Why You're Not Getting Better at Arm Balances & Inversions

Six months ago, you decided you were going to crack Crow.

You practice it before class, after class, and probably in the kitchen while you wait for your morning coffee to brew. You get your knees on your arms, you lean forward, you try to lift your feet… and down they go. Again.

So you try a little harder. You run through the whole thing twenty more times. You tell yourself that if you keep at it, it’ll eventually click. Because practice makes perfect, right?

Except you’re still stuck at the exact same point you were six months ago, and you’re starting to wonder what on earth you’re doing wrong.

How much longer are you going to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result?

I know that sounds harsh. But I’ve seen so many people pour time and effort into learning arm balances and inversions without ever asking whether their practice is actually helping them progress.

They attempt the pose from start to finish, over and over, day after day. I call that practicing THE WHOLE POSE™ (and no, I totally didn’t make that name up). They’re showing up and putting in the work, but months later, they’re still stuck at exactly the same point.

The effort is there. The practice just isn’t aimed at what’s actually going wrong.

Are you practicing the whole pose, or the skills you need to do the pose?

When you want to learn an arm balance, it’s natural to practice the whole pose. You get into it, you don’t quite make it, you come out, and you try again. And again. And again (with increasingly creative swear words).

Because surely, if you want to learn a pose, you need to keep practicing that pose, right?

Actually, no.

Let's go back to that kitchen-floor Crow. Here are two ways it can go wrong:

1. Say your feet won't lift off the floor. You might spend your entire practice attempting THE WHOLE POSE™, over and over, hoping that eventually they'll take off.
   
   But if you don’t know why they won’t lift (or no one has explained it to you), how do you know what to change on your next attempt? You could repeat the same movement all session without ever touching what’s actually stopping you.
   
   
2. Or maybe you can get into Crow just fine, but you faceplant half a second after your feet leave the floor. So you keep practicing without figuring out why you're losing your balance or what you need to do differently.
   
   

Same pose, different problems, and each one needs a different fix. Practicing the pose you want to learn doesn’t automatically mean you’re practicing the skills you need to fly it.

How to find the skill you’re missing.

Start by looking at what actually happens when you try the pose. You might need to get all FBI on this and film yourself. Watch the footage back and find the moment things start to go wrong.

What do you see?

• Your feet never leave the floor. You might need to practice lifting your hips further over your center line.
• Your knees slip outside your elbows. You might need to practice squeezing your thighs together.
• You faceplant. You might need to work on your grip and finger-braking system.
• You find your balance and nearly sh*t your pants. Fair. You might need to practice staying calm once you get there.

Once you know where things fall apart, you know what to work on. Spend your time on that skill instead of attempting the whole pose and hoping for the best. 

You can show up to every class and be super consistent for six months. If you never address what’s going wrong, all those repetitions might not get you any closer. So before your next attempt, ask yourself: am I actually practicing what I need to get better at to fly this pose?

Want to see this in action?

Grab that morning coffee and watch the video below. There might be a reason all that practice isn't getting you anywhere.

Ready to rethink your practice?

If you’re not sure which part of the pose is holding you back, that’s exactly what we work on inside Yogi Flight School. We break arm balances down into the skills they’re made of and give you drills to build each one. Instead of throwing yourself at the whole pose and hoping for the best, you’ll know what you’re working on and why it’s getting you closer.

Check out all the details of Yogi Flight School here!

Your kitchen floor will thank you. Your feet will be too busy flying to notice.