So as the year continues to fly on, I also continue to face limitations on the mat. I have accepted where I am at with my jump-throughs (breaking up the flowing movement into parts and checking my form at each point). Now I have added exploring Pincha Mayurasana or feathered peacock.
This elbow stand is extremely strengthening for the upper body, especially the shoulders. To prepare for this pose I have been incorporating forearm plank and dolphin pose and then rocking back and forth between them. This got my shoulders and whole upper body working harder as well as getting used to shifting the weight of my pelvis while staying supported on the elbows.
As much as feathered peacock demands shoulder strength it also requires opening in the chest. Again, as always yoga is asking us to balance two opposites within one moment. By holding my entire body weight on my forearms I have to be strong enough to press into the ground through my shoulders, however I also have to be supple enough to open my chest towards the floor without face planting! It's quite the feeling when I realize that as much as I want to be "up there" and STAY I can not accomplish that through rigidity and holding. In fact I have to be able to sink into the chest ever so slightly. Almost like a spring absorbing some impact without completely flattening out, when my legs reach up over head I allow my heart to dip a hair closer to the floor as my weight realigns over my hands.
I am falling in love with inversions. For the second time. I remember being a small girl out in the backyard going to my favourite spot which was marked as a little flat patch of grass going up into handstands over and over again. The bravery of putting your face close to the ground and flying your feet up towards the sky literally puts your whole world upside down and for me it is a freeing feeling. Even if I only get there for a fleeting moment it is extraordinary. To feel the part of your body that usually holds weight, floating in the air!
I notice that it also helps my recently stiff lower back release and decompress. Ahhhh if only I could stay there and decompress for a whole minute or two! I will work up to that.
The main challenge of the pose for me is keeping the forearms parallel. As I began working with this asana my elbows kept pulling in towards eachother making a kind of triangle with the arms. Which is not the placement for Pincha Mayurasana but at first seemed beyond my control! They just couldn't stay parallel to eachother! Then I watched a helpful video by ashtanga teacher Kino Macgregor who suggested first working on dropping down to forearm plank from regular plank by turning the elbow creases to face forward before folding the elbows straight back and down to the floor. This is where I felt exactly how much strengthening needed to happen in the outsides of the arms and shoulders especially. Just to keep the elbows in line with the hands and hold a forearm plank with parallel forearms takes a ton of outer arm strength. So that's the way I practice my forearm planks now as I build up to elbow stand. However its so tough I'm sometimes too fatigued to go through to the inversion! Which I just take as a sign that my body is not yet ready. Nothing wrong with that, just have to respect it and work on what needs to come first. Strong outer arms and an open heart.
