I love including one-leg standing balance in my yoga classes. It helps improve balance, body awareness, foot/ankle/leg/hip strength and proprioception. It’s a good way to add progressive challenge that is safe and appropriate for many people. And of course it’s fun!
In my classes we regularly work on dynamic one-leg balance – that means moving rather than holding a fixed position. To move in and out of one-leg balance, you can simply just lift your foot or leg off the ground. You can also leverage your upper body weight to counter-balance the movement of your leg.
This method of moving is inspired by the golfer’s lift, recommended by occupational and physiotherapists to pick up small things from the ground. It’s known as the golfer’s lift because it’s how golfers put a tee and golf ball on the ground, and pick them up – to protect their spine.
Essentially as your back leg lifts up, your chest levers forward, and you do the same to reverse the movement.
I like the image above because it highlights several key features:
- He has not rounded his back
- He has bent his standing (left) leg this makes it easier if you have tight hips to move both spine and hips in a healthy position
- His back leg is not rigid and not floppy – he is actively using the muscles but only somewhat
- He’s looking forward though he could find a more neutral position for the neck but tipping his head slightly down
- The arm that is reaching for the ground is dropping directly from his shoulder – working with gravity
To try this concept of leveraging your body in and out of balancing, try one of my recent mini yoga videos on YouTube. This method is a great way to move in and out of the more advanced yoga pose warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III).
And if you want to explore the concept of lifting – see this great handout from the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine Ergonomics Program on lifting techniques and consider yourself informed!
This article from National Public Radio (US) will you get you thinking about how you bend forward in your daily life.
