Soar in Peacock Pose (Mayurasana): Creative Ways to Overcome Your Fears

Mayurasana (Peacock Pose) is a challenging arm balancing posture that requires extreme strength and incredible flexibility. For many practitioners, it appears to be an unattainable goal. But Peacock Pose doesn’t have to be out of reach.

Blocks are excellent tools to help make the yoga practice more accessible. And they can be especially helpful for Mayurasana. So grab two blocks, overcome your fears, and learn to fly in Peacock Pose!

Getting Ready for Peacock Pose (Mayurasana)

When working toward any “peak” posture, it’s important to thoroughly warm up the body to prepare for what’s ahead. Of course, Peacock Pose is no different. 

While certainly a full-body pose, Peacock Pose needs lots of warm-up throughout the whole body. But it’s especially important to warm up the wrists when preparing for Mayurasana because they take quite a bit of pressure and weight in the full pose.

Preparing for Peacock Pose (Mayurasana): Yoga Wrist Warm-Ups – Extension

1. Sit in any comfortable position with an elongated spine.
2. Stretch your arms forward in front of you at about the height of your shoulders and turn your palms to face up toward the ceiling.
3. Take your right hand to your left fingertips and gently draw them down in the direction of the floor.
4. Press the heel of your left hand forward in space as you gently release the muscles surrounding the back of your wrist. Keep your elbow straight.
5. Hold for a few deep breaths and switch sides.

Yoga Wrist Warmup: Flexion

1. Sit in any comfortable position with an elongated spine.
2. Stretch your arms forward in front of you at about the height of your shoulders and turn your palms to face down toward the floor.
3. Take your right hand to your left fingertips and gently draw them down in the direction of the floor. You may wish to press gently against your fingertips or get more sensation by pressing gently against the back of your hand.
4. Reach the back of your left hand forward in space as you gently release the muscles surrounding the top of your wrist. Keep your elbows straight.
5. Hold for a few deep breaths and switch sides.

Yoga Wrist Warm-Up: Counterpose

1. Sit in any comfortable position with an elongated spine.
2. Take your hands out to your sides and shake your wrists vigorously with speed.   

Yoga Wrist Warm-Up: Lateral Weight-Bearing

1. Start in Tabletop Pose (Bharmanasana) on hands and knees. Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.
2. Externally rotate your hands so that your fingers point toward the sides of your mat so that the heels of your hands face each other.
3. Rock the weight of your body from side to side. So lean toward the right and then lean toward the left to create a subtle stretch in your wrists and also to adjust your wrists to hold some of your body weight.

Yoga Wrist Warm-Up: Weight-Bearing in the Sagittal Plane

1. Start in Tabletop Pose on hands and knees. Stack your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.
2. Turn your fingers to point back toward your knees or as far toward the back of your mat as you comfortably can.
3. Rock the weight of your hips back toward your heels slightly. The heels of your hands may start to peel off the floor a little bit.
4. Then, rock your weight back forward to align your shoulders roughly over your wrists.
5. Continue this rock forward and back for a few rounds of breathing.

Getting Started: How To Practice Peacock Pose (Mayurasana)

Once you’ve prepared your wrists to bear your body weight, you can start to play around with variations of Mayurasana. Be sure that the rest of your body is also thoroughly warmed up before you begin to soar in peacock pose!

Peacock Pose Variation #1: Get Started with yoga props

1. Place two blocks on their medium height setting on your mat parallel to the short edge. Place the first block toward the very bottom of your mat and the second block toward the very top of your mat. The first block will support your feet, and the second block will support your chin, so you’ll need to adjust their distance from each other based on your own height.
2. Come to kneel about halfway down the mat so that you’re directly between your two blocks.
3. Externally rotate your shoulder joints and draw your elbows in as close as you comfortably can to the midline of your body. (If you have breasts, you may need to accommodate for your breast tissue by placing your hands slightly wider apart.)
4. Extend your wrists, turn your palms to face away from your torso, and point your fingers down to face toward the ground.
5. Bend forward to release your palms to the ground (with your fingers pointing toward the back of your mat).
6. Bend your elbows straight back behind you to create a Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose) shape in your upper arms.
7. Lean your belly forward to rest on your elbows.

1. Kick one foot back behind you and rest your toes onto the block at the back of your mat.
2. Strongly activate your core and continue to lean your weight forward into your arms as you lift your other leg and step it back onto the block behind you.
3. Carefully release your chin onto the block at the top of your mat.
4. Either choose to stay as you are or experiment with lifting one foot off the block at a time, maintaining a strong activation of your core as you do so.
5. Hold for a few breaths and when you’re ready, tap your knees down to the floor to release.

Peacock Pose Variation #2: Take It One Step Further

1. Place one block on its highest height setting in the middle of your mat. This block will support your hips in the pose, so you may need to readjust its placement as you set up for the shape.
2. Start kneeling behind the block and then step your right foot forward into a Low Lunge Pose (Anjaneyasana). Align your block so that it’s appropriately set to support your left hip.
3. Externally rotate your shoulder joints and draw your elbows in as close as you comfortably can to the midline of your body. (If you have breasts, you may need to accommodate for your breast tissue by placing your hands slightly wider apart.)
4. Extend your wrists, turn your palms to face away from your torso, and point your fingers down to face toward the ground.
5. Bend forward to release your palms to the ground (with your fingers pointing toward the back of your mat).
6. Lift your left back knee off the floor and rise to the ball of your left foot.
7. Rest the weight of your left hip onto the block.
8. Bend your elbows straight back behind you to create a Chaturanga shape in your upper arms.
9. Shimmy your right leg to the back of your mat to meet your left.
10. You can stay as you are or slowly float your left leg off the mat and activate strongly through your leg by kicking it toward the wall behind you.
11. Again you can stay as you are or float your right leg back up to meet your left and activate both legs strongly by kicking them back behind you and squeezing them into the midline of your body.
12. Hold for a breath or two and when you’re ready, tap your feet to the floor, bend your knees to release your weight to the mat, and rise back up to sit.
13. Repeat all of the same actions on the second side.

Free Online Yoga video: Learn to Soar in Peacock Pose With These Creative Variations

Even though these are variations of Peacock Pose, they’re still incredibly challenging modifications in their own right. So these are great progressions to throw into your practice to experiment with strength, flexibility, stamina, endurance, and—of course—facing your fears so you can soar in Peacock Pose.

All arm balances have an element of psychological fear to overcome to fly, and props can help make that all the more possible.

While Mayurasana may seem like an unattainable posture at first glance, it can be accessible with the proper modifications, variations, and props to help you play. So face your fears and learn to fly with these empowering, creative, and fun variations. You may very well surprise yourself.  

Video content and article concept by yoga instructor Kate Vigmostad