All About Arm Balances

An arm balance in yoga is considered any pose where the foundation is your arms. There are several different types of arm balances within that realm. This article will break down all the different types of arm balances in yoga in a simple fashion. Some you might already be familiar with and some might have you looking at arm balances from a whole new perspective!

Prep Poses for Arm Balances

1. Downward Facing Dog

Getting comfortable on your hands and feet is the perfect way to create a strong foundation for your yoga practice. Emphasizing downward facing dog before an arm balance helps prep the body to build strength in the arms, needed in all arm balance poses.

2. Plank Pose & Chaturanga

Plank and chaturanga dandasana also help build strength in the arms and the familiarity of utilizing the hands as the foundation.

3. Vasisthasana (Side Plank)

Leaning onto one side for side plank, or Vasisthasana is another great way to build arm strength and stability that will be essential in learning any arm balance.

“Flying” Arm Balances

There are several yoga asanas that are named after creatures that fly, and for good reason. The postures can resemble a bird (or bug) about to take flight, or even just a creature that has wings and can spread out. Here are some of the arm balance yoga poses whose Sanskrit names are flying creatures and require you to lift off of the ground.

1. Crow or Crane Pose (Bakasana)

Crow pose is done by rounding your upper back and gently balancing your knees up on your forearms. The foundation of this pose is both of your palms and your arms, as you learn to “become light” and support yourself off the ground.

Crow Pose

2. Side Crow (Parsva Bakasana)

Side crow is similar to crow but your trunk is rotated. You are still supporting yourself with your arms and hands, gripping the mat and letting your upper back round tucking your knees on your upper arm, but instead your knees stacked on top of one another and torso is turned.

Side Crow

3. Flying Pigeon (Eka Pada Galavasana)

Flying pigeon is a pose that is supported by your arms with one leg straightened out back behind you while the other leg is bent and supported by your upper arm.

Flying Pigeon

4. Firefly Pose (Tittibhasana)

Firefly pose is having both your arms inside your legs (either on blocks or on the ground), your seat setting down towards the mat as you extend & straighten through your legs, which are outstretched in front of you, outside your arms. Tittibhasana is a bug that resembles that of a firefly here in the West.

Firefly Pose

Advanced Arm Balances

1. Elephant Trunk Pose (Eka Hasta Bhujasana)

Elephant trunk pose is a pose in which one leg is supported up and over an arm, while the other leg is outstretched straight in front of the body.

Elephant Trunk Pose

2. Eight Angle Pose (Astavakrasana)

Eight angle pose, or Astavakrasana, is when the arms are used to support the legs hooking around one another with the body being supported almost entirely by the arms.

Eight Angle Pose

3. Scorpion Pose

Scorpion is where the forearms are on the ground and the legs come up over the head and bend towards the crown of the head. This pose requires a bit of backbending capability and a pretty flexible spine. The combination of strength and flexibility needed for this pose makes it fall towards the more challenging end of the spectrum for arm balances.

Scorpion Pose

Arm Balances & Yoga Asana Practice

Arm balances help you build strength and stability in your yoga practice and are great poses to regularly practice. Their many qualities allow them to be their own category in the yoga asana practice, with dedicated preparatory poses that help strengthen parts of the body needed to balance on your arms.

For yoga teachers, when teaching arm balance poses to a class, be mindful that every body is built differently and certain poses will require different ways to approach the pose. While the yoga practice reminds highly individualized, there are common yoga asana postures that are widely accepted as providing roughly the same benefits when practiced consistently.

We hope that this article was able to shed more light on the topic of arm balances. If you are still curious and want to learn more, we’ve crafted an entire Arm Balance Workshop inside the YogaRenew app with expert yoga teacher Mélie Purdon to help you craft your mastery of arm balance poses with a deep understanding.