Poorna-Salabhasana - Full Locust Pose - For Beginners

Some students are tempted to let their knees and their feet part company when straining during the second step of this pose. But if you keep all your muscles tight and toes sharply pointed from the start, this will be less of a possibility.

Get those arms up and back, hands always on a level with the shoulders. This means for each inch you lift your torso, the hands must lift he same distance.

The Full Locust is a subtle sneak. Remember we mentioned doing Cobra by raising the torso without supporting yourself with hands and arms? Unmask a Full Locust and you will find a snake in the grass.

And what´s this business about raising your legs off the floor till you´re balanced on your belly button? Didn´t we just do that in the Locust, but with hands and arms to help keep us up and balance us? Now we do the same thing without benefit of arm strength, front or back.

There are no shortcuts or easier ways to develop this posture. Mastery takes sweat, strain, and determination. If sacrifices must be made (and as a beginner, the sacrifices are seemingly endless), sacrifice height in the legs in favor of getting the torso and arms arched up, and swept back just  as high as possible. The ultimate will see legs and torso raised equally, but in the beginning stages accept the fact that the legs will lag behind. Just try honestly to get the legs off the floor a speck higher each day.

Other than that - have a GOOD FLIGHT :)

To show you how subtly difficult the Full Locust is, it is the one position where we seldom play games with the 10 seconds. If you are doing honestly, giving it all you´ve got, then seconds is all you can take. But oh! the wonderful things it does to your body.

Benefits

The Full Locust has the same therapeutic value as the Cobra Pose and the same upper body benefits as the Standing Bow Pulling. It also firms abdominal muscles, upper arms, hips, and thighs.

Read more about this poses benefits, pictures, video and tips from HERE

Drawings and info from "Bikram´s Beginning Yoga Class " Book, 1978.