Yoga and Balance An Overview

by Baxter 

Tree Pose with the Wall

Because our ability to balance changes as we age, and poor balance is at the top of the list of risk factors for an increased chance of falling, it is obvious that maintaining and improving balance is a worthy endeavor! For almost everyone I talk to about their goals as they age, staying independent in function and lifestyle is at the top of their list. Sadly, at the extreme, poor balance often leads to unexpected falls, which can result in devastating fractures and loss of both physical function and being able to live independently. But deteriorating balance can just as easily erode the ability to go about your daily activities with ease and to engage in healthy physical activities. I am sure many of you have friends or family members whose changing ability to balance gradually kept them home bound and had a negative impact on their quality of life. That's why we consider balance as one of the four essential skills of Yoga for Healthy Aging.

Aging Changes to Our Balance System

Before getting into the ways yoga can maintain and improve balance, it is worth reviewing how balance changes as we age, in an honest light. In our post Aging and Balance, Shari Ser, who both a physical therapist and a yoga teacher, said:

“Unfortunately decline in ability to balance is part of ‘normal aging.’ Physiological changes inevitably occur in aging; the composition of the muscle fibers changes from fast twitch to slow twitch, which means our reaction times decline. There are changes in peripheral nerve conduction speeds, and we may either overcompensate or under compensate when our balance is challenged. The smooth modulation of our central nervous system is affected as we age. There are intricate feedback systems between our cerebellum, brain stem, cranial nerves, and basal ganglia that need to be working smoothly for us to easily execute our locomotion and peripheral body through space. 

Our proprioception (the ability to sense where we are in space) also changes as we age as well as our vestibular system (the balance system that is our inner ear). Some hypothesize that this is due to circulatory changes as we age. There are changes in our auditory and visual systems as we age. We get stiffer in our joints and muscles so we loose the full range of motion these joints may have had previously. Cognitive changes occur in our brain also slowing down the in streaming of information. Balance is a reflexive activity, an unconscious response to a change in stimuli, but to improve balance also requires mental concentration.”

How Yoga Helps

In that same post, Shari suggested some ideas on how yoga helps maintain or improve our balance: 

“The maxim “use it or you loose it” is so true with balance! But if we stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) we are integrating every single one of our balance systems. Our eyes orient us to midline and to the horizon, and they tell us where up and down are. Our vestibular system tells us that the surface is stable and there is no spinning or tilting to compensate for. Our proprioceptors in our joints, muscles, and skin send feedback to the resistance of the floor, and our conscious mind sends information to elongate here, relax there, shift to the right/left, etc. Our brain is never quiet in Tadasana, always tweaking a little bit here and there. The act of standing still is a full body isometric activity, and it is work that is making our bodies stronger.” 

We can challenge our bodies even more when we stand on one foot, balance on one foot and a hand, such as with Half Moon pose (Arda Chandrasana), or move through a series of connected postures, as in Sun Salutations, because balance and agility are intimately interconnected. In fact, agility requires balance in motion. As Leslie Kaminoff observes, as we move through our day, it is as if we are almost falling and self-correcting moment by moment, and our balance system is what keeps us upright. 

By engaging in stimulating all aspects of our balance system to work at optimal levels, a regular yoga practice has the potential to influence all of the aging changes Shari outlined above. With yoga, you can:

• Stimulate the pressure receptors and proprioceptors in your feet by working barefoot in balance poses barefoot.
• Stimulate the mechanoreceptors in our joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles above the feet via the various positions in which you place your limbs during yoga asana.
• Improve mental focus by training your minds to return again and again to the balancing task at hand. You notice shifting sensations, the feeling of being on or off balance, when extraneous thoughts take you away from your focus on balance, and so on. Even the pranayama and meditation practices you do can lead to improved mental focus when you find yourself doing balancing poses or walking around the house. 

