Arm balances can be some of the most fun and exhilarating yoga poses to practice, but for a lot of people, they can be scary and intimidating. For one, most people have a fear of falling. Even though we constantly say that yoga is a practice and that it’s ok to fall, people automatically correlate falling with failure. Second, a lot of people shy away from arm balances because they feel like they don’t have the balance or the upper body strength. If you think about it, we don’t use our arms, shoulders and chest that often. We are on our feet most of the time, so it’s pretty common, especially for women, to lack the upper body strength that is needed to do some of these poses.
A great way to start building balance and upper body strength for arm balances is practicing plank pose (maybe adding in some mini push-ups) and downward dog. Practicing plank is great because it forces you to engage your arms, strengthening the weight bearing muscles of the arm that are crucial for succeeding in more advanced arm balances.
Arm balances have a few very important benefits. They can help build upper body strength which in turn, builds bone density which over time, can prevent the loss of mineralization in the bones in the upper body – also known as osteoporosis. Arm balances also require a certain amount of balance which can prevent falls and broken bones which is important especially as we get older.
