Handstands

One of the most fun, yet most frustrating poses in yoga is the handstand. I used to watch other more advanced yogis do handstands with such ease and no fear. Every time I attempted one I wouldn't even make it halfway up because I was scared. This past weekend I got the opportunity to spend 6.5 hours with Brock and Krista Cahill at my wonderful yoga studio, Vibe Yoga. This husband and wife duo are gravity defying and just plain awesome. In the beginning of the first workshop I started out next to the wall because there was just no way I was going to be attempting handstands without a wall. Krista led us through some serious ab work and Brock taught us how to begin practicing handstands in a way in which we wouldn't flop all the way over and hurt ourselves. Immediately I felt better. Since my back is so flexible I always worry about arching in my back mid air and collapsing. Krista taught us how to practice going up into handstand--beginning in three limb dog with your hips totally parallel. From there starting to launch up, but keeping the standing back leg straight as you push up. You should get up into handstand first without ever bending that back leg, so that way you always have that back leg to come back down on. That was such a "duh" moment for me. If you never bend that back leg to try to bring it up to meet the top leg, you will never arch over. Now once you get up into a balance you can raise that back leg up, making sure you knit your ribs together and slightly tuck the pelvis. By shortening the distance between the tops of your hips and bottom of your ribs, you will be engaging the core and stacking up straight in handstand. Push the shoulders down away from the ears and feel like you are squeezing your arms in, almost feeling as though you are wrinkling the mat between your hands. What's holding you up in your handstand is your belly, not your arms :) Have fun handstanding...and if you ever get the chance to take class with Brock and Krista, do it! They're amazing! They travel a lot but their home studio is Yogis Anonymous in Santa Monica, CA. They even live stream their classes on their website! <3