How to improve your balance

A yoga student told me how happy she was when she walked her dog and her grandson was riding on scooter. Then her grandson decided to walk the dog and she had to ride on his scooter. I am glad she is able to manage it and thanks to her for sharing this funny story.  
 
Balance exercise is one of the four types of exercises along with strength, endurance and flexibility. If we don’t use it, we lose it. Yoga helps improve balance and it’s quite fun to do balance poses. With good balance, we are able to maintain the capacity to do things we enjoy. It also prevents falls and avoids severe injuries. Falling over can cause disability or death.
 
Balance is all about falling the center of gravity within the base of support. When we come into all fours, we increase the surface of support. Our body weight is more likely to equally distribute between hands, knees and toes. When we stand on the feet or one foot (walking), surface of support is smaller. However, when we learn how to shift body weight (center of gravity) to the base of support, we can balance with one foot, two hands, or even one hand and hold for a few seconds. Stability is enhanced by center of gravity, which means body weight is equally balanced and distributed in all directions.
 
The base of support
Examine your feet if there are any inversion (turning sole of the feet inward) or eversion (turning sole of the feet outward). Do you lift a few of your toes up when you stand on the ground? Feet being so far away from central nervous system require you to bring awareness to your toes to connect to the earth. The first step to balance is to equally distribute body weight to four corners of the feet. Press the toes down. This is to increase the surface for balance. The more surface we get, the more balance we have.
 
The center of gravity
The center of gravity of our body depends on different body movements. When we stand on the right leg, we need to shift the body weight to the right. Strong abdominal muscles help falls the center of gravity within the base of support (right foot).

Tree pose
For example, in tree pose, stand on right leg, shift body weight to the right side so center of gravity falls to the surface of right foot. Press down right foot, crown of the head reaches towards the ceiling. Hug everything in, press left foot firmly against the right thigh. Do it slowly.

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Half Moon pose

​Half moon pose
How about half moon pose? It’s one leg on the ground and torso is held horizontally. We still need to find the center of gravity and how it falls to one leg. In this case, When standing on right leg, we need to rotate the left hip. Opening up the left side of the body allows the center of gravity falls within the right hip, right leg and right foot.

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In some cases, we are worried about falling over rather than poor balance. You may find it easier to balance next to the wall even you are not actually touching the wall. Practicing balance pose also helps us learn how to manage fear and stay focused. Both yoga for grownups and chair yoga for seniors involve balance poses in each class.
 
 Do you have good balance? Is balance exercise in your regular workout routine? If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.
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