We’re going to work towards a really fun energizing arm balance called flying pigeon.
It’s a really wonderful deep hip opener as well as a gateway towards handstand. So we’re going to begin with feet coming together towards the back of the mat. Let’s take a moment here to ground. Spread your toes nice and wide, allow yourself to get relaxed. We don’t want to come into a pose bringing a lot of tension and stress, allow yourself to get relaxed. Bring your hands to your heart. Lift your right leg up. Parallel to the mat.
Rest your right ankle to the top of your left thigh. Your foot should be hanging off of the edge of the thigh and sit down onto a chair. Hips sink back. Bring your palms to your right leg. Let yourself fold here over the right shin. Just allowing the hips start to open. Keep folding in deeper and deeper from here. Bring our hands all the way down to the floor. Even grab on to your heel if you want. Just let your head and neck relax. We’re dropping that right hip down a little bit more. And once you feel pretty opened, start to walk your palms forward. Shoulder width distance apart. You don’t want to be too far but we don’t want to be to close either. Find that medium ground.
Lean into your arms, and drop your right knee on your right upper arm. The higher up the better. This is the most important step. Hook your right foot on your left upper arm. If it’s not hooked you’re gonna slide off. So you need to really grab on. Hold on tight. Press into your inner hand. Index finger and thumb underneath the knuckles. Look forward. Move forward. And just see how comfortable you feel bringing some more weight onto your arms. Try to lift your hips up too as you move forward into it. If you’re feeling alright from here and you wanna keep going. Hips up. Lift your left heel up to your butt. Really press pump your shoulders up back up. Keep hooking your right foot on your arm. Extend your left leg up to the sky. Feel really buoyant here. Through your hips. Through your upper back. And I’m really hooking my right foot here on the upper right arm to keep the stability. Look forward. Come back down. Left foot to the floor. Now we can rise all the way up to standing. Bringing your right foot back down. Just take a moment here to rest in mountain pose. Find your center. And we’ll move through the other side. If you’re right handed this will be a little bit more challenging. Left thigh up. Working your ankle to the top of the right thigh, so the foot hangs off.
We’re flexing it gently and just starting to fold in here. Hands come to the left shin. As we bow, hips back. Heart forward. Working hands all the way down to the floor. You’re gonna really feel this left hip start to open up. It’s a beautiful hip opener. Even if you just get this far, have blocks under your hands, hang out here. If you feel steady, if your arms feel ready to take some heat bring the palms forward. Shoulder width distance apart. Move forward into it. Turn out your left knee on your left upper arm. Hooking the right foot really firmly here with strength. Keep moving forward. You’re gonna lift the right heel up to your butt. Keep hooking and shoot the right leg up to the sky. Puffing up through your upper back. Coming back out of it exact opposite way. Hands to heart. Rise to mountain pose. You can practice that as many times as you want.
Step by step. Enjoy the hip opening.
Enjoy the fun of the pose.
Thanks for watching.
Namaste.