Crow pose // Bakasana

This is a wonderful arm-balance pose that also encourages core strength. Believe it or not, it's the abdominals that really rock this posture.

If you're nervous about face-planting, then practice this pose on the carpet, or with a pillow under your head. Although, you're already so close to the ground that it doesn't hurt too much when you fall out of it... I know this from lots of personal experience.

Now that I'm comfortable holding my crow pose for a few breaths, I like to try variations. You can turn your legs to one side and do a twisted crow, and from there you can even try extending the legs through the twist. When I master that one I'll be sure to share a photo; for now just picture me falling down a lot.

For a good video to get you started with tradition crow, visit DoYouYoga's day 7 video HERE.

And even if you never get your feet off the ground, this is still a wonderful pose for targeting the core and the arms. I remember being so excited when I finally learned to do this pose (and then Kev just up and did it without any effort at all because he's awesome like that), but there are still some days when I'm not feeling it. Let me know how it works for you!