Are there any exercise more brutal than the horse stance?

@sunshineblue There’s a lot of yoga poses far harder. Horse is a rest pose in some of my classes.

Hell, there’s much harder poses than crane.

Hurdler and flying lizard are harder for me.

I find crane a little tricky just cause of the proportions of my body and how my knees press into my triceps/armpit, but crow, a very similar pose, I find easy to drop in and out of.

I’ve been working on another very similar pose, flying frog, which I like because having the feet out makes the balance of shifting side to side while in the pose a lot more manageable, and that will shred the back
 
@graced1257 LOL I had a coach that made us do these while holding dumbbells cause he had no mercy, but obviously he forgot the name of the exercise because he told us he invented it and we came up with a name on the spot:

"Squatty Leggy on Your Toesies"

-> My Idea
 
@graced1257 With all due respect, horse stance is not hard at all at my bodyweight.

Muscle ups, full planch, iron cross, flags, kip up, hannibal pull ups and pretty much everything that hannibal did/does.
 
@graced1257 I think the Horse Stance is a common stance in martial arts. I used to do it during Taekwondo practice when I was a teen. If kids and teens can endure the pain and achieve perfect form, anyone can do it.
 
@graced1257 I'm familiar with Horse Stance from my time taking Tai Chi and Kung Fu. The only thing I can think of that was along this same line that may have been a bit harder on the leg was a low, long-held cat stance. My Sifu had a habit of saying "Go lower, stay longer." It really adds up in both Horse and Cat stances.
 
@graced1257 Try a side high-plank; when you are in position, bend your top/stacked leg at the knee, getting your heel as close to your bum as possible, while reaching with your free hand to grab the ankle of your now-bent leg. Bonus points of you can divert your gaze from your supporting hand to the ceiling/sky.

Have fun, be safe! In my experience your body is your best teacher, so if it’s telling you that the pose is not for you, listen.
 
@graced1257 Depending on how/where you learned kung fu, you could expect to sit in horse stances for a very long time just to prove your dedication to the art. I experienced this as a kid and it was certainly character building.
 
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