Training guide
Crow pose is the first arm balance most people learn: with your knees resting high on the backs of your arms, you lean forward over your hands until your feet float. It looks like an arm exercise, but it's mostly a lean and a squeeze. In the one study that measured it, practitioners' hands took about their whole body weight, so your wrists need preparing as much as your arms. In calisthenics the same balance is called the frog stand.
This guide covers the set-up and the lean, wrist preparation, the ladder from a deep squat to crow, crane and side crow with a 3D demo of every demonstrated step, the common faults, how often and how long to practise, an honest timeline, and who should wait, in line with our handstand, planche and yoga for arms guides.
Knees high on the backs of your upper arms, elbows a little bent, then shift your weight forward over your hands until your feet float. Yoga Journal puts it well: crow looks as if it needs a lot of arm strength, but much of the work comes from your abdominals.
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In the one study that measured crow, 20 experienced practitioners' hands took a peak of about 1.05 times body weight. It's a single study, and its 5-second window included getting into the pose. No study has measured the wrist angle in crow; a sun salutation took the wrist to about 85 degrees.
A minute of wrist movement and about 10 rocks onto your hands before each session, as our handstand guide does, and build your time on your hands gradually. In a survey of 321 adults who practise handstands, 57% reported chronic wrist pain, and warm-ups weren't linked with less of it.
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A comfortable deep squat and a straight-arm plank, then crow with your feet on a block, one foot at a time, then both. Crane (straight arms) and side crow (a twist) come once crow is steady. This order comes from teaching practice, not a trial.
The usual fall is forward, so put a cushion where your face would land. Keep breathing: holding your breath doesn't reliably steady your balance, and straining with a held breath raises blood pressure and eye pressure.
From a squat, your hands go flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart and about 15 to 20 cm in front of your feet. Your knees rest high on the backs of your upper arms, your elbows bend a little, and you tip forward until your feet lift. In crow (kakasana) the elbows stay bent; in crane (bakasana) they straighten and the knees tuck up towards the armpits. Many classes call both bakasana.
Calisthenics calls the bent-arm balance on the backs of the arms the frog stand, the first step of planche training, as our planche guide shows. Side crow twists so that both legs rest on one arm, which loads that arm more.
Your hands and wrists carry your weight with the wrist bent back. Yoga Journal's anatomy has the inner thighs gripping your arms, the abdominals lifting your trunk, the front and side of the shoulders pressing out, and the muscles around the shoulder blades spreading them wide. No study has measured muscle activity in crow: the authors of a yoga muscle activity study list it among the poses still to be studied.
Our crow pose page asks that you're comfortable bearing weight on your hands, as in a plank or a push-up. A comfortable deep squat helps too, because crow starts from one (our suggestion).
Tight hips make it harder to get your shins high on your arms; a block under your feet helps. Longer limbs or a bigger body change how it feels, not whether you can learn it, and nothing here suggests changing your weight. If your wrists bend back a long way, keep your elbows soft; Yoga Journal suggests curling your fingers slightly if your wrists hurt.
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From Yoga Journal's and Yoga International's crow guides and our crow and crane pages; the move-on points are our editorial choice.
Loading the 3D figure…
The movement on the figure: Crow pose (Bakasana)
Work down the list, moving on when the current step feels steady for 10 to 20 seconds over two sessions (our editorial choice). Crane and side crow have no 3D demo: the crow demo shows the base, and their steps are written below.
The move-on points are our editorial choice; no study has compared ways of learning crow.
Hold 45 seconds, as in our advanced calisthenics workout's warm-up, or 60 seconds holding a door frame with your heels on a folded mat if they lift, as our lifters' yoga session does.
The move page's dose: 3 holds of 15 to 30 seconds. A suggested starting point. No trial has tested this move on its own. Move on when 30 seconds feels steady with your shoulder blades spread (our editorial choice).
Squat on a yoga block or the bottom stair so your shins sit higher on your arms, and lift one foot, then the other: 3 to 5 tries of a few seconds over a cushion, as our yoga for arms guide suggests for crow.
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4 to 6 holds of 5 to 15 seconds, with something soft in front of you, as our planche progression does (our handstand progression uses 5 holds of 5 to 10 seconds). Rest about a minute between tries.
Once crow is steady for 20 seconds and a straight-arm plank doesn't hurt your wrists, as the crane page asks. Its dose: 3 to 5 attempts of 5 to 15 seconds, resting about a minute between them, while you are fresh (our editorial starting point). Yoga International suggests starting with straight arms rather than straightening them from crow, which usually tips you out.
