From Faceplant to Flight: How to Flow Between Arm Balances Like a Pro

Ever tried moving from one arm balance to another in yoga class, only to end up face-first on your mat, wondering if your body forgot it even had arms?

That was me for years. I’d launch into an arm balance, aim for a smooth transition to something fancy, and promptly faceplant. Meanwhile, the person next to me floated from pose to pose like gravity didn’t exist.

Here’s what I've learned in my years of teaching arm balances and inversions: smooth transitions aren’t about brute strength, extra hours on your mat, or wishing gravity would take a day off.

What actually makes them work is understanding how your weight needs to shift as you move from pose to pose. The smallest adjustment at the right moment can be the difference between floating into the next arm balance and nose-diving out of it.

In this article, I’ll break down one of my favourite arm balance transitions and highlight the key weight shifts that make linking poses together smoother and far less crash-prone.

Why Your Legs Keep Tripping You Up

The biggest obstacle in most arm balance transitions? Your legs. Whether you’re built like Danny DeVito or Claudia Schiffer, those things are heavy and have a mind of their own. The moment they start moving, they can yank you off balance...fast.

As they lift, shift, or extend, your upper body has to adjust in real time to maintain balance. Too little movement and bam! Your elbows collapse, your wrists buckle, and your butt (or worse, your face) meets the mat way sooner than expected.

The trick is subtle, continuous adjustments. Move your torso just enough to counterbalance the pull of your legs, and the sequence suddenly starts to feel manageable. Transitions stop feeling like guesswork and start feeling deliberate, like you actually know what your body is doing.

Breaking Down One of My Favorite Transitions

Let's break down the transition from Side Crow to Fallen Angel to Eka Pada Koundinyasana A. On paper, it looks like Cirque du Soleil-level sorcery...three arm balances in a row? Madness! But in reality, it’s all about moving with intention and keeping your weight exactly where it needs to be at each moment.

I'm not going to re-teach the poses individually in this article (I cover all of those in detail in Yogi Flight School). The goal here is to string them together, so your flow stops feeling like a series of clumsy attempts and starts feeling intentional.

Step 1: Side Crow → Fallen Angel

Start in Side Crow. Stack your elbows over your wrists and swivel your hips over your supporting arm. Before moving, notice where your weight is. It should feel centered, not pushed too far forward or back.

To move into Fallen Angel (a.k.a. "intentional faceplant pose"), rotate your head so you’re looking in the same direction as your feet, and begin lowering your cheek toward the mat. The key is keeping your elbows stacked by shifting your torso slightly forward as your cheek comes down. Lose the stack, and you tip backward, losing the transition (cue ugly crying).

Once your cheek is down, swivel your hips to lift your bum toward the sky and find your version of Fallen Angel.

Step 2: Fallen Angel → Eka Pada Koundinyasana A

From Fallen Angel, it’s time to move into Eka Pada Koundinyasana A. The biggest challenge here is that your legs are shifting from a more vertical position to almost horizontal, which dramatically changes your center of gravity.

As your legs lower behind you, your torso must move forward to counterbalance their weight. If your upper body doesn’t shift, your legs will drag you down and the transition collapses.

Focus on small, continuous adjustments rather than sudden corrections. Move in sync with your legs, and your body will find balance naturally. This makes the transition feel controlled, deliberate, and far less panicked.

Putting It All Together

Once you start syncing your torso with your legs and understanding how to move your body in response to weight shifts, transitions begin to feel a lot less like a guessing game and a lot more like…well, like you actually know what your body is doing.

Movements start to link naturally, your flows feel smoother, and the dreaded mid-pose faceplant becomes a rare (but hopefully funny) memory.

Reading about it is one thing...seeing it in motion is another. That’s why I broke this entire sequence down in a YouTube video. Watch me move through Side Crow → Fallen Angel → Eka Pada Koundinyasana A, see how my torso shifts with my legs, and catch all the little timing cues that make the flow actually work.

Check out the full video and level up your arm balance transitions today: