These 23 Advanced Yoga Poses Take Balance, Strength, and Flexibility to a New Level

Learning how to do a handstand is hard enough — throw an intense backbend in there, and you're challenging your flexibility as well as your hand-balancing skills even more. To approach this pose, you'll need to master your handstands as well as Scorpion Pose on its own.

You're probably familiar with regular Pigeon pose as a relaxing hip-opener that's typically done at the end of a yoga class. King Pigeon, however, looks completely different, requiring tons of back and hip flexibility.

The Iron Cross Headstand is one extreme inversion! This advanced yoga pose is definitely not for everyone, but if you're up for a challenge, you can attempt this pose after you've mastered headstands. Then, practice slowly, walking one hand at a time out to the cross position.

Most people just can't bend that way, and it's totally fine. This deep back-bending yoga pose can be reached by starting in Full Wheel and slowly walking your hands toward your heels, and then up onto your calves. You can also start from standing, if that's more your style.

If you're confident in your Crow pose, this advanced yoga pose is something that you can actually do. You'll need to start in a standing Figure Four stretch, and then lower onto your palms for Crow, per usual, this time balancing your legs slightly differently on your elbows. Engage that core, and you've got this!

Sleeping Yogi may look peaceful, but it requires an intense stretch in both your hips and back. No hard feelings if you'd rather stick to Happy Baby
.

You've likely tried Bow pose at some point, but this advanced variation (where you hold your toes instead of your ankles) encourages and even deeper backbend.

Forearm Stand is a toughie, and bending your knees and resting your feet on your head in Scorpion is even harder, but this creative variation adds yet another layer of challenge.

This headstand and backbend variation is no joke. Work on your headstands and One-Legged Wheel
, then come back to try this advanced yoga pose.

If Wheel pose is no problem for you, try dropping back into it from standing. Get comfortable with this, and Chakra Bandhasana is your next conquest!

This difficult yoga pose looks like a move right out of Cirque du Soleil. This Locust variation is all about spinal flexibility, and it's not for the faint of heart.

Channel the energy in your backbends straight up to the sky in this Lifted Thunderbolt pose, a cross between King Pigeon and standing Thunderbolt.

One part headstand, one part backbend, this pose will test your back flexibility as well as your neck strength and stability.

It looks painful, but Frog pose is actually a great way to stretch out your quads and hip flexors. The good news is that your feet don't need to go quite that far down to score the benefits and feel a satisfying release.

Headstand is a rather advanced yoga move on its own, but folding your legs into Full Lotus while upside down makes it even trickier. You'll need flexible, mobile hips, coordinated feet, and a lot of upper body and core strength.

At first glance, this may look like a simple headstand; however, the simple act of lifting up your hands and "pinching" your shoulder increases the stability and balance challenge even more.

Similar to Headstand Lotus, Handstand Lotus requires you to be so steady balancing on your hands that you can fold your legs into Full Lotus without lifting a finger. Talk about multitasking.

Defying gravity it seems, this arm balance is also an extreme twist. Look closely: You're not balancing your legs on top of your arms, like in Crow pose; instead, your legs are wrapped around your right arm. Wild, right?