And yoga can address the sports medicine concept of “controlled instability” News on Balance, Falling, and Yoga) by initially introducing someone new to yoga and previously inactive to the basic yoga poses and dynamic sequences, then adding more challenging poses and practices for the advancing practitioner, and finally, when balance poses are mastered, enabling the practitioner to challenge the edge of stability by creatively modifying poses.

For those that already have balance issues when they start yoga, yoga has great ways of making the exploration of poses for balance safe, and minimizing the chance of becoming fearful. One of the first tools that can help these people is the wall, which they can use by standing close to it, either facing it, standing sideways to it, or having their back to it. 

By simply getting you out of your shoes and socks, yoga helps you wake up the balance and pressure receptors in your feet in general, whether you are ready or not for full balance poses. So even practicing standing poses in general is helpful for beginners. And for more advanced practitioners, yoga helps wake up the balance and pressure receptors in your hands when you practice arm balance poses, such as Side Plank pose (Vasithasana), Crane pose (Bakasana), or Handstand. 

Other factors that affect balance and safety are our individual levels of flexibility, strength, and endurance. And since we know that yoga can improve these factors, their improvement will contribute to improved balance as well.

Our mental attitude towards balance and the risk of falling can also have a huge impact on our success or failure, our progress or lack thereof. The yoga practices of mindfulness without judgment that we try to cultivate can change a habitual negativity around balance, such as “I suck at Tree pose,” to a more neutral mental input, like “I am typically wobbly in Tree, but let’s see what I can do today….”

So, your yoga toolbox provides a number of tools for improving balance, from the physical tips of your toes to the ethereal influence of your thoughts.

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Featured Sequence Challenging Balance Practice

by Baxter

Last May I offered up an Easy Balance Practice for you to play with in your home practice. Since then, I have continued to study the subject of balance and have come across a recurring theme in non-yoga fields, such as sports medicine and biomechanics, which is the importance of variability. It seems that it is very important for maintaining and improving balance to change up the way you do balance activities as a way to keep your brain and body in sync. Changing up the way you do balance activities can come in the form of extending the time you hold a balance pose or in changing your body position a bit from the typical way you might do a pose. I was so intrigued by the concept of variability, I decided to try and invent a new balance pose each week of 2015: so far, 3 new balance poses! I will share those with you in a future post!

However, for today, I’d like to simply take a step forward from Easy Balance Sequence. In this Challenging Balance Practice, I will stick to some tried and true yoga asana, but I will occasionally suggest slight variations that will increase the challenge of the pose. So let’s dive in.

Challenging Balance Practice

1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana) to Arms Overhead Pose (Urdva Hastasana), with heels lifted

Start in Mountain Pose with a block between your thighs, on its narrow or middle width, depending on which one allows your feet to be about hips-distance apart. Squeeze the block with your inner leg muscles and become more aware of the soles of your feet on the floor, getting the right amount of squeeze to bring a sense of evenness to the inner and outer edges of your feet. Maintain the pose for about 16 breaths.

Then, grab a second block and place that between your hands, leaving the first block to use between your thighs. Now, with the first block between your thighs and a second block between your hands, come back into a strong Mountain pose. Then, on an inhalation, take your arms overhead into Arms Overhead pose with the block firmly held between your hands. Now the fun begins. Keeping your weight evenly across the balls of both feet, lift your heels 2-3 inches off the floor and maintain that position while breathing appropriately. Keep your gaze forward and slight ly down, fixing it on something that will not move. See how long you can stay up before you lose your balance, fatigue your legs muscles, or feel too wobbly in your ankles. Then come down, bringing your arms down as well. Repeat one more time, seeing if you can match the amount of time you achieved the first time. Over the course of several weeks, try to hold the pose a bit longer each practice.

