Balance
Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 5:33 pm
Have been working with several people at the gym, backpackers to rock climbers, to improve their balance, breathing, and focus. Would like to share my findings here with those of you who may be interested in obtaining better balance, posture, poise, either in your backpacking, rock climbing, or just in your everyday life.
There are a myriad of exercise and poses that can help with balance and your hip stabilizing muscles, but one very important one stands above the rest, and if mastered, can significantly improve you balance, whether using it for crossing a log over a swift river, crossing a river, skirting a cliff, climbing a class 5-10 route, or just to maintain good balance as you age.
This is the yoga move called the Tree Pose (Vriksasana), this pose allows you to become grounded with the earth, like the roots of a tree, while teaching one to breathe continuously and steadily. It helps you find your center, improves mental focus, helps improve balance, and also opens up one's hip, strengthens ankles, thighs, and spine. It also stretches the inner thighs, groins, shoulder, chest, and reduces flat feet and relieves sciatica.
If you have rock climbed previously, you understand the importance of breathing smoothly and steadily, especially during difficult and precarious moves. If one does not incorporate steady, monotone breathing, it will become rapid, the focus will be lost, and panic will set in. This example lends itself to crossing a log/river or any other situation where concentration, focus, and balance are required.
Exercise Description:
You should shift weight onto one leg, say the left leg, with the entire sole of the left foot remaining in full contact alignment. You can raise your hands above the head along the ears with or without clasping them together or you can clasp your hands in front of your chest like the worshipping. You can remain in this position for 20 seconds and 60 seconds. You can then return to standing pose or Tadasana while slowly exhaling. You can repeat this Vriksasana on the other leg with the ground. You should now bend the right knee and place the right foot on your inner thigh, like in a half lotus position, inhaling slowly when you move the right leg. In the initial stages, you can use your hands to place your right foot on the left inner thigh. The toes of the right foot should point directly downwards. The left foot, the center of your pelvis, the shoulders, and your head should remain firm in a vertical.
Once you can hold the pose easily for 30 sec, hold a light plate, dumbbell, or an elastic band in one hand, to throw off you center of gravity, this will recruit even more stabilizer muscles and recruit your core muscles even more intensely. One can then progress to a very difficult variation, standing on a Bosu Ball, which will increase the intensity and balance required, and then later incorporate weights or band to this variation.
Few notes:
Always do this pose barefoot.
Widen your toes, distribute your weight evenly between them, exhale steadily and deeply into the ground thru your leg, ankle, and foot.
There are a myriad of exercise and poses that can help with balance and your hip stabilizing muscles, but one very important one stands above the rest, and if mastered, can significantly improve you balance, whether using it for crossing a log over a swift river, crossing a river, skirting a cliff, climbing a class 5-10 route, or just to maintain good balance as you age.
This is the yoga move called the Tree Pose (Vriksasana), this pose allows you to become grounded with the earth, like the roots of a tree, while teaching one to breathe continuously and steadily. It helps you find your center, improves mental focus, helps improve balance, and also opens up one's hip, strengthens ankles, thighs, and spine. It also stretches the inner thighs, groins, shoulder, chest, and reduces flat feet and relieves sciatica.
If you have rock climbed previously, you understand the importance of breathing smoothly and steadily, especially during difficult and precarious moves. If one does not incorporate steady, monotone breathing, it will become rapid, the focus will be lost, and panic will set in. This example lends itself to crossing a log/river or any other situation where concentration, focus, and balance are required.
Exercise Description:
You should shift weight onto one leg, say the left leg, with the entire sole of the left foot remaining in full contact alignment. You can raise your hands above the head along the ears with or without clasping them together or you can clasp your hands in front of your chest like the worshipping. You can remain in this position for 20 seconds and 60 seconds. You can then return to standing pose or Tadasana while slowly exhaling. You can repeat this Vriksasana on the other leg with the ground. You should now bend the right knee and place the right foot on your inner thigh, like in a half lotus position, inhaling slowly when you move the right leg. In the initial stages, you can use your hands to place your right foot on the left inner thigh. The toes of the right foot should point directly downwards. The left foot, the center of your pelvis, the shoulders, and your head should remain firm in a vertical.
Once you can hold the pose easily for 30 sec, hold a light plate, dumbbell, or an elastic band in one hand, to throw off you center of gravity, this will recruit even more stabilizer muscles and recruit your core muscles even more intensely. One can then progress to a very difficult variation, standing on a Bosu Ball, which will increase the intensity and balance required, and then later incorporate weights or band to this variation.
Few notes:
Always do this pose barefoot.
Widen your toes, distribute your weight evenly between them, exhale steadily and deeply into the ground thru your leg, ankle, and foot.