17 of the Most Impressive Yoga Poses on Instagram

Even if you can't bend yourself into a pretzel or defy gravity with masterful inversions (yet), admiring the craziest yoga poses on Instagram can be totally mesmerizing—not to mention, inspiring. After all, the most jaw-dropping poses around involve more than just flexibility, balance, and strength. They require confidence, trust, and practice, practice, practice.

Whether you're just mastering the art of Savasana or you're trying to take your Vinyasa flow to the next level, these 17 poses from some of the most impressive yogis on Instagram pretty much demand to be ogled over. Claire Ewing, instructor and studio marketing manager at CorePower Yoga, breaks them down—and if you're ready for it, shares how to work toward mastering some of them yourself. (A quick disclaimer: This is obvious just from looking at them, but all of these are advanced yoga poses. If you want to try them, know your limits, start slowly, and enlist a trained yoga instructor for help you with the progressions. Never force your body into a position that causes pain.)

This pose requires seriously flexible hamstrings (back of thighs) and glutes (butt muscles), says Ewing. (If you're tight in those areas, try foam rolling first.) Opening your arms to the side also means the the lower part of your core needs to work harder to keep you stable.

This super-bendy pose requires major flexibility. "The body is being opened in two different directions—a strong opening through the inner thighs and hip flexors, and then a big opening through the back quad," says Ewing. The key? Don't forget to breathe.

Lotus pose gets flipped on its head here, literally. "This posture defines yoga—the ability to find strength and stability to nail a headstand, but also softening and opening to melt the lower half of your body into Lotus," says Ewing. Open hips and a strong core are a must.

"Inversions, which are postures with your head below your heart, require extreme balance and focus," says Ewing. When you're extending your legs in opposite directions like yogi Jessamyn Stanley, find a focal point to help you balance them out (think of it like a seesaw, she says).

The arm balance in this pose requires strength throughout the side of your body, and lifting one leg overhead stretches that hamstring and iliotibial (IT) band (the band of fibrous tissue on the outside of the thighs), says Ewing. "I like this pose because it's humbling—the combination of strength and flexibility keeps me on my A-game," yoga instructor Kylan Fischer, who's demonstrating the pose here, tells SELF. "When I add the extra challenge of lifting my gaze to the sky, it brings this pose to a whole new level." (Her dog is working on it here, too.)

Handstands on their own require a ton of total-body strength, especially from your shoulders, core, and legs. A Scorpion variation ups the ante by bringing both feet into a backbend position above your head. To get there, you need to find your center of balance in the handstand and then hang onto that center of gravity as you bend back, says Ewing. To try this variation yourself, Ewing recommends starting on your forearms—it'll provide a sturdier base while you practice.

Eagle legs (and Eagle arms) are a mainstay in many yoga classes, but on your hands? Not so much. "The bind of the Eagle legs requires lots of core strength and the ability to draw everything into the midline of your body while standing on your hands," says Ewing. If you've got a headstand down, you can start practicing the leg bind from there, she adds.

Fallen Angel is a variation of Side Crow, which is pretty challenging in its own right. If you've got that pose down, this requires an added element of core and leg strength to lift one leg to the sky—not to mention, it takes trust in yourself to lightly rest the side of your head on the ground and use your arms for balance, says Ewing.

This pose also uses Side Crow as a foundation, with an incredible bind of the top leg behind the head. "Open glutes and hamstrings and a strong steady focus allows this posture to be mastered over time," says Ewing.

This is a multi-step pose: Wheel on its own is an intense backbend, and lowering down to your forearms forces you to open up through your shoulders and triceps. Finally, bringing one leg to the sky requires core and leg strength, says Ewing. (It's harder than it looks to get it straight up, too.) It's important to breathe through every separate piece of the movement to get you to your final destination, says Ewing.

If this made you think, "Whoa," Ewing is with you. "True core strength is required to pull into center and then twist the lower half of the body. Incredible!" she says. "This variation requires slow, controlled movement—any time you're balancing on your head, it's important to move carefully being mindful to protect the neck," Robin Martin, the yoga instructor showing off her skills here, tells SELF. The extended arms challenge your balance even more.

While this pose does take upper body strength and balance to master, it's also a mental test. You have to be confident in driving your hips back, says Ewing. "Get playful! This posture is one that requires a lot of trust and also curiosity."

Just like the handstand variation with Eagle legs, it requires skill and core strength to stay upright here. "There is a slight backbend in this variation, which really tests the ultimate strength of your lower core," says Ewing.

This is a balance and a flexibility test for yogis, says Ewing, especially when you're hanging onto one foot. "To up the challenge level, your inner thighs and quads need to be open to bend the knee and find the grip on the lifted foot," says Ewing.

This is a pretty impressive pose, says Ewing. Extending the arms requires upper body strength that doesn't mess around, and your lower body has to be flexible and open to fold your legs over into Lotus. Note: A strong and healthy neck and spine are prerequisites for this pose, says Ewing.

A strong back is essential in this pose—not just to get you up, but to hold you there, too. "Maintaining strength in the upper back allows you to melt your heart forward and dive into the backbend," says Ewing. If you're working on this pose yourself, start on your hands and use the wall to get comfortable before you go into the forearm variation.

This pose requires open hips and a stable base to bend your back leg up toward your head, and the low lunge adds another element of difficulty. "This posture marries the flexibility of the back half of the body and the sturdiness of the front leg to keep everything pulled into the midline of the body," says Ewing. It might be the closest thing there is to being an actual mermaid.

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