How to Practice Crow Pose (or Slowly Work Your Way Up to It)
Curious about this posture but hesitant to tip all the way forward? A Peloton instructor explains how to ease into it.
By Michele Ross•
What Are the Benefits of Crow Pose (Kakasana)?
How to Gradually Work Up to Crow Pose
How to Practice Crow Pose
Crow Pose Modifications
Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Beginners might view arm balances as the party tricks of yoga, but really, they offer benefits that extend beyond eliciting “ooo’s” and “ahhh’s” from your neighbors. That’s certainly the case with Crow Pose (Kakasana), one of my favorite arm-balancing asanas. This challenging pose strengthens your upper body and core while enhancing your focus and boosting your confidence.
Keep reading to learn more about Crow Pose, with input and tips from Peloton yoga instructor Anna Greenberg.
What Are the Benefits of Crow Pose (Kakasana)?
One glance at someone practicing Crow Pose is probably enough to convince you that this posture is intense. So, what makes it worth doing?
It strengthens your upper body. As you balance on your hands in Crow Pose, you’re simultaneously building strength in your arms, wrists, and fingertips.
It stretches your hips. Whether from exercising too much or sitting for too long, many of us experience hip tightness. Crow Pose can help since you typically do Garland Pose (Malasana), a posture that stretches your hips, to get into it.
It improves your balance and body awareness. Crow Pose challenges your balance and stability as you tip forward and resist the pull of gravity. In order to keep yourself upright and engage muscles throughout your upper body and core, you need strong proprioception, or body awareness.
It enhances your mental focus. If you want to hold Crow Pose, it helps to concentrate your gaze on one point at the top of your mat. Getting more comfortable harnessing your focus will serve you during and after your practice.
It boosts your confidence. Nailing an arm balance is among the most rewarding benefits of a yoga practice—especially if you’ve been working up to it for a while. You might even find that holding Crow Pose for longer over time can boost your confidence.
How to Gradually Work Up to Crow Pose
Crow Pose is a peak pose in yoga, meaning it’s an advanced posture that instructors typically program as the apex of a larger sequence. So rather than just launching into it, we recommend preparing by doing a few key movements.
Garland Pose: To start, Anna points to Garland Pose as one of her go-tos, namely since she prefers to do it right before leaning forward into Crow Pose.
Tree Pose: Anna also says Tree Pose (Vrikshasana) is another great hip opener that’s a bit less intense (yet still helpful for warming up).
Cat Pose: “Cat Pose (Marjaryasana) is a really good prep pose where you press the floor away, round your back, and take a few breaths there,” Anna says, adding that the movements loosely resemble those in Crow Pose. “Flying Cat Pose, in which you hover your knees, is also great.”
Lizard Pose: For those who want something a bit juicier, Anna recommends taking Lizard Pose (Utthan Pristhasana) with Cat Pose and Cow Pose (Bitilasana). Once you’re in Lizard Pose, Anna says, "Inhale your chest open as you widen your knees and exhale as you gather everything back into the center." Then, squeeze your upper arm with your inner knee and press the floor away to Cat Pose by rounding your back.
Chaturanga Dandasana: If you love practicing Sun Salutations (Surya Namaskars) or doing flows that involve transitioning from Chaturanga Dandasana to Upward-Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana), Anna says that you can do them to train yourself for Crow Pose.
Gripping the mat is also crucial in Crow Pose. “I would thread that throughout class before teaching Crow Pose," Anna says. "Your fingertips and knuckles are your secret balancers that allow you to shift forward to take flight without face-planting.”
Last but not least, Anna suggests focusing on warming up your wrists with push-ups or dynamic movements that begin in Table Top Pose (Bharmanasana). The latter involves “grabbing the mat with your fingertips and knuckles and shifting forward, then pulling back and drawing your fingernails toward your forearms with your seat toward your heels and isometrically pulling the heels of your hands back toward your knees,” Anna explains. “This fires up the muscles around your forearms and is a really good prep for Crow Pose.”
How to Practice Crow Pose
Below, Anna provides step-by-step cues on how to safely practice Crow Pose.
Start in Garland Pose with your knees wide and your feet close together.
Reach your arms and torso forward, planting your palms on the mat shoulder-width distance apart. Spread your fingers wide and grip the mat.
Pull your arms back as you bring your knees as high up against your upper arms or shoulders as you can. (Think of your upper arms as a shelf for your knees.)
Rest your gaze just beyond the tip of your nose to avoid straining your neck.
Shift your weight forward until you feel centered enough to pick up your feet from the mat, drawing your heels toward your seat.
Squeeze in your elbows and knees. Round your back as you engage your core and press up and away from the floor. Keep your elbows bent or slowly begin to straighten your arms.
Hold this position for two to five breaths.
To exit Crow Pose, slowly shift your weight back, lower your feet to the mat, and return to Garland Pose. Advanced practitioners can exit Crow Pose by jumping back into Chaturanga Dandasana, transitioning to Upward-Facing Dog and exhaling into Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana).
Note: If you’re new to Crow Pose or simply want an added safety measure, Anna suggests placing a pillow or folded blanket in front of you to cushion any potential falls.
Crow Pose Modifications
Not quite ready to dive into the full expression of Crow Pose? No problem. Anna recommends trying the following beginner-friendly variations.
1. Crow Pose with Your Feet On Blocks
Putting blocks underneath your feet in Crow Pose “gives you a head start to feel your weight shift forward, which is necessary to take flight,” Anna says. “If your hips are a little bit tighter or if you’re living in a larger body, placing blocks underneath your feet can make it easier to get into the position you need to lift into Crow Pose.”
To practice this variation, Anna advises placing one block horizontally under each foot. Then, follow the steps above beginning from Garland Pose. “It’s really the same thing; You just draw your arms back, get low, pull your arms back, and snuggle in,” she explains. “You can easily work on picking up one foot if you’d like, then the second foot, just shifting forward enough to lift the feet then place them back down. You can play with that edge of peering over the cliff of what’s familiar.”
2. Supine Crow Pose
Modifying an arm balance in a way that puts you on your back might not be intuitive, but Supine Crow Pose “is great for practitioners who have any wrist issues, which is super common,” Anna says. “It’s also just a great prep pose and is a quite intense core workout—maybe even more so than when you’re right-side up.”
Anna cues Supine Crow Pose as follows:
Lie on your back and come into the starting position of Crow Pose, with your knees wide and your feet close together.
Round your back as you reach your arms up pull them back against your knees.
Aim to get your knees as high up toward the back of your upper arms and shoulders as you can.
Squeeze your knees in and bring your bottom front ribs and front hip points toward each other.
Press your arms straight as if you’re pressing them into the ceiling.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
According to Anna, there isn’t really a wrong way to work on Crow Pose. “There are schools of thought that advise against sticking your butt up in the air and call that a different pose, but I honestly think whatever way you get into it is totally fine. You can refine from there,” she says.
You should aim to get your knees as high up on the backs of your upper arms and shoulders as possible, but Anna says that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. “This isn’t possible for all bodies and that’s totally okay. If your knees end up a little bit more toward your elbows, or a little above your elbows, that’s also a place you can totally work from.”
As a friendly reminder, Anna says to keep your gaze forward and optimistic. That means “not craning your head up but also not letting your gaze release all the way down,” she says.
This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute individualized advice. It is not intended to replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment. Seek the advice of your physician for questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. If you are having a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.
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