2. Tree Pose (Vrksasana)

In the Easy Balance Practice, I had you practice with a wall just behind your back so you could lean back against it if you started to lose your balance. Today, I want you to start working further away from the wall or in the center of the room. When you do come up into the Tree pose, start with your arms out to your sides, as in Warrior 2 pose. Once you get steady there, take your arms directly overhead. See how long you can remain relatively steady before coming down with a sense of control. Repeat on the second side.

To add a challenge, try Tree pose with a block between your hands and take your arms up and overhead. Also, gradually advance the amount of time you spend in the pose as you get better at it.

3. Extended Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana)

In the Easy Balance Practice, I had you do Triangle pose. The standing poses have a definite balancing component to them, even though both feet are on the ground. Today, let’s try a version of the Extended Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsvakonasana) where you are depending on just two limbs, your legs, to keep you balanced, instead of there. For the basic instructions on Extended Side Angle pose, see Featured Pose: Extended Side Angle Pose.

For this practice, instead of bringing your bottom hand to a block or the floor, place your bottom elbow on the top of your front leg thigh near the knee. Press down lightly with that arm into the leg, and let your legs do most of the work keeping you in the pose. See how long you can stay before your muscles begin to fatigue or your balance becomes wobbly and then exit as smoothly as you can. Repeat to the second side, noticing if one side is easy on your balance than the other. Do a short Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) after the second side, maybe 30 seconds, as a counter pose to side angle.  

4. Warrior 3 (Virabradrasana 3)

As a quick review, in our last sequence, I had you working on Warrior 3 at the Wall . To take it to the next step, I’d like you to work towards Warrior 3 away from the wall, starting with arms by yours sides reaching towards your lifted foot.

Once that version gets easy, advance to taking your arms out to your sides.

Finally, you can work toward the full pose, reaching forward with your arms.

Usually each variation becomes a bit more challenging for the balance. For all the details, see (Featured Pose: Warrior 3 ).

After you have tried this pose on each side, take a short Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana) as a nice counter-pose. Then, from the forward bend, bend your knees, drop your hips into a brief squat, and then sit down on your mat.  

5. Full Boat Pose (Navasana)

Start by sitting with your legs extended straight in front of you. Then, as you did in the Easy Balance Sequence, move into Full Boat Pose by quickly cycling through variations 1, 2, and 3 to the place where you are balancing on your lower sacrum and buttocks muscles, your arms are reaching forward and your legs floating with the shins parallel with the floor.

To take it to the next level, begin to straighten your legs, with your big toes lined up in front of or just higher than the level of your eyes.

Maintain the full pose for 6-10 breaths or longer. Then come out of the pose, rest for a moment, and repeat one more time. To challenge yourself, vary the position of your arms, gradually bringing them up overhead as in Warrior 1 pose.

6. Side Plank Pose (Vasisthasana)

We have written a bit about the use of Side Angle Pose recently as it pertains to scoliosis (see Side Plank Pose (Vasithasana) ) So, follow Nina’s fine instructions on getting into Side Plank Plank pose by starting in Downward Facing Dog, swinging forward into High Plank pose, and then shifting into Side Plank pose.

However, for this sequence, instead of lifting or lowering your ribs or hips, make your body one long line from your feet to the crown of your head. Try it initially with your feet one in front of the other, and work towards the more challenging variation where your feet are stacked one on top of the other. Because this requires a lot of upper body strength in addition to balance, initially stay for shorter periods of time, maybe just a few breaths, and gradually work your way to longer holds. Try it on each side twice. 

7. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Take a well-deserved rest in Child’s Pose for up to 2 minutes, and move your fingers and wrists around to release any excess tension there.

8. Relaxation Pose (Savasana)

As you rest in Savasana, ideally for 5 to 10 minutes, pay attention to feeling the more subtle balance of your body lying on the floor, establishing an even balance between your shoulder blades, the back of your pelvis, the backs of your legs and arms, and the back of your head. Notice the areas of the body where you can still feel the residual effects of the poses you worked on today. Finally, let go of whatever judgments around success or failure may have come up with the challenge of balancing poses, and instead let your attention follow the easy movement of your breath for several minutes. 

