Balance & Invert – Part 4: Standing Balancing

Welcome to Part 2 of the Balance & Invert Series!

This series explores four categories of balancing in yoga:

1. ✅hand balancing 🖐✅
2. ✅forearm balancing 💪✅
3. ✅low balancing (like crow 🦅)✅
4. ✅and standing balancing 🌲✅

Part 4 will focus on standing balancing most important mechanics and techniques to get you flying high on the mat!

Top 3 Standing Balancing Poses

The top 3 standing-balancing poses in yoga are:

• half moon. 🌙
• dancer. 💃
• tree. 🌲

General Standing Balancing Tips

The top 3 standing-balancing techniques you can put to use today are:

1. Keep the majority of weight in your heel. Then a little in the toes to let them dancer and catch where you may tilt towards.
2. Continuously grow upward. The only standing pose that I can think of where you want to go down is eagle, but even then, you want to maintain a tall strong spine!
3. Lock your gaze one spot. Balance begins on our eyes, once you find comfort in balancing with your eyes in one place, then branch out and play with the arms or eye placement.

Half Moon

Okay, you have been doing yoga regularly, you have the top 3 tips for standing balancing. Now let’s get into the first posture: half moon.

1. start in warrior II, gaze down 12 inches in front of your front foot
2. gentle push off the back foot to shift weight to the front foot
3. expand all limbs away from the core center, like a firework
4. most of the weight stays in the heel of the standing foot
5. press the shoulders down

QUICK TIP: if you keep falling out of balancing postures, adjust the depth of the posture to be “easier” or sustainable for longer periods of time. This will prevent injuries and build the proper strength to journey deeper into the posture.

Dancer

Let’s dance! Wait what, there’s no dancing in yoga! Ohhh contrar. Yoga, specifically vinyasa yoga, is truly a dancer of fluid moving art of the body synchronized with the breath. And a specific posture, dancer is what we will dive into here:

1. one arm up, other arm grabs inside of back foot with thumb facing up
2. incrementally kick into the back hand with the floating leg
3. incrementally reach forward with the front arm
4. go to your degree, find your challenge point and also where you can sustain composure
5. once you’re forward and back as much as you can then begin to lift upward

Tree

And finally, tree! Here are the basic mechanics behind setting up for a successful tree:

1. use the hand to pull the heel to the inner thigh
2. actively press it into the leg and the leg back into the heel to create a counter side traction
3. tall in the spine, shoulders press down the back
4. lock the gaze one spot until you feel solid in balance
5. choose a challenge route:
   1. play with where the eyes are looking
   2. play with the arms in different positions
   3. bend forward, sideways or backwards
   4. lift on the toe
   5. find a bind

Takeaway: Standing balancing – Half moon, Dancer, and Tree!

What’s will next Monday’s blog be about? Stay tuned.