How To: Pincha Mayurasana - Forearm Stand for Beginners

Transcript

this tutorial is all about how to do a forearm stand also known as pincha mayurasana or simply pincher for short I'll be going over their setup and correct alignment drills to help you build the required strength drills to help you learn that alignment and tips for overcoming the fear of falling so let's get going pincher is like a halfway house between a headstand and a handstand not as much surface area to balance on as a headstand but significantly more than a handstand so for most people it's where they progress on to after learning a headstand let's look at the foundation of what we're trying to balance on number one the setup there are two ways which we can place the forearms pincher and ultimately it's not up to me to tell you which way to do it I'll just explain the difference and I encourage you to try both and experiment the first and more traditional way is with forearms parallel and the palms flat the pros of this version is a maximum amount of surface area on the mat to aid balance and the ability to use your fingertips as brakes the cons are how much more challenging this shape is on the shoulder girdle and therefore a weaker natural position for them so here try this bring your forearms up in front of you with your palms facing inwards feels quite easy familiar right now turn your palms away from you and think of pushing your thumbs forwards notice how much more awkward that feels in your shoulders now imagine you're trying to balance your body weight on top of that so that brings me on to the second option palms together and forearms form your triangle much like the shape you make for a supported headstand just without the head on the floor the palms can either press together interlace into a fist or take a more fancy shape but ultimately it's which ever feels best for you the pros here are how much stronger the shoulders are in this position and the more strength you can recruit the more stable and successful your pincher can be the cons are the reduced surface area in comparison to flat palms and for this reason many people struggle with maintaining balance here if they learned via option one and then try switching to option two you also lose the fingertip control which has significant benefits when it comes to inversions my personal preference is Kali mudra as I can strike a balance between recruiting maximum strength in my shoulders whilst also maintaining a small amount of fingertip control but what works for me may be different for you so don't assume that this hand shape is optimal as I said experiment and be open-minded that there is more than one correct way to do this so that's our foundation so building up from there let's have a look at the alignment in the rest of the pose number two alignment in a perfect world in a straight up pincher would have our shoulders stacked directly on top of our elbows and the hips and feet directly stacked above there we can always strive for perfection such as this but know that perfection is not required in order to have success in and to enjoy this pose plus straight up legs is one of the hardest shapes to make yet despite this begin to seem to be drawn towards throwing both legs to the sky and trying to find that straight line before even learning how to control their balance on their forearms so let's take a step back number three finding balance a helpful way to think of pincher is a counterbalance of weight where the elbows are our balance point like a set of scales the more weight you have on this side of the balance point the more weight you need on the opposite side in order for the scales to balance this becomes important when we have to address imperfections in our alignment it takes a huge range of shoulder flexibility to stack everything up perfectly so when we don't have this range an angle is formed at the shoulder and suddenly one side of the scale already has some extra weight into it so how does the body compensate to find balance here either the shoulders move past the elbows to bring more weight to this side of the balance point with the upper body or the legs lean over to distribute the weight with the lower body often referred to as a banana bag it's not necessarily as truly horrifying as many people would lead you to believe as long as we are staying active in the core and it's more on that to come then we should remember that it's safe for our spine to be other shapes other than deadly straight but all too often that core strength isn't there when we're learning and the lower spine takes the weight of the heavy legs and that's really not its favorite thing to do so what's a better way to learn balance without a questionably dodgy spinal shape split legs no this does not mean that you need to be able to do the splits it simply means having your legs separated or split it'll probably be better referred to as why legs when the legs are separated you're giving a little bit of weight to each side of the scale and you have much more room for error as the body inevitably wobbles the legs can make micro adjustments to redistribute the weight and rebalance the scales as needed this balance it gives increasing levels of help the wider the legs are split but only up until the point that you aren't forcing them the moment you start striving for your widest split you possibly can achieve you move away from a helpful place and into something more challenging and that's something for another video entirely basically separate the legs to a comfortably wide position and consider narrowing them to increase the difficulty as you find increasing success you can also try this in stag legs which is essentially split legs but with bent knees but it's also starting to move into a more back bending pincher shape this isn't necessarily a bad thing but only if it's done purposely a purposeful back bend is strong and controlled and essentially creates a counterbalance with the torso and the pelvis much like the legs do in a split shape it therefore has the potential to make finding balance here a little easier but in many beginners this can be a dangerous place to lean into in the name of just nailing a cool pose it