Asana Column: Parsva Bakasana (Side Crane Pose)

Find the interplay between effort and ease in this challenging arm balance.

By Beryl Bender Birch

If you're familiar with Ujjayi Pranayama (Victorious Breath) and the energy locks Mula Bandha (Root Lock) and Uddiyana Bandha (Upward Abdominal Lock), I suggest you incorporate these techniques into your Parsva Bakasana practice session. In the Ashtanga tradition, it is considered incorrect to do asana without simultaneously using Ujjayi breathing, Mula Bandha, and Uddiyana Bandha. This does not mean that other schools that do not use these techniques, or use them slightly differently, are wrong. It isn't a question of right and wrong. There are many different forms of yoga practice and many different ways to approach asana, just as there are many kinds of boats that can carry you across a lake. If you choose a sailboat, you need sails. If you choose a canoe, you need a paddle. You don't need sails in a canoe. It's not that there's anything wrong with sails; they are just inappropriate in the canoe. So if the tradition you follow does not use Ujjayi breathing or the bandhas in conjunction with asana, you should feel free to practice this sequence without them.

Opening the Hips

Once you've warmed up, you can start moving toward Parsva Bakasana by practicing Marichyasana I. To come into the pose, sit on the floor in Dandasana (Staff Pose), with your legs straight out in front of you. On an inhalation, bend your right knee and pull your right heel as close as possible to your right sitting bone.

Pay attention to your alignment. First, make sure the heel is directly in line with the sitting bone, so that the inner edge of your foot is about a palm's width away from your left thigh. Second, make sure your right foot stays parallel to your left thigh. Finally, make sure your left leg stays active as you move more deeply into the pose: The left thighbone should be slightly internally rotated, the thigh muscles contracted, and the left foot flexed.

On an exhalation, reach your right arm forward along the inside edge of your right leg, bending as far forward as you can. (Your right sitting bone will probably come off the ground, which is fine. However, you should work to keep lengthening the right hip down.) Try to touch your right elbow to the ground in front of your right big toe and draw your right armpit in front of your right shin. Once you've come as far forward as possible, internally rotate your right shoulder and wrap your right arm back around your right shin and thigh, aiming to bring the back of your hand onto your lower back. Using the inner thigh muscles (the adductors), press your right thigh into the side of your body. To help get your right leg tighter against the side of your body, you can reach your left arm under the right and use it to pull your right leg in.

Once the torso and leg are sealed together, release the left hand's grip on your right shin and reach the left arm around behind you, like you did with the right. Keeping both palms facing away from you, catch the left wrist with the right hand. It may take you a couple of breaths to work your torso far enough forward and your arm far enough back to make the handclasp—or you may not yet be able to reach that far. If that’s the case, simply reach as far as you can, or use a towel or yoga belt to bridge the gap between your hands.

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