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Once crow is steady for 10 seconds and you can hook your elbow outside the opposite knee in a twisted chair pose, as the side crow page asks. Its dose: 3 to 5 attempts of 5 to 15 seconds each side, resting about a minute between them, while you are fresh (our editorial starting point). Resting the other hip on your other arm is the easier version.
A minute of the flow and about 10 rocks before every session, as our handstand guide does; the stretch (30 seconds each side) and wrist curls (12 slow reps) on other days, as our wrist and forearm routine does.
Two or three of these, 2 or 3 times a week: hollow holds 2 × 15 seconds, boat pose 2 × 20 to 30 seconds with knees bent at first, 3 to 5 slow chaturanga lowers with your knees down, and 2 sets of 10 scapular push-ups, as our gymnastics warm-up, L-sit progression, strength yoga and planche progression do.
There's no trial of learning crow and no study of its muscle activity. What exists is one force study, wrist studies of other weight-bearing positions, handstand balance studies and injury surveys.
In 20 experienced practitioners aged 22 to 55, crow's hand force peaked at 1.05 times body weight, with a mean of 0.73 over a 5-second window that included getting into the pose, so the mean isn't the hold alone. Plank, downward dog and dolphin put 0.71 to 1.08 times body weight through the arms at peak. One lab study.
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No study has measured the wrist angle in crow, crane or side crow; the eight-limbed pose of a sun salutation took the wrist to about 85 degrees in 10 practitioners. A push-up on a bent-back wrist raised pressure in the wrist joint in 8 donated wrists and moved force towards the back and little-finger side of the wrist in 14 volunteers.
In a self-selected online survey of 321 adult handstand practitioners, 57% reported chronic wrist pain (53% of those who mainly practised yoga), with no link to warm-ups, braces or grip devices. Pain on the back of the wrist every time it's loaded bent back often has a cause that shows on a scan: 84% of 25 people in one clinic study, most often a small hidden ganglion.
In gymnasts' handstands, the wrist flexors showed the highest muscle activity and helped control balance, and balancers used their wrists more than 75% of the time. These are handstand studies, not crow, but the lesson carries over: press your fingertips to stop tipping forward.
In a survey of 1,702 German practitioners, hand-, shoulder- and head stands together were linked with 29.4% of acute harms, and practising alone without a teacher raised the risk. Across 94 trials, yoga overall was as safe as usual care and other exercise, and yoga injuries reaching US emergency departments are uncommon.
One case report describes wrist drop from the knees pressing on a nerve at the back of the upper arm, after a month of crow attempts, in a woman with an inherited tendency to nerve pressure palsies. She recovered almost completely over 3 months.
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The block, one foot at a time, crow before crane and side crow: this comes from yoga teaching, not trials. We found no study comparing ways of learning crow.
From the teaching sources; the fixes are theirs or our editorial suggestion.
Yoga Journal's fix: stay tucked tight, and draw your inner thighs and hips towards your chest as your feet lift.
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Keep your elbows over your wrists and hugged in. Yoga Journal suggests practising from plank to chaturanga with your elbows in to build the shape.
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Your shins slide down and you can't lean. Squat on a block so your knees start higher.
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It tips you back. Look a little ahead of your hands.
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Hopping overshoots forward. Lean until your feet get light, then lift one foot at a time.
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It doesn't reliably steady you, and straining with a held breath raises blood pressure and eye pressure. Breathe slowly.
Fear of falling on your face stops the lean. Our crane page's advice fits crow too:
The usual fall is forward onto the face: while learning, put a firm cushion or folded blankets in front of your hands, and come down by lowering the feet rather than tipping further.
Our editorial starting point: 2 to 4 short sessions a week, 10 to 15 minutes, at the start of a session while you're fresh, in line with our handstand guide's short, frequent practice. Stop while your attempts are still good.
4 to 6 holds of 5 to 15 seconds, resting about a minute, as our planche progression does. A steady 10 to 20 seconds is a good point to try crane or side crow (our editorial choice).
You don't need to train to failure, as our plans' shared notes say. End each hold while your elbows are still over your wrists and you can lower your feet with control.
Build your time on your hands over weeks. Wrist pain up to about 5 out of 10 that settles within half an hour is acceptable, as our wrist guides say; if your wrists ache the next day, hold the amount steady rather than adding more (our suggestion, as in our handstand guide). With sore wrists, crow comes last, as our yoga for wrists guide says.
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Slow, steady breathing through the hold. Breath-holding studies of standing balance disagree, and none supports holding your breath to balance.
No study has timed it. Our estimate: a few sessions to a few weeks for your first few seconds if you can already hold a plank and a deep squat, and weeks to months for a steady 10 to 20 seconds. Crane and side crow usually take longer.
Crow is a step on the way to the handstand and the planche: our handstand and planche guides take it from there. Pressing from crow into a handstand is an advanced strength skill.