I hope you enjoy this sequence. Regular practice will help you maintain and improve your balance.

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Friday Q A Glasses and Balance

Q: I always wonder if my vari-lens glasses affect my ability to balance.

A: The answer depends a lot on each individual and how strongly you rely on your eyes for balance and alignment. In general, for new practitioners, keeping your glasses on so you can see what is going on with you and also with the demonstrations you might be using to learn new poses can be essential for your progress. But as many more seasoned practitioners have noted, it is often natural to begin to close your eyes at times as you practice and rely on a more internal sense of awareness and balance for many poses. The obvious exceptions are balancing and arm balancing poses, like Tree and Handstand, but I have found myself on occasion closing my eyes in Headstand and Shoulderstand quite successfully.

The good news is that the eyes are only one of several systems that work together to assist in good balance, and the others can pick up the slack when needed. So I'd probably try periods of practice at home without your glasses, when looking at demos is not an issue. Then try it a bit in class and notice how it goes.

—Baxter


A: I don't know what vari lenses are but I do know what progressives are, as I have been a wearer of them for three years. In progressive lenses, the glass is graduated between far, closer and closest distances. And if you try to look through a part of the lens that isn't made to do that task, your vision is blurred. And if you have a slight astigmatism, this can in turn cause you to overwork certain eye muscles, which leads to head aches/eye aches. I don't understand all the ways new lens are now made, but in my own practice I have found that if I take off my glasses then my balance is more impaired than if I leave them on. However, if I take away all my vision by closing my eyes, it makes me work more with my other balance centers (proprioception, pressure sensation) and it actually improves my balance!

Although we use our eyesight to help us balance, we can indeed improve our balance by removing this or other senses from the equation. And I personally find that if my vision is impaired, it is more stressful for my nervous system because I’m trying to correct something that can’t be corrected. As someone who is extremely myopic, if I can't see clearly, I can't hear as well and I can't mentally focus. But if I close my eyes, my nervous system can focus on strengthening the balance sensors that remain. My other senses are clearer. I hear better because I direct my attention more to my hearing. I feel more, and I direct my breath into improving my sensation and relaxing areas that I might tend to overwork if I am using my eyes.

Like Baxter, I recommend that you experiment with glasses on/off. When practicing with your eyes open, try finding a focal point (something to visually focus on that you can see clearly) and use that to assist in balancing.

—Shari

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Adding Distraction to Your Balance Poses

by Baxter

A Beauty Holding a Ball by Toyohara Chikanobu

My 2015 (healthy) obsession with balance is in full swing, and as a result, lots of folks have been sharing their personal yoga-related balance poses with me. Thanks, everyone! In addition, I get forwarded a lot of articles about balance from Nina and others as they show up in the media these days. Last week, Nina forwarded a New York Times article Training the Mind to Ward Off Falls that really piqued my interest. 

Noting the well-known connection between falls, fractures, and dysfunction and death in the elderly, the article reported on an experiment in balance taking place in Wichita, Kansas with a group of elderly exercisers. Their exercise program, designed by an exercise physiologist who heads Wichita State University’s Center for Physical Activity and Aging, includes a balance section in which the participants stand on 3-inch spongy squares of foam padding to require them to pay more attention to their balance than normal. Then, they add in “cognitive distraction drills,” such as simultaneously dropping a ball from one hand to another while gradually moving the distance between the hands further apart. There are other techniques employed as well. And the reason for this is explained as follows: 

“Incorporating mental exercises into a physical fitness class is based on the idea that so-called cognitive distraction drills can help improve balance — particularly when it’s needed most.”

