Yoga has many benefits, one of which is improving balance and posture. With good posture, we are better able to balance, reducing our risk of falls. Falls can be debilitating at anytime, but particularly as we get older, when injuries are slower to heal and likely to have more of a profound impact on our mobility.
The development of our posture during childhood follows us into later life. Poor posture left unchecked, can lead to issues in later life, such as knee and back problems. Hours spent at a desk can impact our posture and negatively affect our centre of balance. The good news is by practicing a simple yoga postures we can improve our balance.
 | To assess our posture we can take a look at our shoes! By looking at the sole of the shoe we can see how our weight is distributed. With good alignment our shoes will be worn centrally and to the outside of the heal as in this picture on the left |
Poor posture can be observed when our shoes are worn down either more to the right or left.
Learning where our centre of balance lies helps us to be more stable when we walk and run. Yoga balances to achieve this can be practiced standing or sitting, or with one hand supporting us. Here is a simple balance to help with posture and alignment.
Stand straight with the arms resting by your sides. Take the feet apart ensuring the feet are straight and parallel. Keep the soles of the whole foot connected to the ground throughout. Rock your weight forward towards the ball of the foot and toes. Next send your weight towards your heals slightly rocking backwards. Now allow your body to rock side to side so your weight moves to the side planes of the feet. Notice any changes in your balance. Lastly join those two together by making a circle with the body, first rocking slightly forward then circling through towards the right side of the foot. Next circle back to put the weight towards the heel, then continue to circle leaning this time to the left. Lastly circle your weight and body back forwards to complete the circle. Try this circular movement a few times then change directions noticing how this might feel different.
This simple balance can also be practiced whilst holding on to a chair with one hand or sitting. It enables us to become aware of slight changes in alignment so we can consciously work on keeping a centre point of balance, and take this into our daily lives. It’s also highly beneficial for our posture to keep this centre point of weight distribution whilst sitting too.
There are many yoga balances which work towards bringing us into greater stability. Our awareness of where our weight lies is our first step to creating good balance and our ability to stand on our two feet with better posture and alignment. We practice balances in every yoga class and chair yoga class and after just a few classes balance can improve significantly. The exercises we do can also quickly and simply be practiced at home in between classes to improve things even further. The simple balance above for example can be practiced whilst washing up or standing in a queue!
Join me in our friendly classes at Houghton village hall or online to experiment further and also to enjoy the many other benefits of yoga! Beginners and all abilities very welcome. I also offer some lovely calming classes through Breathwork, Somatics, Meditation, gentle Yin Yoga and sound meditation. All class times:
Houghton Village Hall (and some live online):
Mon:
Yoga 10:30pm – 12pm
Chair yoga 12:20 – 1:05pm First chair class is free! (also live online, perfect if you can’t get to the hall)
Wed:
Yoga 7:15pm -8:45pm
Tilton Village Hall:
First Tues of the month:
7pm – Breathwork, Somatics and meditation
Second Tues every other month:
Sound Bath