The planche and handstand progressions include crow as a rung; the wrist routine and yoga for wrists build the wrists that take the load.
Build towards a planche: wrist prep, planche leans and lean push-ups, frog stands and tuck planche holds, with pike push-ups.
30 minAdvanced8 movesNo equipmentBuild toward a handstand: wrist prep, dolphin pose, pike push-ups, crow, the wall handstand and freestanding holds.
25 minAdvanced9 movesA wallWrist mobility and forearm strength for desk work, climbing, push-ups and handstands.
10 minBeginner7 movesA wall, A dumbbellA 20-minute yoga class for wrists: a gentle warm-up, poses with the hands free, then weight through the hands in stages, from a wall to all fours to the forearms.
20 minBeginner18 movesA wall, Other / check instructionsTwenty minutes of yoga for your arms and shoulders: a wrist warm-up, a stepped build-up to plank and slow lowering, side plank, a band row and stretches.
20 minBeginner15 movesA bench or box, A bandHand, shoulder and head stands were linked with more acute harms than other practices, and self-study without supervision raised the risk. Learn crow and handstands with a teacher once planks and push-ups are easy, over something soft.
Leave crow until loading your hands is comfortable, as our handstand guide says for handstands, and start with the wrist moves above (our suggestion). Yoga Journal lists wrist arthritis, wrist pain and carpal tunnel problems among the reasons to leave crow out.
Tingling or numbness in the thumb and first fingers while you hold the wrist bent back (a front rack, prayer hands, a long plank) means the nerve, not a stretch: come out of the position and see our carpal tunnel syndrome guide (our suggestion, following a laboratory study of carpal tunnel pressure that our yoga for wrists guide cites).
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Yoga Journal also lists back pain or back injuries (including surgery, osteoporosis, a disc problem or arthritis) and a hip replacement or hip pain in the pose. Ask your physiotherapist first, and after a hip replacement follow your surgical team's limits on deep hip bending (our suggestion).
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In pregnancy, leave out arm balances and handstands, and plank on your knees or against a wall as your bump grows. With heart failure, avoid planks and swap full push-ups for wall push-ups. After surgery through the breastbone or breast cancer surgery, follow your team's advice before pushing or lifting with your arms (the move pages).
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Wrist pain is common in young gymnasts, and the growth plate at the end of the forearm bone is at risk from repeated weight-bearing. Wrist pain that is still there the day after training, or a swollen wrist, means stopping weight-bearing on the hands and seeing a GP or sports doctor, as our gymnast's wrist guide says.
Speak to a GP first if you haven't exercised for some time, or if you have a medical condition or concerns. Get advice first, too, if you have a health problem, an injury or symptoms, have recently had a heart attack or an operation, or are pregnant or have recently given birth.
Leave arm balances until loading your shoulder is comfortable, and follow your physiotherapist's plan after a dislocation or surgery (our suggestion, as our handstand guide says for handstands).
Stop exercising straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell. Call 999 (911 in the US) for chest pain that doesn't go away or spreads to your arm, neck, jaw, stomach or back, chest pain with sweating, feeling sick, light-headed or short of breath, fainting while exercising, or a pounding, fluttering or irregular heartbeat with chest pain, breathlessness or feeling faint.
A headache that starts suddenly and is extremely painful, especially while straining, can be a bleed on the brain. A headache brought on or made worse by exercise, coughing or bending down needs an urgent GP appointment or NHS 111 (in the US, your doctor or urgent care).
Call 999 or go to A&E after an injury (don't drive yourself) if the arm, wrist or hand is numb, tingling or has pins and needles; a bone is sticking out or a bad cut is bleeding heavily; or the wrist, thumb or a finger has changed shape, is at an odd angle, or has turned blue, grey, white or cold.
Same day: after a fall onto an outstretched hand, pain or tenderness at the base of the thumb on the back of the wrist (the hollow called the snuffbox), even if the wrist moves well or the first X-ray was normal. A broken scaphoid can hide on the first X-ray and is slow to heal if it's missed, so ask what follow-up is planned.
For severe wrist pain, feeling faint, dizzy or sick from the pain, a snap, grinding or popping noise at the time of an injury, a wrist you can't move or hold things with, a wrist that has changed shape or colour, a very painful, hot or red lump, or lost feeling in your hand (in the US, urgent care). See a GP if wrist pain hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
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Stop straight away if you feel any pain or become unwell, the NHS says, and contact 111 if your symptoms worry you or don't go away.
A dull ache in your muscles for a day or two after something new is normal. Joint pain that's sharp, gets worse during a set or lingers into the next day means switching to the easier option, and seeing a GP or physiotherapist if it carries on (our plans' rule). Our muscle soreness guide has more.
