Online Hatha Yoga Book Pose 23

Hatha Yoga Crane Pose

Greetings from sunny Florida, yes I am here on vacation for the month of December, thus you see fewer posts on the blog these days .  With almost 500 articles and techniques now on the website though, you should have plenty of material to fuel your spiritual and personal growth, till I return to blogging full time in a few weeks.

What I would like to do today is start to expand our popular Online Hatha Yoga Poses book, and add to it some poses that are slightly more challenging and advanced.  The pose that will be the next entry of this book is Hatha Yoga’s Crane Pose.  This pose, as you will see below, requires quite a bit of strength and balance to do, but is a pose that I find quite a bit of fun to practice.

As I was writing this article, my wife just phoned me from the parking lot and asked me to look out of the window.  Unbelievably, walking around outside are 2 magnificent looking cranes!  Nature is having some fun with me today .

The first thing to do before trying this pose is putting a nice big soft cushion below your face so that if you topple over you don’t end up breaking your nose.  Now that we have that out of the way, the rest of the pose depends a great deal on your arm strength, balance and coordination.  What you will tend to find with this pose, is that once you are able to come into the posture, holding it for longer periods of time is where the challenge really lies.  Again, as with all yoga, make sure you warm up before doing such challenging poses, and don’t over strain.

Our Free Online Hatha Yoga Book now has 22 excellent poses and Crane Pose will be pose 23 of this book.  As this pose is also used in Kundalini Yoga it will also be a part of the Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises e-book, where you will find a large collection of kundalini yoga poses and exercises, fully illustrated and detailed.  Please also follow the guidelines on how to practice yoga, which I have detailed in the following 2 articles, Beginner’s Guide to Yoga Practice and Guidelines for Kundalini Yoga Practice.  Also, be on the lookout for more free online yoga classes which are going to incorporate sets which use this challenging pose in the very near future.

Hatha Yoga Book Pose 23 – Crane Pose

Illustration of Crane Pose

Hatha Yoga’s Baka Dhyana Asana – Crane Pose:

A. Basic Instructions for Hatha Yoga Crane Pose: 

• Squat down, come up on your toes and place your hands onto the floor in front of you about shoulder width apart with fingers pointing forward.
  
• Making sure your elbows are slightly bent, bring your knees up to the outside of the elbows and lean forward slowly.  You knees will be resting on your arms.
  
• Continue to lean forward until you have raised your toes off the ground and are balancing on just your hands as shown in the illustration above.  Make sure you lean forward slowly to avoid toppling over.
  
• Keep your eyes open and either focus on a point under you to help you keep your balance, or focus on the tip of your nose.
  
• Hold this position, with normal breathing or do Breath of Fire while holding this pose.
  
• Lower your feet to the ground once you are done.
• Again, don’t forget to place a cushion in front of your face before trying this pose, to protect you in case you topple over.
  

B. Duration for Hatha Yoga Crane Pose: 5 seconds – 3 mins

C. Benefits of Hatha Yoga Crane Pose:  

• Excellent for strengthening your arms, shoulders and wrists.
  
• Helps you develop balance and coordination.
• Develops mental focus and concentration.
• Calms the mind.
• Improves and strengthens the entire nervous system.
  

D. Practice Tips and Cautions for Hatha Yoga Crane Pose:

• As this pose increases blood flow and puts pressure on the heart, you should be cautious if you have high blood pressure or major cardiovascular issues.
• You can do this pose in segments, where you come into it for a few seconds, then take a break and repeat the posture once you are ready.
  

Other great exercises from the Online Hatha Yoga Book which are great for developing your arm strength and balance are the following.  Start with some of the easier ones below to build up your strength if you are finding Crane Pose too difficult.

Yoga Plank Pose for Strong Arms

Hatha Yoga Mountain Position

Simple Yoga for Upper Body Training

Basic Yoga Pose for Balance