Beginner’s Guide to Scorpion Pose
We’ve all had that moment in a yoga class where we hear that unfamiliar Sanskrit word vrschikasana and look over to see the person to our left or right with feet resting on shoulders and a rubber band spine making its way into a circle. Simultaneously, we are mystified and motivated. We want to assume the scorpion! Here are three tools to help you find your scorpion.
- Strength
Shoulder strength is essential.Begin to create strong scapula muscles with dolphin pushups. Start in your dolphin pose and on an inhale, bring shoulders over wrists coming into a dolphin plank. On your exhale, press up and back to dolphin pose. Try these in sets of 10 to start and over time, move to sets of 20 and 30.
- Flexibility
Camel pose is a great way to open the heart and lumbar spine, two motions that are key to enabling a scorpion pose.Try holding your camel pose for 5-10 breaths. Falling back into a camel pose is an awesome step to exploring some pre-inversion trust as well.
- Trust
Fear is our largest barrier in our yoga practice and in the broader scope of our lives as well. Your desire to learn vrschikasana already demonstrates a piece of your fearlessness. Trust is key to any inversion practice. To build confidence, work first with headstand variations. Make your head and arms your new feet and then move to giving your forearms a try!
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Defining Yoga Asanas
The Sanskrit word asana translates into seat in English, but if you say the word to yoga practitioners, all the postures and stretches they know will flash through their minds. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras simply define asana as a “steady, comfortable posture,” which could be any shape.
In modern yoga context, an asana refers to a physical pose i.e. balasana (child’s pose) or trikonasana (triangle pose).
