5 Tricky Yoga Poses You Can Try to Challenge Yourself

Do you consider yourself to be an advanced yoga practitioner? Are you getting bored with your current yoga practice? Continue reading to challenge yourself with these tricky yoga poses.

Advancing in Yoga

It is inevitable in any hobby or sport you practice that you reach a plateau. If you have years of experience under your belt with yoga practice, you may be looking for ways to beat that plateau. It’s now time for you to explore more difficult yoga postures to test your strength, flexibility, and endurance. 

However, it is crucial to try these tricky yoga poses preferably with the guidance of a skilled yoga instructor, who has undergone a rigorous YTT. Confidence and belief in yourself in these advanced yoga poses are great! But it is also vital that you are safe. You won’t be able to keep practicing difficult yoga poses if you’re injured, right?

With all of that in mind, you are ready. Now, prepare your core strength, your upper body strength, your back muscles, and more with the following 5 tricky yoga poses you can try to challenge yourself.

5 Tricky Yoga Poses You Can Try to Challenge Yourself

Not all yoga poses were made equal. Some are more difficult than others. But practicing yoga is worth the effort with all the good health benefits it provides. In fact, you probably already feel these benefits if you’ve been doing yoga for a while now.

If you’ve already mastered the basics of yoga, then it’s time to improve yourself further.

In this article, we have listed 5 advanced yoga poses for you to try to challenge yourself. 

1) Eka Hasta Vrksasanav

Eka Hasta Vrksasanav, also known as the one-handed tree pose, is considered to be one of the most difficult yoga poses even for advanced yoga practitioners. In the one-handed tree pose, the first step is to do a handstand pose. You then follow this by slowly spreading your legs. Lastly, you slowly lift one of your hands off the mat while maintaining your balance and your breathing. 

This difficult yoga pose is a great test of your advanced arm balance and upper body strength. If you’re finding it a tad too difficult, you may begin this position while leaning against a wall at first.

Remind yourself that it’s okay to need support, especially with one of the most challenging yoga poses. The one-handed tree pose requires a great amount of strength and balance. Be patient and you’ll achieve this inverted posture. 

2) Bhairavasana

The Bhairavasana, also known as the Destroyer of the Universe, is as intimidating as the name suggests. This advanced yoga pose tests your hip flexors, your balance, and your strength. This pose requires a good amount of mental focus and extreme flexibility. 

You begin the Bhairavasana in a plank pose. Coming from a one-arm plank pose with both feet on the yoga mat, you slowly place one leg or the lower leg behind your head while keeping the other leg straight. Now, from that position, you slowly lift your free arm. It can be your left arm or your right arm, whichever is more comfortable for you is fine. You also face the sky along with the arm you lifted. 

As a beginner to one of the hardest yoga poses, a tip would be to start by putting one leg, either your left leg or your right leg behind your head already. Then you simply turn into a side plank pose. This advanced yoga posture targets your hip flexors and hamstrings while improving your arm balance and your core strength.

3) Ganda Bherundasana

The Ganda Bherundasana, also known as the chin stand or the Formidable Face Pose, is an advanced yoga pose where you are inversed. This difficult yoga pose requires incredible arm balance and a back bend. So, get your back muscles ready for this one.

You begin this challenging yoga pose in a plank pose. Next, you lower your chest and your chin down to the yoga mat. Remember to keep your hips raised while doing this. After this, engage your abdominal muscles while slowly lifting one leg up to the sky. Lift the other leg and rest your entire body on your hands and your chin. 

Be very careful with this challenging yoga posture because you can fall and hurt yourself. But if you pull it off, your upper body strength and your core strength will thank you. Just keep in mind to keep your balance and your body aligned to prevent yourself from toppling over.

4) Astavakrasana

In Astavakrasana or the Eight-Angle Pose can twist your body like a pretzel. It’s one of the most difficult yoga poses because it engages your body from head to toe, especially in your upper arms and your inner thighs. 

To begin the Eight-Angle Pose, you start seated with your legs in front of you and your hands on the mat. Wrap your right shoulder with your right knee, then place your left leg in front of your right hand. Keep your ankles together by hooking them together. Next, lean forward while lifting your hips and squeezing your inner thighs. Stretch your legs and repeat on the other side.

This yoga pose requires a lot of balance and upper arm strength. It targets your inner thighs and upper arms. Once you’ve mastered this difficult pose, you can take it up a notch by using yoga blocks to balance on. But if you’re having a hard time, you can keep your upper body upright instead of leaning forward while in this pose.

5) Sirsasana li Padmasana

The Sirsasana li Padmasana or the Tripod Headstand with Lotus Legs is quite a challenging yoga pose. The first thing you need to do is a headstand. Then, slowly lift both legs up into the air. Next, put your legs into the lotus pose.

You do the lotus pose by putting your right foot on top of your left thigh and your left foot on top of your right thigh. You keep this headstand and lotus pose for 8 minutes while maintaining your balance.

This yoga pose can be quite difficult, so be careful not to fall over. The Tripod Headstand with Lotus Legs focuses on strengthening your arms, legs, and your back muscles. There are many different poses that can help you prepare for this advanced yoga pose namely the dolphin pose and the crow pose.

Final Words

Try these challenging yoga poses out and see if your strength, flexibility, and focus can handle them. Challenge yourself by doing variations or utilizing other yoga poses like the dolphin pose and crow pose. However, if you find yourself needing a little more help and guidance, check out our best yoga studio in Singapore.

Don’t forget to do your warm-ups to avoid injury. Listen to what your body needs and don’t force perfection immediately. Always remember to keep safety in mind and to be patient in your yoga practice. Slowly but surely, you’ll be a master yogi in no time.