Transitions: kicking up into handstand

There’s more than one way to get into a handstand. This post covers the way most people try first: kicking up, and shows some of the errors I see students make most often. We made this our class focus recently: rather than getting into a handstand and trying to hold it for as long as possible, focusing instead on how to improve the transition into the pose.

In the first clip you can see that both of my legs are bent. The plus points for this method is that it gets your feet off the floor, and you can see I start the motion with my top leg low (which allows me to get a bit of momentum going). But it feels a bit out of control, so doesn’t give a steady foundation to build upon to try and get a little closer to the pose.

For me, kicking up works best when I keep my top leg straight (so it swings up like a pendulum) and only bend my bottom leg (so the bottom leg acts like a spring). Compare how this first video looks - in particular what my top leg looks like, and how fast/ slow I’m moving - to the last video in this post.

In the next clip I've corrected my mistake of bending my top knee, but am now showing two more errors. One is that I get my top leg as high as I can, then try and kick up from there. If your top leg is already as high as possible you don’t give yourself any room to swing it.

Towards the end of this clip I’m also starting with my bottom foot flat on the floor. If you consider that your bottom leg is meant to act like a spring here to help you kick up, having the sole of your standing foot flat on the floor means that you’re taking out the springing potential that you could be creating from your ankle (and only really springing from your knee).

Compare how this looks - in particular how much my top leg moves, and how I use my bottom foot - to the last video in this post.

In this last video I’m still not trying to get all the way into a handstand, I’m just practising my kick up transition. I’ve corrected the errors from the last two videos. The things I’m focusing on here are:

• Keeping my arms completely straight and actively pushing the floor away from me

• Gripping with my fingertips

• Coming on to the tiptoes of my standing foot, and bending my bottom knee and ankle a lot at the start of their springing action

• Not swinging my bottom leg away from my hands as I spring, and instead thinking of springing straight up towards the ceiling

• Keeping my top leg straight and bringing it low at the bottom of the spring so I can swing it higher at the top of the spring

• Keeping my front side core muscles a little switched on (like I’m trying to cinch in my lower ribs and belly a bit

• Moving slowly and not flailing my legs around!

Have you been trying to kick up as shown in either of the first two videos here? If so, how does it feel to try it like I am in the third video? Comment below or send us a message with any questions!

Transitions: malasana (garland pose/ squat) to bakasana (crow/ crane pose)

The transitions we’ve looked in this series so far have been moving from standing on two feet to standing on one foot. In this way, we’ve been moving from a more to a less balanced pose. The transition this blog post is about takes you from being on your feet to your hands but in a way it’s still the same: moving from a more to a less stable posture. For each of the previous two transitions (if you missed them see my posts here and here) I cued my students to move slowly and minimise using momentum. We also made as much of the shape of the less stable pose as we could with both feet on the floor and made the transition simply about shifting your weight (ie not about launching yourself forwards or up). In that way, students (hopefully!) were able to tune in more closely to what was working to hold them steady, what was working to move them slowly, and maintain slow steady breathing. All that same work applied this week to shifting from a squatting position (malasana) to crow/ crane pose (bakasana). 

We’d looked at trying to get into crow pose and hold it a few weeks before in class so I knew my students were familiar with this posture (see that week’s blog here). So this week, since we were approaching the same pose but as part of a transition, instead of holding it we were moving in and out of the pose in time with our breathing.

Start in malasana, or a relaxed squat. I’ve got my big toes together here and my knees apart, and I’m dropping my chest as low down between my legs as it’ll go. This means my knees are as high up towards my armpits as they can go (which will be useful as we progress towards the next pose).

Before you move on from here, squeeze your legs in against your upper arms. Keep squeezing them through all the steps that follow!

