Flying Shoulderstand

For those who are friends with me on Facebook, you will know all the jokes about my skinny chicken wing arms and long skinny lobster claw hands.  I am trying to be able to do some strong arm balancing things, including handstands, with those chicken wings/lobster claws.

One thing I do not want to use to help me with my handstands is the wall.

That means I need to look for a few other interesting variations.

So, here I am exploring ways for skinny arm girls to get strong.

A few weeks ago I popped up a post of us practicing yoga on top of some blocks.

Boy, that helped my skinny arms and tummy get strong.

Then I looked over from the blocks.  These bike racks hang out near where I hang out and so I thought I would see if there was a way for us to hang out together.

I tried a few push variations with me on top and pushing down with my armpits to bring my knees to chest.

Then I realised I was finding a lot of things to push on but was there a way to get some pull action going on.

It lead to the upside down variation of shoulderstand, which I have called a flying shoulderstand, and you can check it out in the video below.

This gave great pull action around the armpits and also I tried to minimise momentum and use my tummy muscles to help me move around and into and out of the posture.  I am actually pretty weak so you can see a little swing here and there.

I think this would be better if I were higher off the ground so I could try and let my neck be a bit free but I had to make do with what was available.

I did not want to put my head on the ground and I don't recommend anyone even try what I am doing without some supervision.  If you are not strong enough you would fall on the back of your neck and that is obviously not good so I am not advising go out and do this at all or unthinkingly.  This is mainly for my students and safe practitioners.

Hmm, wonder if we will find some bike racks in Bali for our retreat?  Maybe I need to run and outdoor urban street furniture yoga workshop here in Canberra soon?

Happy and safe practicing!

Much metta,
Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com
www.artofliferetreats.com