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Some discomfort during these exercises is fine and doesn't mean you are doing damage. Keep it to about 5 out of 10 or less. It should settle within half an hour or so, and your hand should be no worse the next morning. If it is, do fewer, smaller or lighter next time, not nothing. An NHS wrist rehabilitation booklet uses the same limit: an unpleasant stretch of about 5 out of 10 that settles within 30 minutes.
Pain in the same spot on the back of the wrist every time you bend it back under load is a reason to stop loading that position, use fists or handles instead, and read our wrist pain when bending it back guide, not to stretch harder. Get it checked if it hasn't improved after 2 weeks (our suggestion, following that guide and our wrist pain hub).
Come out of the pose for tingling down your arm, move your knees higher towards your armpits, and see a GP if weakness in your hand or wrist doesn't pass (our suggestion, after the one case report of a nerve palsy from crow).
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A pop or snap with sudden pain during a hold, especially with bruising or a bulge in the upper arm, can be a torn biceps tendon. A pop or tearing at the front of the armpit or chest, then bruising, a change in its shape or weakness pushing, can be a torn pec tendon. Get seen the same day, at an urgent treatment centre, A&E or through NHS 111 (in the US, urgent care), and don't wait for it to settle, as our biceps and pec strain guides say.
For sudden or very bad shoulder pain, an arm you can't move, a shoulder that has changed shape or is badly swollen, pins and needles that don't go away, no feeling in your arm, an arm that is hot or cold to touch, or pain that started after a fall or injury. See a GP if shoulder pain gets worse or hasn't improved after 2 weeks.
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No study has tested what limits crow. Teaching sources put the lean, the trunk and the knee-to-arm squeeze first, and balance on the hands is steered mostly at the wrists. You do need to bear your weight on your hands, as in a plank.
Breath-holding cut sway standing still in some studies and sped it up in others, and balance under pushes was best while speaking. Straining with a held breath sends blood pressure up. Breathe slowly.
No study has tested a hand position for crow, and wrist pain is common in people who balance on their hands whatever their warm-up. Yoga Journal suggests curling your fingers slightly if your wrists hurt. Building up gradually matters more.
It's often the first arm balance taught, but hand, shoulder and head stands are the yoga practices most often linked with acute harms, and practising alone raised the risk. Learn it once planks and push-ups are easy, over something soft.
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Squat with your hands flat on the floor a little in front of your feet, set your knees high on the backs of your upper arms, and lean forward until your feet get light, then lift one foot and the other. Put a cushion in front of your face and look a little ahead of your hands. If your knees slide down, squat on a block.
Usually it's the lean, not your arms: most people stop before their weight is far enough forward, often from a fear of falling on their face. Knees too low on the arms, elbows splaying and looking down between the hands make it harder. A cushion in front, a block under your feet and one foot at a time fix most of it.
You need to be comfortable bearing your weight on your hands, as in a plank, but crow is more lean and trunk than arm strength. Yoga Journal says much of the work comes from the abdominals, and balance on the hands is controlled mostly at the wrists.
Crow puts about your whole body weight through bent-back wrists, and wrist pain is common in people who balance on their hands. Warm up your wrists every session and build your time on your hands gradually. If the same spot on the back of your wrist hurts every time, see our wrist pain guides rather than pushing on.
Short holds while you're fresh: 4 to 6 holds of 5 to 15 seconds, with something soft in front of you, as our planche progression does. A steady 10 to 20 seconds is a good point to try crane or side crow.
In crow your elbows bend and your knees rest on the backs of your arms; in crane your arms are straight and your knees tuck up towards your armpits. Many classes call both bakasana. Start crane with straight arms rather than straightening them from crow.
Nearly: calisthenics calls the bent-arm balance on the backs of the arms a frog stand and uses it as the first step towards the planche. Our planche guide takes it from there.
No study has timed it. Our estimate is a few sessions to a few weeks for your first few seconds if you can already hold a plank and a deep squat, and weeks to months for a steady 10 to 20 seconds.
No. Holding your breath doesn't reliably steady your balance, and straining with a held breath raises blood pressure and eye pressure. Breathe slowly through the hold.
Get a steady crow and a wall handstand first; pressing from crow into a handstand is an advanced strength skill. Our handstand guide has the ladder.
Leave it out: our yoga for arms guide says to skip arm balances in pregnancy, and the NHS advises avoiding activities with a risk of falling.
Exercise education, not a personal prescription, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Check with a GP before starting hard training if you have a heart condition, chest pain, dizziness or breathlessness when active, and stop for sharp or increasing pain. Health disclaimer.