The theory is that improving a person’s ability to “dual-task”— in this case balancing while attending to other stimuli (the cognitive distractions drills)—can improve overall balance. Since falls often happen when we are inattentive to the environment we are moving through, if you could keep good balance while doing other tasks, like these drills, it might translate into improved underlying balance ability for when you encounter some unexpected situation, such as an uneven sidewalk while your dog is running in front of you or a slippery sidewalk while you're talking on the phone. Their on-site experience in Wichita seems to support this assertion, with their program participants reporting improved balance, but formal studies or identifying which distraction drills work best is still a ways off. 

In some ways, we already do this in many yoga class settings. For example, getting into Tree pose might initially involve lots of close attention to the foundational stuff that is needed to balance well in the pose, such as the work for the bottom foot and leg and the alignment of the torso and spine. But your instructor will often then ask you to move your attention, while still in Tree pose, to some other focus, such the movement of your breath in a certain way, or a particular area of the body that may not be directly related to maintaining balance, or even the addition of sound or chanting work.

The Wichita techniques also blends nicely with the idea of “controlled instability” that I wrote about in my post News on Balance, Falling, and Yoga, where you add variable changes to your balance poses to make them gradually more challenging. Inspired by this new info, this week my Weekly Yoga Balance pose combines the hand-to-hand ball drop with a one-legged standing balance pose (coming soon to the blog). In my classes this week, students have already reported that it was easier to balance after they added the ball drop drill than when we did it simply by balancing on one leg…very interesting! 

I’ll be excited to see any future formal results from the work coming out of Wichita, but in the meantime, try adding some cognitive distraction drills into your yoga balance poses and see how you do. For example, try counting backwards from 100 by subtracting 7 each time: 100, 93, 86, etc., while doing King Dancer (Natarajasana)! 

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Balance Pose of the Week Sky Diver

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Box Jumps And Medicine Ball Box Jumps True Test Of Agility Balance And Focus

By Battle Yourself

Box jumps are well known for their vast requirements in agility centered workouts. Kyle Heier is taking them one step further.

There is quite a lot of training that takes place prior to performing this type of exercise. It is important to always keep safety as a priority in fitness training or training for sports. If you are unsure about the outcome, try and have someone there to spot you while you build your balance.

The last portion of the video, Kyle Heier adds a medicine ball to the top of the stack. This creates obvious risks, but it is the challenge itself which is sought after and craved.

If you are thirsting to take on the challenge, we would urge you to start by making sure you have the proper technique from the ground level. Place a medicine ball at your feet and against a wall. This will allow you to use the wall as support when landing your first jump. Keep your feet close together on the floor in preparations to jump. This will help in keeping them together throughout.

Your hands are an important asset in placement for overall balance. In the video, you can observe Kyle placing his hands out in front of his body, and maintaining that position as best as he can. This allows him to keep his entire body in the proper position throughout the jump by keeping his weight over his feet where it is most required. If the video does not appear below, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Djqtl8sOk

medicine ball box jump

Clearly this is not an easy exercise to perform, and there is no shortage of credit towards simple hard work and dedication. Kyle is often watched while performing this exercise, and is asked almost equally as often about how often he does this kind of exercise. He generally responds, "Not very often, I would have to start counting my blessings more regularly if I did this all the time."

While he would tell people that he does not do this exercise very often, he does admittedly try to incorporate it into his regular routine during his agility and speed training. He loves to try and get people to try it as well to push their boundaries. While the majority would not even think about it, he is overjoyed by the rare person who does.

"I find being able to do what was once thought impossible is a serious confidence booster. This exercise is just one of those things, and you don't have to go far to give it a try."

Those who do indeed take on the challenge often find themselves taking on whatever Kyle can throw at them.

"It's funny because those are the people I love to train with They never back away from a challenge, and that is what pushing yourself to be better is all about."

About the Author:

Kyle Heier is an executive and Author with Battle Yourself. If medicine ball box jumps and training of this nature interests you, check out the BattleYourself website. Subscribe now for their online personal training program and begin your journey with your personalized fitness and training plan.