all too often lacks core stability and put strain on the lower back that over time can cause you serious damage I strongly recommend all beginners to avoid relying on a big backbend to learn pincher and to progress to these types of shapes with purpose once they've learnt to balance otherwise number 4 body awareness so we kind of know what all the limbs are meant to be doing but do we really you can apply everything we've already covered but if you've got lazy legs and sleepy shoulders it's never going to work the easiest way to summarize this is to remind you to engage everything this is a very difficult pose and doesn't just happen without effort the whole forearm particularly the elbows are pressing down into the floor these are not stabilizers these are your foundations push down as if you're trying to dent the floor and use that push to rise as far away from the mat as you can brace your core like you're about to get a poke in the belly and you've really hate being poked and then the legs they are so crucial reaching or pointing through your toes is the best way to engage your entire leg it's not for aesthetics it's to remind every muscle in your legs but they should be hugging the bones and working hard to help you do this think about it this way if you're trying to walk along a tight rope or a slackline and you have your arms out alongside you are they loose and floppy or they firm and active and doing their best to be a part of the team number five get strong so come on now it's time to get moving let's look at the strength we need for Pinscher and how we can build it quite obviously our shoulders need to be relatively strong here being able to shift a ton of weight at the gym is definitely not a requirement but the stronger you are the better you will be able to control the body and maintain your balance why do the toddler fall over when they're learning to walk and have a little wobble because their neck muscles a weak so when you have a little wobble upside down it's strength that will enable you to hold on to that balance now it may not be as much strength as you think when we invert there's an element of stacking whereby the skeleton supports the weight of some body parts above it as well as that lovely counterbalance element we've covered which allows the weight to be distributed amongst a range of muscles so no you do not need to be able to shoulder press your body weight to get into this here's some of my favorite shoulder strengthening exercises that you can practice dolphin walk-ins forearm planks dolphin push-ups in order for the pelvis and torso to not feel like two entirely separate entities with minds of their own we need a strong core to unite them and keep everything under control our lower body is heavy and without a strong core to keep it in check it'll flop all over the place and throw you off your balance here's some of my favorite core strengthening exercises super slow mountain climbers reverse tabletop - l-sit and your dolphin walk-ins from before are great - number six get flexible there's an element of flexibility which will really improve your ability and pincher as discussed in the alignment section ideally we want shoulders above elbows and hips above shoulders but shoulder flexibility can seriously restrict this and then we already have a hurdle to overcome in terms of balance our scales are unbalanced before we've even started so work on finding flexibility in the shoulders with poses such as puppy cow face arms wheel or forearm wheel and then also the hamstrings not an obvious one but when we think about trying to enter our pincher which is coming the higher we can lift one leg up the closer we are to being inverted before we've even left the floor tight hamstrings mean the leg can't lift quite as high and then the hips have further to travel in space until they reach their destination more travel means more momentum needed and more momentum is harder to control so here are some hamstring stretches which should be a great idea to do before you have your pincher practice half split pyramid pose forward fold number seven get upside down right it's time to get to it when it comes to learning pincher your best friend is practice and consistency and patience little and often is the best idea to help your body learn some muscle memory to begin come to all fours and choose your weapon I mean arm position of choice for your pincher your gaze wants to be down on the mat between your forearms so importantly this is not looking at your feet and this is not looking out at your hands your head is surprisingly heavy and these adjustments in your position will make a big difference your ability to balance look down and find a point on your mat to focus your attention on maybe a bit of pattern on your lovely mat or maybe a bit of dirt on your floor that needs a bit of a clean then lift the knees and come into dolphin don't make it your most intense dolphin ever but remember the higher we can get the hips to begin with the less distance they have to travel in space reach one leg to the sky for a three-legged dolphin and this is going to be your reaching leg the foot to stay on the floor is your kicking leg to enter we think of sending the reaching leg to poke a hole in the sky as the kicking leg takes a jump and attempts to kick your own bun yes that's right don't keep it straight don't try to go straight for your split shape because the last thing you need is extra weight on this side of the body aim to kick your own bum as the top leg shape helps remind you to engage your core because did you remember before you kicked and also encourages the body weighting backwards which is inevitably the direction most people struggle to move into we attempt our entries in threes kick once twice a third time and then rest to allow your muscles a chance to recover and your lungs and moment to properly breathe before trying again the idea behind the threes method is to encourage your body to learn the amount of power required in the kick kick one almost never mix it up you now know that you can kick a little harder if you stop rest and reset your brain and body just forgot how much power you use and has to start again from scratch