Wholistic Fitness

excerpt from Actual Training Exchange with WF Online Student C:

photo from TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION; Green Tara HP Yoga Program/Bakasana (Crane Posture). this and other photos by Wayne Williams.

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Student:
in the Yoga Discipline:
Comment: i LOVE HP Yoga Sun Salutations Series C!
Regarding your instructions: “Work on Crane Pose – (or variation and/or into a HEADSTAND for up to 3 minutes total)”

what is the variation?

If it is the single leg crane pose, I cannot touch it YET. Do I move directly from crane into headstand or is that a separate pose? If directly, can you give some guidance?

Coach Responds:
if Crane Posture is being resistant to enter into your asana practice, then i suggest building the appropriate functional strength through holding a traditional Chaturanga (see photo above). Continue your “Chata Holds” until you develop the breath-regulated stamina to hold the true Chaturanga posture for one minute of steady Ujjayi Pranayama with exhalations slightly longer then the inhalations. Master this and ilg promises, Crane Medicine will be delivered unto your SweatLodge (your physical body).

Another option is to play around with the offset biodynamics held within Eka Pada Bakasana or One Legged Crane Posture, shown above. I suggest re-studying my descriptions of these postures in TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION.

Finally and perhaps most effectively:
You can also more quickly develop Crane Medicine by performing what my students have ‘affectionately’ termed an ‘Ilgaranda‘:

How to do an Ilgaranda:
From Downdog, exhale to Plank. Inhale and reaffirm Mula Banda (root lock). Exhale into the bottom position of an ‘Americanized Chaturanga’ (described above). Inhale while levering out onto the tippy toes with elbows pinned to the ribs. Exhale while rolling back onto the balls of the feet. Inhale to Plank. Exhale to Downdog. Repeat until Enlightenment if possible.”

– coach ilg