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.

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New Videos from Baxter on YogaUOnline's YouTube Channel

by Nina

Just a quick announcement today that Yoga U Online is featuring our own Baxter Bell, among others, on their YouTube channel. Unlike some of the Yoga U practice videos, these YouTube videos are free. Here, for example, is a 20-minute tutorial on Triangle pose (Trikonasana), including challenges and cautions.



Baxter also has some shorter videos there with tricks and tips, such as this one about how to safely transition from Downward-Facing Dog to High Lunge pose in your Sun Salutations.



Their channel also includes free videos from some of Yoga U Online's other favorite teachers, including this one from Shelley Prosko, who is one of our guest writers!



If you want to see more, check out the YogaUOnline YouTube station.

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Reclined Cobbler's Pose: The Video!

When we first envisioned this blog, we had the idea we could include videos that demonstrated the yoga poses we were recommending. But first we had to buy the camera and learn how to use it, clear out a room where we could shoot the video, figure out how to use youtube, and, well, you get the picture. In the meantime, we decided to go ahead and start the blog without the videos, but we never gave up on our original vision.

So now at long last, we've made our first video, which you can view here. It's Baxter demonstrating how to set up for, practice, and come out of Reclined Cobbler's pose (see here for further information about the pose, including benefits and cautions). We hope you find it helpful! And since it turned out to be easier to make a video than we expected, we plan to make more in the future. If there any poses or practices you'd like us to demo, do let us know either in the Comments section of this post or by contacting us (Click the Contact Us at the top of the page).

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