Train you balance with twisting Tadasana

The classic version of the Mountain pose is as stable as any standing pose gets – you are just standing there on your two feet, trying to keep the weight equally distributed from side to side and from front to back. But if we change the form of the pose a bit, we can successfully use it to train your balance AND strengthen the muscles that are directly involved in maintaining balance during standing and walking.

To turn Tadasana into a balancing posture, we can lift up on the balls of the feet. This immediately changes the base of support, making it smaller. Balancing becomes harder, while ankles, feet, and calves become stronger. We can increase the challenge by moving the upper body and arms. In this practice, we experiment with spinal rotation while balancing on the toes.

If you want to increase the challenge even more, close your eyes while you hold the twisting Tadasana. Closing your eyes makes your brain rely on your proprioceptive feedback rather than vision to determine your body’s position in space. This is an important component of balance training because we tend to over-rely on our vision for balancing as we get older. Give it a try and see how it feels!