To get to this shape I’ve changed 3 main things from the picture above:

• I’ve planted my palms on the floor in front of my feet and slid my hands back so my arms are pressing on my shins

• Lifted my heels

• Lifted my bum

In the introduction to this blog I talked about making as much of the unstable pose as you can with both feet on the floor. This shape looks like bakasana but we’re not quite there yet!

This is as much of bakasana as I can make with my feet on the floor. I’ve kept everything the same from the last picture (legs squeezing in, hips lifting high, fingertips gripping the floor) and now I’ve also shifted my weight forwards so it’s more over my hands. Arm balances aren’t about lifting up - they’re about getting in position and then shifting your weight forwards so that your feet can lift up.

You can see that everything in this photo is exactly the same as the last picture, except that I’ve bent my knees, pointed my toes and brought my feet to my bum.

Since we’re looking more at the transition rather than simply trying to hold this pose, this is how I was cueing my students:

‘Inhale come up on to your tiptoes (ie photo 3); exhale shift your weight forwards and lift your feet (ie photo 4); inhale hold there; exhale bring your toes back down again’. We went through that transition (photo 3-4) and back again three times. Please ask if anything is unclear!

Transitions: Side angle pose to half moon pose

In part two of our series on transitions, here is another fundamental one! I really like shifting between these two poses slowly because I feel my outer hips working A LOT (and outer hip strengthening is great for long term yogis because we stretch that area of our bodies so often). I sometimes say to my students that as far as most yogis are concerned we can think of your outer hips as having three main jobs: they create motion both by turning your legs out and swinging your legs out to the side, and they also act as stabilisers when you are shifting your weight around.

When people move into half moon pose it is fairly common for their front foot to turn inwards. I’ve found that switching on my outer hip in that leg helps prevent my front foot turning in. So here are the steps I took my students through:

Start in side angle pose as shown in this first image. You may want to have a block under your bottom hand; for my proportions using a block works better than reaching for the floor.

Have your bottom hand just outside your front ankle so that your arm lines up with your shin. Gently press your leg out against your arm and see if you can feel your outer hip switching on to press your leg out.

Put your top hand on your top hip (this is optional but it keeps your arm from waving around and pulling you off balance!). Keep pressing your front leg gently out against your bottom arm so you’re engaging the muscles you need in your front hip for when we make our next transition.

My last blog post contained a short video of a correction you can do to yourself by hooking your thumb into the front of your hip - that adjustment can also be useful in your front hip here.

Keep that same action of pressing your front leg out going as you step your bottom hand forwards (this action is key to stop your front foot turning in!).

Place your bottom hand about the length of your torso in front of your front foot. Slowly shift your weight forwards on to to your bottom hand and front foot until your back foot lifts off the floor.

Keep working same area of your bottom hip that you could feel when you were pressing your leg out against your bottom arm (even though your arm isn’t there any more!). Slowly shift a little more weight on to your front foot to allow you to lift your back leg higher. Of course I’ve managed to cut my top foot off again here 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 But what you can’t quite see is that my top toes are pointing towards the camera (ie my top leg has turned out as well as lifted up. You may be able to feel the outside of your top hip working to lift your leg.

If you feel steady you can reach your top arm up. And if you feel really steady try looking up! Before you come back down think about where you want to place your top foot, and then as slowly as you can shift back to side angle pose.

Bonus strength drill!

The steps above will take you through the transition from side angle pose to half moon. But below is a little strength drill I also had my students doing to work their hips a little more. If you wanted to add this in during your transition it would fit nicely after the first two photos above and before the second two.

Come into the position shown in this last image, except with your back toes still on the floor. Press your front leg gently out against your bottom arm to engage the outside of that hip. Then shift your weight forwards on to your front foot just enough to hover your back toes off the floor (as shown here). Keep your front knee slightly bent, keep pressing your front leg against your arm and lower your back toes back down to the floor. Lift and lower your back foot a few times, but keep the movement really small (smaller is harder!). Then the last time you hover your back foot hold it up for a few breaths. Let me know how you get on!