What a Year of Balance Poses Taught Me

by Baxter

Vincent, Age 51, photographed by Sara Bennett

If you have been reading our blog during 2015 or following either our Yoga for Healthy Aging or my Baxter Bell Yoga Facebook pages, you know that since the beginning of the year, I have been introducing a new balance pose every week to my students in Oakland and around the country. (You can find videos of all my balance poses of the week on my YouTube channel Baxter Bell Yoga.)

I was motivated to do this after reading studies that showed the benefit of improved balance on reducing the risks of falling (see The Importance of Preventing Falls), which can be a devastating turn of events for some. Some of the new poses I made up were either closely or loosely aligned with existing yoga poses (for example, my Cypress pose was a variation of Vrksasana or Tree pose) and others were more of a stretch (Pirate’s pose 2.0, for instance!). And each week I was involved in the creative process of coming up with a new balance pose, no small feat for someone not accustomed to such endeavors. (Special thanks to those out there who shared with me their balance creations, such as 4 Corners, which took the pressure off for a week now and then). I personally discovered this process was both daunting and delightful, but more importantly I found my students were open to trying out my new inventions, even renaming them on occasion!

Through my personal studies on balance, I rediscovered the complexity of balance, which integrates many levels of the mind, both conscious and reflexive, with input from skin, joints, muscles, fascia, eyes, and ears. And in looking into recent research on balance, I discovered that a variety of scientists—from gerontologists doing research on improving balance in their vulnerable patients to sports medicine academies looking to improve athletic performance and reduce sports injuries—were looking for new ways of improving balance. From these fields of study I found several core concepts that I began to integrate into my classes and teaching, such as that of challenging or stressing a person’s limits of stability (the area outside of his or her base of support he or she can go without losing control of the center of gravity) via “controlled instability” and “cognitive distracting drills” (see The Great Balance Pose of the Week and Adding Distraction to Your Balance Poses). I found the following guidelines particularly relevant for yoga practice:

1. Moving from simple to complex (for example, doing Tree pose and Warrior 3 independently, then creating a dynamic sequence combining them (see Tree-to-3)
2. Progressing from known to unknown (for example, practicing Tree pose and then introducing Cypress pose)
3. Progressing from static to dynamic (for example, practicing static Eagle pose and then Dynamic Eagle pose) 
4. Progressing from stable to unstable (for example, Packin' the Trailer with a foot on the ground to standing on a block)
5. Progressing from eyes open to eyes closed (applicable for classic yoga balance poses, such as Half Moon pose, or any of my new poses)
6. Emphasizing quality over quantity (practicing a single pose mindfully rather than moving quickly through several poses)

By returning to the topic of balance each week in many diverse settings, I also came to discover that by and large the goal of improving balance was universally embraced by people of all ages. And many of my students reported practicing the new balance poses on their own and noted personal gains in better balance over this past year. And because of the tendency of many students to be highly self-critical and judge themselves as “bad” balancers, I made it my mission to remind them all that it is not about perfecting any one new balance pose, but that the mere engagement in trying the poses has positive benefits on long-term balance.

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More

Friday Q&A: Balance Poses for Larger Practitioners and Those with Knee Problems

From the Yoga for the Larger Woman Calendar

Q: I would like to know what are the implications of the balance poses for people who are overweight or are beginning to develop knee-related problems. What precautions would you advise while doing such poses?

A: This is a great question! Let me start by addressing the issue of larger practitioners learning balance poses. For larger yogis, the same basic principle for balance poses applies as it does for average-weight practitioners: by practicing balance poses regularly, especially trying out slightly different and more challenging balancing poses, you are more likely to maintain or improve your overall balance, and by extension, reduce you chances falling. According to some recent studies, reducing your chances of falling turns out to be more important in lowering the incidence of negatively life-altering fractures (like hip fractures) than treating osteoporosis with medications. Regardless of size, everyone benefits from working on balance poses, so in general I don’t advise any special precautions for larger practitioners who don’t have knee problems.

If the larger practitioner or anyone new to balance poses feels vulnerable or unstable, position yourself near a wall, either facing the wall or with your back to the wall so that you can easily bring your hands to the wall if you feel like you are losing your balance. This can reduce the anxiety or fear of falling and allow you to start to practice balance poses more safely. 

For people who are beginning to develop knee-related problems, which are more frequent in larger people, some common sense guidelines can be helpful.

(“Knee-related problems is a pretty general term, and in my mind could include painful conditions, as well as biomechanical changes to function, and it is beyond the scope of this post to illuminate the long list of possibilities. However, arthritis is the most common cause of knee-related dysfunction and pain, and our post Arthritis of the Knee and Yoga) can give you an idea of how to use yoga to affect improvement, although not directly related to balance.)

Here are my guidelines for keeping people with knee problems safe in balance poses:

1. Notice if knee pain or instability are related to the knee joint being fully straight or partially bent. If the knee problems only occur when there is a slight bend to the knee, for example, work on balancing poses that involve straight knees first until you find out from your doctor what the underlying cause of the knee issues are.

2. If muscular weakness around your knees seems to be contributing to your knee problems, work on yoga poses that help to strengthen the various groups of muscles that keep the knee joint stable. To strengthen the inner thigh muscles, practice Mountain pose with a block between your mid-thighs, squeezing the block to activate and strengthen the adductors groups. To strengthen your hamstrings, practice poses where you lift one leg up behind you, such as Locust pose, Hunting Dog pose, and Downward-Facing Dog with one leg lifted. For your front thigh area and the quads and their helpers, reclining supine (on your back) straight leg lifts are a simple, stable way to improve the strength of the knee extending muscles. For your outer thigh muscles, side-lying straight leg lifts are great to firm up the gluteus muscles and the tensor fascia latae muscles.

3. Most importantly, if it hurts, don’t do it! There are plenty of traditional yoga balancing poses to play with, and by the end of 2015, I hope there are at least 52 new ones (see Balance Pose of the Week). So find a few you can play with safely as a starting place for your balance work. 

—Baxter

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More

Balance Pose of the Week: Jungle Vines

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More

Balance Pose of the Week: The Heisman

Subscribe to Yoga for Healthy Aging by Email ° Follow Yoga for Healthy Aging on Facebook ° Join this site with Google Friend Connect

Read More