“I am scared to do inversions because I am afraid I’ll fall and hurt myself.”
What do we do when we are babies? When we first learn to balance?
- ✅ crawl ✅
- ✅ Bear crawl ✅
- ❌ Stand ❌ 👉 ✅ Learn to fall ✅ THEN Stand ✅
- ❌ Walk ❌ ✅ Learn to fall with a step ✅ THEN walk ✅
Perhaps an illustration might assist us here in understanding the importance of learning to fall:
You want to start a new business. Do you plan to build it up and hope it goes well? No, you plan down roads of possibility to know what you’d do in those likely circumstances. “What areas is my business ‘falling’?” “If my business grows quickly, what will I do to prevent it from falling?”. Are some examples of line of thought. Of course, this illustration works for those experience in business! The end point being, you must learn to fall before you run!
A True Paradox
We could look at it like we are setting up to fail, however, we are setting up to fall successfully! Yes, what a paradox! To fall successfully. This means taking care of our surroundings to prevent injuries, which is ultimately why we are so afraid of falling! Here are some general tips before falling:
- Pad up. When trying new forms of balance, like inversions, we do well to set up bolsters, pillows, extra yoga mats and move object away from the fall zone. This way, when or if we we do fall, we will not injure ourselves as bad as without pads.
- 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!
- 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.
Handstands: How to fall
Three ways to fall, practice each and find which one feels easiest for you:
- cartwheel out
- roll out
- walk out (must push)
Practice each of these 3-5 times each to discover which one is right for you. Remember, PAD UP! A yoga mat is not enough for these types of activities in our adult, rigid, strong bodies!
Here is a short video from YogaAlliance.com if you’d like to see some of these in action!
Headstands: How to fall
Two ways to fall, practice each and find which one feels easiest for you:
- roll out (tuck your head into your chest / look at your belly button)
- Maybe even practice rock ‘n’ rolls then forward somersaults
- wheel out
- warm up with bridge then wheel to note if you have the mobility to land safely
- If so, note the way to “absorb” the landing of wheel:
- tippy toes touch the ground first
- then, ball of the foot
- then, the heel as the knees begin to slightly bend to “catch” the wheel
- Last tip: keep your head on the ground and continue to press into your hands / elbows
Practice each of these 3-5 times each to discover which one is right for you. Remember, PAD UP! A yoga mat is not enough for these types of activities in our adult, rigid, strong bodies!
Crow: How to fall
Three ways to fall, practice each and find which one feels easiest for you:
- straddle + hand step – keep chin up, look to the front of the room!)
- roll out – propel yourself forward, tuck your chin and do a somersault
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. Think of it like jumping to the top of the ladder versus taking each step up to the top
How We Fall
When we try to orient our bodies in a new angle to gravity, there are new muscles, new joints under pressure, and new thoughts as to how to bail out to prevent injury are all being processed at the same time. Yes, it’s a lot!
Most falls happen when we are not practicing awareness in our next step up the ladder of our goal. When we attempt to skip two steps to go straight to the top of the ladder! As an illustration.
In the world of physics, we fall because we “tipped” over our center of gravity. We passed our muscles ability to pull us back to center. And it is very subtle when we invert! It calls for the utmost awareness and attention.
Why Falling is a Success
When babies fall, they jump back up and joyfully start again! Because it is an exciting task to be able to explore. Similar to when a teenager learns to drive a car, so much more ground to cover ahead! Likewise, when we fall, it is absolutely no reason to dismay. On the contrary, it is time to celebrate! We took action that will take up one step up the ladder to our goal. One new way we know how not to do it. It can only be successful when you do, do, and listen to your body!
Takeaway: How to fall, why we fall, how we fall and why it is truly success!
What’s will next Monday’s blog be about?
