Grip like a Crow

This hand lock, gripping the mat with crow like hands; is so important for creating a strong foundation in our practice. This strong physical foundation becomes a strong mental foundation as we practice more and more…

This hand lock, is created by breaking down our hand into three parts:

1. Our fingertips

2. The outside edge of our hand

3. The heel of our hand

We press into the mat equally into these three parts and as we do, the middle of our hand starts to dome and our fingers will curl. If you look carefully, you will see that our hands resemble the claws of a crow.

In Yoga, we call this hastabandha. Bandha means lock and Hasta means hand. So hastabandha is hand lock. By locking our hand into the mat, we create a strong foundation, protecting our wrists and protecting us from injury.

Hastabandha is one of the first things that I teach in my classes and my online yogis’s finally got to understand why this week as we ventured into our balances with our first attempt at an entry level crow.

Happy and safe practising