Arm scales are a physical embodiment of discipline and confidence.
(Photo: Andrew Clark)
Posted on April 21, 2026 at 02:10 pm
Arm balances can be some of the most inspiring and intimidating poses in yoga. Discovering the right mix of balance, engagement, and confidence to shift your center of gravity forward and rely on your arms for balance takes discipline and a heavy dose of confidence.
This category of situations puts your willingness to risk, fail, try again, and fail better to the test. It’s also less about your actual arms than one might expect. Arm scales require you to engage your entire body (even your fingers and toes!) to avoid throwing weight onto your wrists so you can find a fixed point of true balance.
for you Why It also matters here. What is it about arm balancing that makes you want to get to it? Is your reason related to curiosity? completion? selfishness? Or just a natural progression to keep your practice challenging? Knowing what triggers you to take certain forms can help you deal with them consciously and intentionally.
These yoga practices are sequenced on YouTube to take you to arm balance—or to prepare you for that moment, when that time comes.
5 YouTube Yoga Practices for Arm Balancing
Practicing yoga sequences that culminate in arm balance can help you better understand the stretching, strengthening and engagement of the muscles needed to achieve the peak pose.
1. 20-minute side-crow medium flow

Cathy Madeo guides a dependable intermediate yoga flow Wave, Side boardmoving CobraAnd twists and more to prepare the body for Side Crow. Instead of suggesting you sit on an arm balance if you don’t feel like it, this practice offers you a twist Chair position As an alternative. The entire sequence builds exactly the kind of embodied strength one needs to try to quit.
2. 30-Minute Arm Balance Yoga Flow for Firefly

If you’re looking for a more challenging practice than a regular class, this flow from High Desert Yogi is a worthwhile option (and comes with the disclaimer that you can, of course, skip any pose that doesn’t feel right for your body). Malasanafrog pose, Warrior 2and more gives way to the crow’s pose, and in the end, Firefly mode.
3. A 25-minute yoga sequence to get into crow pose

last Crow pose A practice, this time from Yoga with Adriene, who suggests that students who want to get into Crow or variations of the pose need to start by making sure the body is properly warmed up and prepared for strength and stability. She does this with Happy childample vinyasas, wrist stretches, side lunges, and more.
4. 30-minute arm balancing yoga exercise to reach flying cracks

Aviation splits It’s a dramatic-looking pose, but Yoga with Cassandra helps students understand the kind of natural progression between poses necessary to achieve the pose. First, she explained, practitioners will prepare the torso, strengthen the arms, and open the hips to achieve this advanced (but fun!) pose. Even if you can’t quite find your balance the first time, with repetition, you may be able to achieve it.
5. 40-minute arm balancing yoga flow

If you are looking to practice arm balance with all of the above, this exercise is for you. Charlie Follows leads an intermediate to advanced class that takes you through a series of arm-strengthening poses, some serious core engagements, and several arm-balancing poses, including Crow, Flying Splits, and the funky Side Crow variation.



