Moving From Two Feet To One: Building Balance

Exploring Mountain pose within Tree pose, Airplane pose, and Half Moon pose.

**To get the most out of this post, please click all the links that I reference. There’s a lot of detail that I hope will support your yoga practice and your understanding of these poses in your body.**

When I teach and practice yoga, I love finding connections between the poses. What do different poses have in common in terms of body alignment and muscle engagement? All yoga poses connect to other poses in some way or another. Maybe it’s in how you hold your arms, or how you stand; there are guiding principles in all poses we do.

Mountain pose is a foundational pose that exists in many other poses, but is especially important with 1 legged balance poses. The stability and ease you create in Mountain pose is what you require when only standing on one leg. Balance is easy to lose as you age, and since falling is a huge cause of fractures, the more you practice balance, the less likely you are to fall and injure yourself.

We practice when things are easy so we have access to the skills when things get hard. That’s what yoga is for. What you learn on the mat, you take with you off the mat.

Mountain pose/Tadasana

Mountain pose/Tadasana

I go into some detail about Mountain pose in my previous post “How Yoga and Walking Are a Powerful Pairing” but I feel like it’s a good pose to review.

Mountain pose is not just standing on two feet, it’s a powerful and active pose that creates strength and stability, for yoga and for life.

Start with your feet parallel and hip distance apart (the distance apart of your sit bones, not how wide you think your hips are). Spread your toes, trying to create space in between each of your toes. This takes practice and effort, especially if you are not used to using your feet in this way. However, the more open your feet, the more solid a foundation you’ll have on which to stand.

Bring equal weight to both feet, stacking your head over your shoulders over your hips over your knees over your ankles in a vertical line. Imagine that you were standing against a wall with the back of your body pressed against the wall.

Mountain pose against the wall

When you do that, you’ll feel the quads, glutes, and abdominal muscles engage. You’ll also be more aware of your head over your shoulders, instead of the forward head position that’s so common these days (and the cause of a lot of neck pain).

Feel your shoulder blades moving down your back toward your fingertips. The palms face forward to encourage the opening of the chest (also an anti-slouch practice). Press your feet firmly into the floor while lengthening your spine upward through the top of your head. If you really want to feel your core engage, place a block between your thighs to encourage your inner thigh/pelvic floor/lower abdominal connection.

Experience this pose in your body for 5 breaths before moving on to the other balance poses.

Tree pose/Vrksasana

I have discussed Tree pose a few times in “From Distraction to Clarity: This Pose Might Improve Your Focus,” “How to Meet Yourself Where You Are When You’re Stressed,” and “Practicing Physical Balance Helps with Life Balance.” You can check out these posts to learn more than you ever wanted to about Tree pose and how it can affect your life in a positive way.

I like starting any balance discussion with Tree pose because it is a simple one-legged balance pose that is easily adaptable to people of any level of yoga experience. You take the vertical alignment of Mountain pose and shift to one leg.

Tree pose/Vrksasana

Airplane pose/Dekasana

This is where balance starts to get interesting and challenging to your proprioception. Mountain pose still exists in Airplane pose, but in 2 planes instead of one. Your standing leg is vertical, but your body and other leg are horizontal. Also, your gaze shifts to the floor, rather than to a point in front of you. It can be helpful to lower your gaze first before you move into this pose.

Airplane pose/Dekasana

Start standing in Mountain pose and shift your weight to your right foot. Like a seesaw, tip your pelvis forward while maintaining Mountain pose in your torso and left leg. As your torso tips forward, your left leg lifts behind you. Try to keep your pelvis aiming for the floor; it’s common for the pelvis and left leg to rotate to the left slightly.

Lift up out of your right hip so that the right outer hip moves upward and backward. You don’t want to collapse into your hip joint. Engage your left glutes to help you lift the leg behind you. Activate your left inner thigh to help you aim your left toes for the floor.

You don’t need to move completely horizontal to the floor. If you are just beginning to practice balance, being on a diagonal to the floor instead of flat might feel more stable. Also, if your hamstrings are tight, they may not let you hinge to 90 degrees. As you get more comfortable with this pose, and improve your hamstring mobility, you can move closer to horizontal.

Hold 3-5 breaths (or longer or shorter) then return to Mountain to do the other side.

Half Moon pose/Ardha Chandrasana

This final pose is the most challenging of these balance poses because not only are you horizontal on one leg, but your body rotates open to the side. This pose is basically Triangle pose/Trikonasana but standing on one leg.

I go into a lot of detail on this pose (and it’s connection to Triangle pose) in “Balancing When You Turn Yourself Sideways,” as well as in “Most Standing Poses are Remarkably Related to Each Other.” As I stated earlier, all yoga poses relate to other yoga poses, and when you understand one, you understand many.

Half Moon pose/Ardha Chandrasana

It helps to have a block handy for this pose, especially if you can’t reach the floor. To challenge your balance further, you can do this pose with your hand hovering off the floor. You can also turn your gaze outward or upward to increase the challenge as well.

Here you’ll want to feel Mountain pose in the standing leg as you engage the quad and glutes, as well as in the oppositional movement of the head and raised foot reaching away from each other.

What do you struggle with when it comes to balance? What connections have you made between poses that has helped your understanding of yoga? Are there poses you’d like for me to discuss, balance or otherwise? Let me know in the comments!

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