5 Steps for Getting into Dragonfly Pose

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This intricate arm balance relies on arm, core, and leg strength, balance, and spinal and hip flexibility. Rina Jakubowicz shows you how to warm up and take flight.

This intricate arm balance relies on arm, core, and leg strength, balance, and spinal and hip flexibility. Miami Vinyasa and Vedanta teacher Rina Jakubowicz shows you how to warm up and take flight.

Rina reclined-figure-four

Rina half-lord-fishes-ardha-matsyendrasana

Rina four-limbed-staff-chaturanga-dandasana

KakasanaPractice Crow Pose to learn your own body leverage in arm balances and continue to build upper body strength. From Tadasana, squat with your feet a few inches apart. Your heels will likely lift. Separate your knees wider than your hips and plant your elbows to the inside or your inner knees. Separate your hands shoulder-width apart and lean forward, placing your hands on the floor in front of you. Make a 45-degree angle with your upper arms. Shift your weight forward, from the balls of your feet into your hands. Squeeze your inner thighs toward your arms and begin to lift your feet off the ground, one at a time at first. If you are ready to go farther, try placing your knees higher up on your arms and, with an inhalation, lift both feet off the floor and straighten the arms as much as you can to come into Crane Pose (Bakasana). In either pose, keep the gaze on the floor a few inches in front of you. Push the floor away, resisting gravity, in Crow and all arm balances. Try to stay here for 5 breaths.See also Clean Up Your Crow Pose: 7 Common ‘Cheats’ Challenged

Rina eight-angle-astavakrasana

Rina dandasana-dragonfly

Rina Jakubowicz is a bilingual yoga teacher and Reiki practitioner based in Florida. She is the founder and owner of Rina Yoga, which now has three studios in Miami, and teaches there and at events worldwide, including Yoga Journal LIVE, the Glow Yoga Festival in Puerto Rico, and Feria Mujer in Chile. She is the yoga expert on Univision’s Spanish language music television series Tu Desayuno Alegre, the host of Health & Wellness Channel’s YOUnity Yoga daily morning show, and the creator of a pioneering yoga curriculum for children and teens called Super Yogis’ Schoolhouse.

Reclined Figure Four

Start with gentle hip stretches.

Come onto your back and cross your right ankle over your left knee. Thread your arms around the back of your left leg and gently pull in, making sure to maintain a neutral pelvis and a natural lumbar curve. Hold for about 10 breaths and then switch sides.