Beginning Forearm Stands

Who this workshop recording is for:

This workshop is meant for students with some existing shoulder strength and flexibility who are interested in taking it to the next level: continuing to improve their shoulder and back flexibility, and learning how to apply it to a classic contortion floor inversion: the forearm stand (aka pincha mayurasana for you yogis!). Note: this is not a yoga-style class (although you may recognize some yoga poses in some of the drills)!

Suggested Prerequisites:

Being able to comfortably hold a dolphin pose with forearms and palms flat on the ground (knees can be bent). Crazy backbendiness welcome, but not required - the backbend-y variations included in the tutorials can be modified for varying degrees of back flexibility.

If you can already comfortably kick up to the wall, or are interested in further practice, check out the Continuing Forearm Stands workshop as well!

This 75-minute* workshop covers:

• An hour long follow-along contortion conditioning class, including

  • A full body warm up with extra emphasis on back and shoulder mobility

  • Active flexibility drills to strengthen and stretch shoulders to prepare for supporting our bodyweight, and prepare back for comfortable (and safe) backbends

• “Choose your own adventure” style skillwork practice: more than 20 minutes of detailed forearm stand variation tutorials are included and you can choose which ones to practice during any given training session. Tutorials include…

  • Forearm stand variations walking feet up a wall

  • How to kick up to the wall (and regressions if you can’t quite kick all the way up)

  • Flat back and backbend-y forearm balances

  • Balancing tips

* This workshop was filmed with the intention of fitting a 75-minute practice, but students may choose to trim it down, or extend it and work on more skillork for up to a 90 minute practice.

Required props:

• 2 yoga blocks

• Long strap (can be elastic or stiff)

• A sturdy chair or low table (something you can lean on for balance)

• Plenty of wall space!

Upon checkout, you will receive a PDF with a link to the workshop recording (Squarespace limits file upload sizes so I can’t actually upload the whole recording here). The recording is for your personal use only, not to be shared with others - thank you!