Last week I gave some tips and exercises to help you find stability in the Second Series posture, pinchamayurasana. This week I have some tips for getting out of it!

The “peacock feather pose” can be a challenging forearm stand all on its own, without having to exit it by jumping and landing in chaturanga dandasana also known as the "four limb staff pose."

In Mysore, India, this posture is taught with a very specific exit that must also be mastered before you will be able to move on to the next pose, karandavasana, which shares this same exit!

In this video, I demonstrate and explain two different techniques for jumping back from this arm balance.

The first one relies on a slight movement forward through the shoulders and then uses the elbows to push strongly off the floor. When the weight shifts off the hands they move back quickly to catch the landing.

The second technique uses the legs by bending the knees and dropping the feet down towards the head (like a little scorpion pose). Then you can make a strong flicking action to straighten the knees, which will create some momentum to help lift the weight off the arms, at which point you move the hands back to catch yourself before hitting the floor.

The third trick is an exercise I created to help you figure out how to move your hands back quickly while your feet are still on the floor. The idea is to quickly shift the hands back to replace the elbows on the floor. This will teach you the mechanics of how to correctly exit from this arm balance and how to work on the landing in a safe and controlled way.

Now it’s your turn!

What’s your biggest obstacle that prevents you from successfully jumping out of the forearm stand and landing in catvari position?