Tips on Mayurasana, Please

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The Question

Tips on mayurasana guys please

Our Response

Mayurasana is a lever problem before it’s a strength problem. The elbows dig into the abdomen as a fulcrum and your body is a beam balanced over them — so where your weight sits relative to that fulcrum decides everything. Most people fail because they keep the weight too far back and try to muscle the legs up. The fix is to shift forward: tip the chest down and forward until the hips float, then the legs come up almost for free. You’re trading head height for foot height across the elbow pivot.

Two requirements make that possible. Wrist extension and tolerance — the hands point back toward the feet, loading the wrists hard, so condition that range first or you’ll never get past the setup. And a braced trunk: anti-extension core, not a crunch, to keep the beam rigid. Squeeze the legs together and reach back through the heels to lengthen the lever and stabilize it. Build the wrists deliberately rather than hoping they survive — and read the joint and bracing detail in the Mayurasana guide.

More on Ashtanga Tech: Mayurasana