A Flying Pigeon

[Dorinda Avancena]

Thispose is certainly no easy feat; so there are plenty of poses to work on to prepare you for Flying Pigeon. The following are ten essential postures to stretch and strengthen specifically targeted muscles to be able to fly in Eka Pada Galavasana.

This reclining pigeon variation opens the outer hips as a great warm up for the deep hip opening required in Flying Pigeon Pose. Start by lying down on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat against the floor about hip-distance apart.

Inhale to lift your right foot off the floor and flex into your ankle. Bend your right knee and externally rotate your hip joint so you can cross your right ankle over your left knee, creating a figure-4 shape with your legs. Lift your left foot off the floor and draw your shin parallel to your mat and hold a strap or interlace your fingers behind your left thigh.

Press your lower back and sacrum down onto the floor and draw your knees toward your chest while maintaining contact with your tailbone against the mat. Hold for a few long, deep breaths before switching legs.

You can elevate your hips onto a block or cushion to make this posture more accessible. Cross your right leg over your left and then bend into your right knee drawing your right heel toward your left hip. You can also bend into your left knee and draw your left heel toward your right hip, trying to stack your knees on top of each other as much as possible.

Lengthen into your spine and either stay sitting up tall or slowly begin to hinge from your hips as you fold forward over your legs creating an even deeper stretch. Hold for a few deep breaths before switching the cross of your legs.

In this pose, try to square your hips forward as much as possible, isometrically drawing your knees toward each other to help this action. Lengthen your spine and you can either stay seated up tall or hinged forward over your front leg, all the while maintaining squared and level hips.

This full-body strengthening posture prepares your arms, legs and core for the challenging arm balance, Flying Pigeon. Start in Down Dog and roll your weight forward into a high push-up position, aligning your shoulders directly over your wrists.

Kick back through your heels, extend the crown of your head forward and your heels back behind you, lengthening and expanding through your entire body. Activate your core firmly and press the floor away with your hands. As you inhale, lift your right foot off the floor and let it hover about 3-6 inches above the mat.

This posture strengthens deeply into the arms and core, prepping the body for arm balancing. Start in a Three-Legged Down Dog with your right leg lifted in the air. As you exhale, draw your right knee toward your upper right arm as you shift your weight forward into a high plank, stacking shoulders directly over wrists.

Round your back body and press the floor away with your hands. Draw your belly firmly in and up and maintain your breath. As you inhale, extend your leg back up toward the sky. Exhale to again draw your knee toward your upper right arm (as high up toward your armpit as you can reach).

Reminders: Do not let the head of your shoulder dip below your elbow joint. Create a 90-degree angle in your arms: shoulders in line with elbows and elbows aligned directly over your wrists. Align your shoulders, hips and legs, creating one strong, straight line through your body.

Tips: With your hips up high toward the sky, make sure you activate your core. Hug your legs into the midline, squeezing in toward each other. Round into your back creating a C-shape with your spine and hollow out your belly.

Continue to lean forward so far that you create a counter-balance of your weight and your legs suddenly become light and naturally lift off the mat. Immediately hug your heels toward your seat, maintain your breath for about 3-5 deep breaths and then slowly release back down.

Focus your eyes on one still point and shift your weight into your left leg. Lift your right foot off the floor and flex your ankle. Bend your right knee and externally rotate at your hip joint to cross your right ankle over your left knee, creating a figure-4 shape with your legs.

Start in One-Legged Chair Pose with your right ankle crossed over your left knee. Flex your ankle hard and start to lean your torso forward, reaching your hands to the floor. Place your palms shoulder-width apart and spread your fingers evenly wide.

Create the same foundation in your hands that you worked in Crow Pose. Lift your hips high and wrap the toes of your right foot around your upper left arm (working to place your toes in the divot of your upper arm). Slowly begin to bend into your elbows, pointing them straight back behind you (working to create that perfect Chaturanga shape into your arms).

Olivia provides inclusive, alignment based yoga classes in London. Whether you are just starting out, a more experienced practitioner or have any specific needs, our classes can help you achieve your goals. Olivia\u2019s teaching is style is relaxed and down to earth, with different levels offered to suit a range of abilities. We also offer one-to-one classes that can be more specifically tailored to suit your requirements, and corporate classes to bring yoga to your workplace.

I posted the photo at the top of this page - of flying pigeon or eka pada galavasana - on my Instagram recently. And then had a few requests for tips on how to actually get into it.... Sorry guys- that's what I should have done first time round! Anyway, here's my five steps for working towards getting that back foot off the floor in this posture. Before you begin warm up the outside of your hips with thread the needle or pigeon prep pose, and make sure your arms will be able to support your weight by checking you've got a solid chaturanga dandasana/ low plank position (see my earlier post on chaturanga if you're unsure!). And back off if anything (especially your top knee) hurts.

1. Take your weight on to your right foot, lift your left leg and flex that foot (ie draw your toes back towards your shin). Place the outside of your left ankle above your right knee. Bend your standing leg a little and start to move your hips back. Hands in prayer (photo 1)

2. Sit lower by bending your standing knee and moving your hips back. Keep your top foot flexed. If the stretch in your top hip starts to get too intense stop where you are. Otherwise move towards touching your forearms to your top shin. Stopping whenever you need to, work towards bringing fingertips on to the floor (photo 2)

3. Flex your left foot around your right arm, so that your toes kind of wrap around the outside of your upper arm. Bring your hands flat on to the floor. Work your arms underneath your top leg until your shin is in your armpits (photo 3)

5. Keep moving your weight forwards until your back foot gets so light it can lift. You may find you need to play with shifting your weight back and forth from hands to foot for a while to get used to it before you can lift your foot. Look forwards, not down! (photo 5)

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