[wrdfrog]

Does anyone know some good yoga poses to build strength in the arms, shoulders, and upper back? I'm trying to work my way up to doing hand stands and some inverted poses. I've already noticed some gains in strength from my regular routine, but I'd like to add some new poses if possible.

Does anyone know any good sites to research or have any good advice? :3 Thanks!

[nelie]

about.com has some good information
http://yoga.about.com/b/2008/03/12/y...r-strength.htm

[wrdfrog]

Thank you!

[JulieJ08]

So far I've mostly been building upper body strength with Downward Dog and Plank and Upward Facing Plank, plus the pushups in 8 Sun Salutations. A few weeks ago or so, during the pushup in the Suns, I started lowering to just above the ground and taking an extra breath there before lowering all the way, and that has made a difference. I need to give handstands (with a wall!) a try too . I've been doing Shoulderstands but not Headstands. I may have to learn Crow/Crane too - it used to be completely impossible, but last week I sort of tried to see if it was still that bad - and it isn't (not that I can actually do it; it just seems maybe possibly learnable now).

[wrdfrog]

Hey Julie, thanks for the advice! I discovered yoga and how much I love it this past year. I stopped for a few months, but now I've become dedicated to it all over again.

I think I will up the number of sun salutations I do. 8 is a lot! You must be very good. Also, the pause sounds like a very good idea. I haven't even started to do shoulder stands yet, but I've noticed I can stay in the poses I am doing much longer and I'm very stable, so I wanted to add new poses so I can keep pushing myself.

Before I started doing yoga, I'd never been able to do a regular push up, but after four weeks of doing it every day, I tried one and it worked! I was so excited, I started to think about adding new poses and trying new things. I really want to learn to do the crow/crane pose as well. It looks like so much fun. One day!

[angeline]

another site to check out:

www.yogajournal.com

lots and lots and lots of info there.

[wrdfrog]

Hey thanks! That's a really great website!