How Yoga Improves Your Balance
Poor balance increases your risk for falls, affects your athletic performance, and can even alter your posture. Yoga offers the ideal way to improve your balance while boosting strength and flexibility.
How's Your Balance?
Unless they're severe, balance issues may not be noticeable until you unexpectedly wobble or fall. Some people naturally have good balance. The rest of us aren't so lucky. Without continual practice, your balancing ability could decline, even though you may not be aware of the problem.
A simple test can help you assess your balancing skills. The only equipment you'll need for the test is a stopwatch or your smartphone's stopwatch app. You'll begin the test by standing with both feet firmly on the floor. Lift one foot several inches above the floor and count how long you can keep your balance. Stand near a wall or another sturdy object in case you lose your balance and need support during the test.
Ideally, you'll be able to stay balanced for at least 30 seconds or longer. Losing your balance or wobbling during the test is a sign that your balance needs work. Poor balance is a problem at any age. Without good balance, it's difficult to steady yourself if you start to slip on ice or walk over uneven surfaces without stumbling.
Muscle and bone mass naturally shrinks with aging, which makes it harder to stay balanced. Unfortunately, a slip and fall that seems minor can result in broken bones when you 're older, particularly if you have osteoporosis. The condition causes bone loss and makes the bones brittle.
Enhancing Balance with Yoga
With its focus on strong, flexible muscles, yoga is the ideal way to improve your balance. Yoga helps you improve your balance by:
- Improving Core Strength. The hips, pelvis, abdomen and lower back make up your core. Muscles in your core support and stabilize your body and are essential for balance. Yoga poses like the chair, boat, dolphin, tree, and plank help stabilize and strengthen your core.
- Strengthening Stabilizing Muscles. Stabilizers are small muscles that keep the joints and larger muscles stable as they move. Do your legs quiver when you try to do a plank? Improving the strength of your stabilizer muscles with yoga makes performing poses easier and enhances balance. Try the boat, bird dog, pyramid, and single-leg mountain pose to strengthen your stabilizers.
- Enhancing Proprioception. Yoga improves proprioception, your ability to correctly determine the position of your body and how it occupies the space around it. Without this crucial skill, you may make a miscalculation when running to catch the bus or reaching overhead for a foul ball. Even slight miscalculations could affect your balance and increase your risk for injuries. These yoga poses improve proprioception: tree, camel, lion, star, and bird dog.
- Speeding Reaction Time. Thanks to your strong muscles and improved proprioception skills, you'll be able to quickly make adjustments to your balance if you stumble. Practicing yoga several times a week will help you boost your reaction time.
- Correcting Posture Issues. Poor posture causes issues ranging from back pain to headaches to breathing or balance problems. Posture issues may increase your risk of muscle strains and sprains. As you improve your balance with yoga, you'll strengthen the muscles you need to maintain good posture. Downward-facing dog, cat-cow, and tiger poses will help you improve your posture.
Yoga offers a proven way to improve balance. According to a research study from Temple University's Gait Study, Iyengar yoga improved balance and stability in elderly women. After completing the yoga programs, the women were more confident about walking and balance, walked faster, and had increased leg flexibility.
Improving Balance with the Chair Pose
Want to strengthen your core and improve your balance? Try the chair pose. Start the pose in a standing position with your feet hip-width apart. Move your arms backward as you breathe in. When you breathe out, pretend you're lowering yourself into an imaginary chair. Keep your back straight as you hold the pose. You may want to practice the pose in front of a chair or couch, as you may lose your balance easily at first. With practice, you'll soon be able to maintain the pose.
Is poor balance a problem for you? Yoga classes offer a fun way to strengthen your body and improve your balance. Contact our studio for enrollment information.
Sources:
Temple University: Basic Yoga Poses Prevent Falls in Elderly Women According to Research by Gait Study Center, 4/4/2008
Yoga Journal: 15 Poses Proven to Build Better Balance, 4/10/2023
https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences/fall-yoga-15-poses-proven-build-better-balance/
U.S. News & World Report: 7 Best Yoga Poses for Strength Training, 7/24/2022
https://health.usnews.com/wellness/fitness/articles/yoga-poses-for-strength-training
Harvard Health Publishing: 3 Surprising Risks of Poor Posture, 7/20/2023
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/3-surprising-risks-of-poor-posture
WebMD: What is Proprioception?, 3/7/2024