How to do a Flying Pigeon arm balance
How to do a Flying Pigeon arm balance (Eka Pada Galavasana) with DariYoga
Hey yogis! Let’s take a look at the Flying Pigeon Arm Balance today! It may look like a tricky one, but if we break it down to its components it is essentially a One-Legged Pigeon Pose on top of Chaturanga Dandasana. If you are familiar with arm balances and have a certain amount of hip flexibility… there’s no stopping you!
The best way to warm up for it is to do some core work, upper body strengthening and stretch your outer hips! My key postures for the sequence are reclined pigeon, one-legged chair pose, chaturanga, bakasana, one-legged pigeon, gomukhasana and deer pose (aka 90-degree angle pose).
Once you are sufficiently warmed up, you can approach the balance. I prefer to start or go into it from standing: come into Tadasana (mountain pose) and then One-Legged Chair pose.
You have to make this position as compact as you can, keep pushing the top knee away from you and continue this as you bend forwards.
This is the moment where you’ll be able to tell whether the balance will work or not. If the foot and the knee are firmly on the triceps, and the hands are on the floor: YES. If not, stay here and keep practicing your hip openers!
To achieve the pose you need to really grip your foot to the triceps, as if you are trying to wrap it around. Essentially the balance works because you make a perch for the back leg with your shin – so there is a lot of friction between the body parts in contact! Remember you are not simply bringing the back foot up – you have to lean forward enough for the foot to EASILY come off the ground. This part is key! Even if you can’t straighten the back leg just keep working on tucking your foot up to your glute.
Useful tip: place a block under the back foot to bring the ground closer to you!
If this stage is mastered, you can go for the real push and get the back leg up into the air!
Et voila! Keep your gaze steady when in flight!
Useful tip: make sure you try it on both sides – most of us have the dominant and more flexible side, so if it doesn’t go on one side it can still be performed on the other until you master both!
Remember to recover and compensate for the balance! Good luck!
Daria is teaching as DariYoga In Harrogate but is moving down to London before the end of year! Look out for her new classes and locations. Daria is focusing her classes on alignment to make the sequences accessible to all abilities.
Find more about her on dariyoga.co.uk, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook
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