Peacock Pose Mayurasana

How to do the Peacock Pose Mayurasana

1. 1Kneel on the floor and place both hands flat on the ground in front of you, fingers pointing backward toward your knees, with hands shoulder-width apart.
2. 2Bend your elbows and press them together so the inner elbows touch or nearly touch, forming a shelf with your forearms.
3. 3Lean forward and rest your lower abdomen on the back of your upper arms, just above the elbows.
4. 4Extend both legs straight behind you, pressing the tops of your feet into the floor for balance.
5. 5Shift your weight forward over your hands until your feet naturally begin to lift off the ground.
6. 6Engage your core, squeeze your inner thighs together, and fully straighten your legs so your body forms one horizontal line parallel to the floor.
7. 7Fix your gaze at a steady point on the floor slightly ahead of your hands to help maintain balance.
8. 8Hold the position for 5–20 seconds, breathing steadily, then slowly lower your feet back to the floor and release your hands.

Form tips

• Warm up your wrists thoroughly with circles, flexion, and extension stretches before attempting this pose — cold wrists are the most common point of strain.
• Press all four corners of each hand firmly into the floor throughout the hold to distribute weight evenly and reduce wrist stress.
• Squeeze your elbows toward each other actively; letting them splay wide collapses the shelf and makes balancing almost impossible.
• Engage your glutes and inner thighs as if you are pressing your legs together — this helps create the rigid lever your core needs to stay horizontal.
• Practice the forearm shelf and lean without lifting your feet first, until you can feel exactly where your center of gravity needs to be.

Common mistakes

• Placing the hands with fingers pointing forward instead of backward, which misaligns the elbows and prevents them from forming a stable shelf under the abdomen.
• Letting the elbows flare outward, which removes the support point beneath the torso and causes an immediate collapse forward.
• Holding the breath while balancing, which increases tension, destabilizes the core, and shortens how long you can hold the pose.
• Bending the knees or piking the hips upward rather than keeping the body flat, which reduces the load but defeats the purpose of the horizontal hold.
• Attempting the full pose without adequate wrist preparation, risking strain or sprain to the wrist flexors and joint capsule.

Frequently asked questions