In this Vinyasa Lab class, I use a progression of steps to teach you how to come up and go down out of Head Balance. Learning this progression will almost certainly challenge you. Therefore I urge to be patient and to follow the instructions carefully. If you can already go up and come down into the position you may be tempted to do it the way that you already know. But if you practice the steps that I put forth (along with studying this entire series from the perspective of using your legs when upside down) you stand to transform how you use your legs in all your postures! Imagine your legs/feet being as expressive and articulate as your arms/hands!

Model is Delara Tiv.

The progression begins with what I call the Crouch and Spring Entrance into Sirsasana.

Step 1
Set up your Headstand foundation with your hands a few inches away from a wall (back to the wall). Go through the protocol of establishing a proper foundation and then lift up your hips and walk your feet in towards your head.

Step 2
Here’s where you want to get the feeling for the crouch that comes before the spring. To maintain your foundation as you bend your knees into a crouch may require practice. Keep your forearms planted, shoulders lifted, upper back strong and find a centered, animal ready crouch. And then test your spring, jump without your feet actually leaving the ground. Coordinate your crouch with an exhalation and your pretend spring with an inhalation. Go back and forth rhythmically breathe out as you crouch breathe in as you spring. Make your spring happen with a swift burst of energy .

Step 3
Here’s where you launch your spring, but first know your destination. You are attempting to jump your hips and legs up (towards the wall) and stop your hips when they come into the vertical line above your shoulders. At this stage keep your knees bent. DO NOT even begin to straighten your legs. Find a balance point with bent knees. At first you may find that you cannot prevent your hips from falling to the wall. No problem that’s why you are working at a wall. It will happen that when you crouch and spring you’ll either come up short and your feet will come back to the mat or you’ll go too far and your hips will contact the wall. And your task is to keep jumping with breath and work to find the balance point in the middle. Practice this exercise with the wall until you are proficient enough to move away from the wall. Make sure you are ready to go where the stakes are higher!

Step 4
Once you are balancing in position with bent knees the next step is to straighten one leg at a time. One important focus of this exercise is to attempt to extend your leg directly up along the vertical axis. And then once you are up in position in with one leg up work to gain control and balance and stay up there for some time. Additionally when you are balancing with one leg up experiment with actively sucking your bent knee down towards your chest. And another way to experiment with this exercise is to swiftly and confidently bend and straighten your legs, and also to alternate swiftly between raising and lowering your legs. At first many of you will be relying on the wall for support with this work, and as usual you will be trying your best to create the skill in balance that will enable you to wean yourself off of relying on the wall

Step 5
Now you are familiar with being in the one leg up position, the next step is to bring the other leg up too. You want your second leg to go right up the central axis and join with the straight leg. Then you’ll be balancing in Sirsasana! Here you may also need to use the wall to help you balance, no problem, but minimize the need to rely on the wall.

Step 6
The next step begins with you in Sirsasana with both legs bent (Step 3). Then instead of straightening one leg at a time you straighten both legs together. As before you want to sweep your legs up from bent to straight right along the vertical line. Practice this until you can do it with confidence and speed. You want to create a move where you go immediately from bent knees to straight legs in Sirsasana! And then from here you want to do the same thing with addition of start on the ground with the crouch and spring. Set up your foundation, create your crouch, spring up into position with bent knees and then straighten your legs into Sirsasana. Work to do it with economy and confidence by executing a skillful crouch and spring followed by a swift, vertical kicking move.

Step 7
In the next step you eliminate bending your knees. Instead you “levitate” your legs off the ground and come up into Sirsasana with straight legs, no crouch and spring. Be patient you may have to practice the previous steps in the progression for several months (yikes!) before you are ready to tackle this difficult advanced move. You can use a wall for support and you can make it easier to get your feet off the ground by stepping your feet onto a block. The block is helpful because it is the first few inches of clearance that are particularly difficult to achieve.
Here’s a few hints about executing the move. It is essential to walk your feet way, way in towards your head. Walk in to a point where your hips line up beyond the vertical line of your shoulders, Make sure you keep your shoulders lifted even though it becomes more challenging as you walk in. Your hips serve as a counter weight that enables your legs to become light enough to lift off the ground effortlessly. Once your legs clear off the ground you want to learn to swing them up to a vertical position. This swinging move is a grand whole body gesture that requires both strength and skill in balance. When you execute a nice move, you can feel your entire body participate in an integrated gesture. One tricky aspect to perfecting the swing from the ground up to the vertical position is that you have to shift your hips forward as your legs go up. If you leave the hips in the place where they were serving as a counter weight, you will fall back towards the wall. Remember part of negotiating this transition is to match the energy of your hips driving forward (away from the wall) with the energy of your legs going up.