Pincha mayurasana (forearm balance) falling

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hi when I first was learning pincha mayurasana my teacher taught me if I felt like I was falling, then fall straight into back bend. If you haven’t tried it, try it. Feels a lot easier than it may look.

I’m a young yoga teacher and my question is… Do you think its relatively safe to land into a backbend from pincha mayurasana ? In my opinion, you don’t even need a deep backbend, my concern is just the openess in the shoulder girdle and maybe this fast falling motion will tear something.

I’m asking this because i want to remove students fear from inversions by having them practice falling. I’m just worried pincha mayurasana falling to backbend might be too advanced and hurt my students. Looks tough but honestly in my experience, its not at all hard… But just really scary at first.

*obviously I will only be teaching pincha mayurasana to capable students

Thank you for your opinions!
Om shanti

#2

Actually, I learned my pincha and handstand through a lot of falling. I really think that it can help take the fear away, but the important thing is to not lose control of your body during the fall. I think maybe the best thing to teach your students would be core control, because I’ve never felt any painful sensations after falling out of pincha (or any other inversion for that matter) simply because I really rely on my core while I’m falling and it makes the fall slower and softer, so I don’t feel a ‘thud’ once I land. Furthermore, since core is essential for inversions as it is, the only thing to make sure to do is not lose the core control all the way until you’ve landed. I’m not a huge expert on this, but I hope this helps somehow. :slight_smile:

Namaste!

#3

Sounds like you’re describing a drop back transition from pinchamayurasana to dwi pada viparita dandasana. Is that correct? Sounds a tad aggressive to teach to a room full of students. However, if that is your plan, I would suggest trying that with partners to assist in the descent. Not exactly sure how since I haven’t tried that transition…thinking of a partner on each side clasping wrists behind the students hips or something. After, of course, lots of backbend preps.

#4

dear pino,

Are you kicking up into this posture, or transitioning from headstand?

If you can’t do a headstand without kicking up, then you will likely fall. Same with this posture. Remove the fear by building the proper strength and DON"T fall. People should not be falling out of postures, and you shouldn’t be teaching them to do so.

siva