kick - is the same did you need more power perhaps you had too much and took a fall which we will cover shortly but again it's a learning opportunity to readjust the power of the kick maybe choose to try holding this shape or maybe try extending that bent leg into the split leg shape that we discussed using a wall when trying to learn to do a forearm stand the wall isn't really our friend it's like that fake friend that gives you so many compliments and makes you feel great about yourself but then it's actually sleeping with your boyfriend behind your back what I'm getting at is that the wall gives you a false sense of confidence and build some terrible alignment habits which can be incredibly challenging to correct once that muscle memory has taken hold think about it this way if you set up your forearms down in front of a wall even if your fingertips are right up against your skirting board there's the distance the length of your forearms between the wall and your elbows now considering our elbow is our balance center point if the feet are touching the wall they've gone way past that point and quite obviously without the wall we'd be toppling over backwards by continuing to practice in this way we're teaching our bodies how much momentum is needed to go too far past our balance point not to mention the fact that we're likely in a spine compromising banana shape as we fail to bring the hips with us when we've kicked up the wall can be a very useful aid in helping us learn a Pinscher but this isn't it hang tight for some wall assisted drills that won't risk injury or hamper your progress wall drills so here are some ways that I do recommend you use a wall to help you practice your Pinscher firstly el holds set your elbows up one legs distance away from the wall and face away from it place your foundation and then step up onto the wall with your feet pelvis height having someone to watch and guide you is helpful here or film yourself watch it back and readjust as needed having both feet on the wall is an excellent strength building drill and is much harder on your shoulder strength and Pinscher itself think of all that leg length that gravity is pulling down against versus when they're stacked up on top of you hopefully this helps you understand the concept of bone stacking a little bit better - one leg at a time reach the toes to the sky and try to find a straight line toes over hips over shoulders over elbows perfection is not required as you can see from my example here but your hips are the most important part too Titus and get right here secondly war liens set up almost exactly the same as before but come a tiny little bit further away from the wall this time as you lift a leg up allow it to start taking the split shape as it reaches beyond a straight line as we're further away from the wall there should be space for you to press out onto the ball of your foot and start bringing more body weight and your balance towards your forearms we never kick off the wall in this drill we simply lean and see if we can allow the foot to float away from the wall number 10 learn to fall learning to fall the absolute GameChanger if there's one thing that holds everybody back when trying to learn inversions it's the fear of falling gone are the days when we're eight years old and more than happy to throw our body all over the place about any concern that we might hurt ourselves the fear of injury grows within us as we age and suddenly we have the fear is this fear that means we don't kick hard enough to get our hips into the sky we don't lean the body weight forward enough when working at the wall we don't draw our kicking leg close enough to our bums when practicing our three kicks you can tell yourself as much as you like that you're not scared but even if you don't believe it in your mind believe me there is an element within your body that is scared so one of the best things that you can do to rapidly find progress in your pincher is learning to full teaching your body that it won't die if you don't catch your balance reminding yourself that you can't humble and be absolutely 100% okay there are a few exit strategies for Pinscher dropping over backwards into a forearm wheel is likely only appropriate for a very small percentage of people the strength and flexibility you need to land this safely probably puts you into a category of not needing this video so I'm going to skip straight on through the most helpful and easy way to bail from a failing pincher is with a bit of a cartwheel now don't worry you don't need to be a gymnastics Pro to get this and it's actually a little bit of second nature like when you put your arm out to catch your fall if you trip up you have to remember the body is a clever little thing and has many ways to protect itself when it senses it may about to be hurt the mini cart we is essentially the lifting of an elbow as the body does a little bit of a twist to the side and it brings the legs back down to the floor beside you you will naturally have a preferred side that your body does this just like the way you are naturally right or left handed and often you only learn this after you've taken your first accidental little tumble take yourself outside onto the grass if you come or into a big open space where you've removed the fear of banging into something and you've softened the ground around you all these little steps towards conquering the fear really pay off as your confidence to fall safely grows your confidence to give the strength and power that your pincher kick needs will to and that's where the sweet balanced spot is finally found thanks for watching this tutorial and I hope I covered every detail to help you on your pincher quest if you have any comments or questions I'd love to hear from you in the comments below maybe you can share this video with a buddy who you can learn alongside or send to a friend who's on the struggle bus too if you'd like to watch my other tutorials on various yoga poses you can find them in this playlist here well if you'd like to work on building some strength to help you on your pincher quest you might enjoy this yoga class here if you'd like to catch my future tutorials each and every week