The Core Of Your Arm Balances
spinal flexion
THE CORE OF YOUR ARM BALANCES
Arm balances may appear to be about what is happening in the hands and shoulders, but some of their most important mechanics are taking shape around the spine. When we explore the core of your arm balances, Matt expands our understanding of the core beyond the front abdominal wall. The obliques wrap around the torso, the transversus abdominis creates a corset like layer, while muscles including the QL and erector spinae contribute from the back body. For spinal flexion, the rectus abdominis, external obliques and psoas are particularly relevant. Rather than simply collapsing forward, Matt encourages us to use these muscles to draw the sternum and pubic bone towards one another while actively doming the spine backward. It is the opposite direction of the bowing action we explore in heart opening practices. In today’s video, we build this relationship to spinal flexion progressively before applying it to two arm balances.
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PRACTICE IT IN PLANK FIRST
Plank becomes our laboratory for establishing the shape before adding the complexity of an arm balance. Matt begins with the fingers gripping the ground and the shoulder blades spreading as we push the floor away. From there, draw the front ribs back, scoop the tailbone and pull the pubic bone towards the navel, creating the deepest Cat Pose shape available to you. The challenge is maintaining that flexion as the legs straighten and the body shifts slightly forward. Matt even invites us to experiment with keeping the neck more neutral while the rest of the spine remains flexed. Through the Chromatic Yoga process, we can isolate an important action in a more accessible posture before increasing the challenge. We are not simply preparing the muscles and joints for what comes next. Repetition begins to establish the neurological coordination that allows this rounded spinal position to become increasingly familiar.
WATCH THE VIDEO
THE CORE OF YOUR ARM BALANCES: ADD THESE STEPS TO INCREASE SPINAL FLEXION
CROW POSE
Now the architecture of Plank has somewhere to go. Matt offers the option of sliding directly into Crow Pose, or Bakasana, while preserving the spinal flexion we have just practised. Lift the heels, grip through the fingers and lean forward while continuing to push strongly through the shoulders. The knees slide wide towards the outer arms as the heels draw towards one another. Once the knees are positioned, squeeze them inward and shift the gaze forward. This is where the core of your arm balances becomes tangible. Instead of trying to manufacture Crow only after the feet leave the floor, we have already rehearsed its essential spinal shape. The rounded back, active abdominals and strong push through the hands have a neurological history from Plank. The posture may be different, but the body recognizes the pattern. This is how thoughtful preparation can make a more complex shape feel less like a leap and more like a progression.
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BHUJAPIDASANA
Bhujapidasana asks us to take spinal flexion into an even more compact relationship with the hips and legs. With the feet positioned slightly ahead of the blocks, Matt bends the knees and rounds the spine, encouraging us to make the body into as small a ball as possible. Blocks can be stacked higher when hip or spinal flexion makes reaching the hands difficult. Lower onto the upper arms, point the feet and look forward before squeezing the legs towards one another. Crossing the ankles is an option, but Matt prefers pressing the feet together because it keeps the inner thighs and hamstrings actively participating. Those engagements also build strength that can transfer into other postures. Again, spinal flexion is not a passive folding of the body. The abdominals actively draw us back into the rounded shape while the legs squeeze inward and the hands establish the foundation beneath us. Multiple actions converge to create the balance.
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BUILD THE PATTERN BEFORE THE POSE
Complexity becomes more approachable when we understand what it is made of. Plank, Crow and Bhujapidasana may look quite different, yet the thread running through them is the intentional creation and maintenance of spinal flexion. Matt’s approach gives us an opportunity to practise that thread before asking the body to manage everything at once. We learn to dome the spine rather than simply drop forward, coordinate the abdominal muscles with the pelvis and ribs, and then retain those actions as more variables are introduced. This is one of the valuable principles within the Chromatic Yoga process: a skill can be explored, repeated and progressively layered until the nervous system has a clearer map of where we are going. The core of your arm balances, then, is not simply about becoming stronger. It is about creating coordination between strength, shape and awareness so the mechanics we practise can ultimately become the mechanics we trust.
Continue building your understanding of biomechanics, intentional movement, and progressive sequencing with Matt’s Chromatic Yoga Training, October 8th to 10th, 2026.
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Article by Trish Curling
Video Extracted From: Anatomy Of Arm Balances Immersion
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