- Category
- Arm balances
- Level
- advanced
- Hold
- 1–5 breaths
- Type
- Asana
- Breath
- Exhale as you lift and straighten the legs; keep the breath smooth so the effort stays honest.
Firefly Pose
Tittibhasana — "firefly (small insect) posture"
Legs stretched straight past your upper arms, hips floating behind your hands. It looks like an arm-strength trick but it's mostly open hamstrings and a strong core — if forward folds are still a work in progress, this will be too, and that's fine.
Step by step
- 1Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips and fold forward with bent knees.
- 2Work your shoulders behind your knees one at a time, walking your hands back behind your heels.
- 3Place your palms flat behind your feet, fingers pointing forward, and bend your knees deeply.
- 4Sit your hips back and down onto the shelf of your upper arms, as if lowering into a low seat.
- 5Shift your weight back into your hands until your feet get light, then lift them off the floor.
- 6Slowly straighten your legs forward, flex your feet, and press through your inner heels.
- 7Lift your chest, look forward, and keep pressing the floor away.
Benefits
- ✓ Deeply stretches the hamstrings and inner thighs
- ✓ Strengthens the arms, wrists, and core
- ✓ Improves hip flexibility and compression strength
- ✓ Trains balance with the weight far behind the hands
Make it yours
- · Sit your hips on a block behind your hands and practice straightening one leg at a time
- · Keep the knees bent in the balance rather than forcing the legs straight
- · Practice the shape on your back first: legs behind arms, no weight-bearing
Take care
- Take care with wrist injuries or carpal tunnel symptoms
- Approach cautiously with hamstring strains or lower-back issues — the deep fold plus load is demanding
This is general practice guidance, not medical advice. If something hurts, ease out of it.
Props that help here
- Liforme Original — The grippiest mat we've used, with alignment markers that genuinely help beginners place hands and feet. Priciest of the three. find one
- Wrist wedge — Reduces the wrist angle in plank, chaturanga, and arm balances. Worth trying before concluding your wrists can't do this. find one
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