Cyogalife created a new challenge for July: pincha mayurasana. It’s an important asana of second Ashtanga Yoga series. It’s challenging. It can take longer than a year to learn it. But I’m also convinced, that there are always faster ways to learn it if one knows how…..

A Sivananda yoga teacher taught me how to do headstand. Within half an hour I could do headstand. So I checked how they teach pincha mayurasana.

First step is to practice headstand. One must be very familiar with headstand before one tries the next challenging asanas. The order is headstand, then pincha mayurasana, then handstand. To hold any variation of headstand for 2 minutes is a first goal. In addition it’s recommended to practice variations, i.e. folding the legs in Padmasana or moving one leg to the floor, then the other one.

When headstand is a peace of cake, pincha mayurasana is on the schedule.

The way how one moves into an asana often makes the difference. The Sivananda yoga teacher recommend to get into headstand with arms in pincha mayurasana position first. From there one lifts the head and gets into the pose pincha mayurasana. This seams easier to me. They even recommend to do a variation of vrschikasana first. That is one shall bend the knees and lift the head. The back is performing a back bending asana. In the correct form of pincha mayurasana the back is straight. With an arched back it’s easier to balance. As one can see in the picture, to have a straight back is one of my challenges. I need stronger abdomen.

I just tried exercise #1 from the #pinchaparty challenge. It’s too dangerous for me. So my first task is to hold the headstands longer and to do a headstand variations with arm positions like in pincha mayurasana.

Time to practice!