variety of different ways. They have developed in this way to provide us with stability and balance as we move across uneven terrain - useful when running away from dangerous beasties or hunting prey back in our cave dwelling days.

However, in contemporary life, when we're usually walking on evenly paved surfaces and cramming our feet into the latest in fashion footwear, the adaptability of the foot is seemingly no longer required – in fact you could say that it's somewhat over-engineered. Unfortunately, this leads to a situation where the deep musculature of the foot, which supports the 4 arches of the foot that provide our architectural strength, is not fully utilised and so becomes redundant and weakens.

This in turn creates a variety of problems such as flat feet (fallen arches), weak ankles, bunions, hammer toes and claw toes - all of which reduce the strength of our body’s foundation and lead to further misalignment in the legs, hips, spine and head. So ignore those pinkies at your peril!

Practicing yoga postures awakens the four layers of musculature in the soles of our feet and reintroduces movement into the foot, restoring the natural aliveness, strength and adaptability of the feet. Furthermore, it can help to correct a variety of conditions caused by wearing inappropriate and constrictive footwear – such as shortening of the Achilles tendon from wearing high heels (forward bends will stretch the Achilles tendon and the calf muscles attaching to it).

Spacing the toes in yoga asana practice also helps to counter the effect of wearing shoes that are too tight (a common cause of bunions), allowing more blood to flow in and out of the feet and releasing the musculature. Ahhh...happy feet.

So do your feet a favour - let them out of their straight jacket, get on the mat and get them wriggling free again. They'll be ever so grateful - and in the long run so will you.

Myths and Misconceptions: 5 Things Every Beginner Yoga Student Should Know

1.       Don’t get hung up on how inflexible you are. 

There are no prizes for people who can wrap their legs around their head twice (not recommended :)) after all, yoga is more about how you feel inside rather than how you look on the outside.  If you work mindfully within your present limitations you will enjoy all benefits that yoga has to offer.

2.       Yoga isn’t just for the ladies. 

In fact, historically yoga was exclusively taught and practised by men. Indeed, the roots of some of the very dynamic forms of yoga we enjoy today were first introduced to adolescent boys to harness their testosterone energy and give it a positive outlet.  Nowadays, men are feeling the benefits of yoga in all areas of their life from their work life to the sports field.

3.       There is more to yoga than first meets the eye. 

The yoga postures (asana) we learn in classes are only a small part of the practice of yoga. There are many other disciplines to be experienced including pranayama (breathing exercises) and meditation to name a few. Asana is a good place to start as it helps to strengthen the body and begins to focus the mind.

4.       Yoga is not just about sitting around with your legs crossed and ‘Omming’ a lot. 

Of course it can be, but yoga is a very personal journey and so different things work for different people. Yoga asana can be practiced for many different reasons; as a method of exercise, stress relief, injury prevention or spiritual exploration to name a few. It’s up to you - with so many different styles of yoga available and different teachers offering different perspectives keep an open mind and have fun exploring what feels right for you.

5.       Don’t be miffed if you’re not floating around your mat with grace and finesse within a few weeks. 

First of all, don’t waste energy worrying about what you can and can’t do – just enjoy the practice for what it is. And secondly, be patient - acquiring new skills takes time and there are no short cuts. With a regular practice, everything comes in its own good time.

From Competitiveness to Creating Freedom

Have you ever caught yourself gritting your teeth in angst as someone in yoga class effortlessly slides into the splits, or gracefully lifts themselves into a handstand? Or have you ever noticed a sense of smugness creep in as you take an Insta-worthy Bakasana whilst the person next to you performs a spectacular nose dive into their mat? You're probably not alone...

Recently I was asked by one of my students. "How can I avoid feeling competitive in class?". I thought it was a brilliant question and so I wanted to share some thoughts about it below...

I'm sure many of us have heard it said that one of the great things about yoga is that there's no competition (despite those curious yoga competitions that are starting to crop up - have you read Hell Bent?). But really, how true is this, or can this ever be, when we live in a culture that's built on the foundations of striving to be the best, the winner, number 1? Competition is an inherent part of our culture and environment, of our genetic make up even, and so how realistic is it to expect someone to relinquish this impulse the moment they step foot into a yoga studio? In fact it could be the case that the oft repeated assertion that there is no competition in yoga could be making us feel even worse about ourselves by setting up an unrealistic set of expectations (and making us feel that we're 'bad' yogis for feeling competitive). Indeed, it's not competitiveness (an abstract concept) in itself that's bad, but the way we reflect it back at ourselves (for example, to give ourselves a hard time) and the way it can make us feel (shitty or superior). Competitiveness is a fundamental human characteristic and, for me at least, yoga practice should be about becoming a more embodied human being (Patanjali would perhaps beg to differ). 

I'm sure that if most of us were honest with ourselves, we'll admit to being competitive in yoga class on the odd occasion. The great news is that this doesn't make us bad yogis (at least not in my book). For me, one of the most powerful benefits of yoga practice is that it helps us to uncover our conditioned patterns of behaviour and thought (often referred to as samskaras in yogic parlance).

These conditioned patterns of behaviour will, more often than not, manifest in the way we approach our yoga practice. If we're used to striving, straining and struggling to be the best, then it's likely we'll encounter similar behaviours in our practice. If we tend to be lethargic, or full of energy, or a risk taker, or if we like to give ourselves a hard time...each of these patterns will probably manifest in some way.

Often we remain oblivious to these patterns even though they can exert a strongly negative influence on our lives. For example, striving for success at the expense of others can be a path to alienation, and constantly giving ourselves a hard time can be truly debilitating. But when we practice asana or meditation, we're presented with a really valuable opportunity to recognise and explore our patterns of behaviour and thought. This is a wonderful gift of the practice because when we become consciously aware of something, the power that it exerts over us tends to weaken. To paraphrase my meditation teacher, Martin Aylward, our practice then becomes a 'practice of creating freedom by becoming aware of the ways in which we're trapped'. In this way, whatever arises in our practice can be used as a doorway for exploration and liberation.

So the next time you catch yourself feeling competitive in your yoga practice, rather than giving yourself a hard time, perhaps use it as an opportunity for enquiry. Recognise that this is a very natural, very human behaviour and then shift your awareness and attention away from your thoughts and the story they're painting and into your body, noticing what sensations are present at that moment and meeting them with a friendly curiosity. Notice where theses sensations can be felt and how they shift and change...holding them in awareness without judging or labelling them. 

It's amazing what a liberating and powerful experience this simple technique can be. It helps to free us from the tyranny of negative internal dialogue and allows us to show some kindness to ourselves (and others) by recognising our very human behaviours and patterns for what they are. And it helps us to become more accepting of ourselves and our practice - complete and whole just as we are. In this way, we can use our practice to enrich and nourish us, allowing us to become more fully embodied and present to our everyday experiences - rather than as another stick to beat ourselves with.