Nathalie Fairbanks is an Iyengar Yoga instructor who loves to see the fruits of an intelligent yoga practice in her students. A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, she is certified at Level 2 in the Iyengar system and teaches Yoga and Yoga for Osteoporosis in person and online.
Losing your balance and falling can create mayhem. As a young person, you might be laid up for a while but will most likely recover from broken bones. As an elderly person, broken bones can mark the loss of your independence. My grandmother passed away just a few days after falling and breaking her hip. Statistically, over 50% of the elderly never regain the ability to live independently after a hip fracture.
One of the best preventive measures you can work on for a long, happy life is to learn how to preserve and strengthen your balance to help prevent a fall. This is not done overnight. A little practice here and there can change the course of your quality of life. In this article, I will share a few simple exercises to get you started.
As with any new habit, it takes consistency to integrate it into your life. In “Atomic Habits,” James Clear shares a strategy that I have adopted: tack a new habit onto an existing habit. I’ll share examples of my most likely times to practice - they might work for you, too!
What helps you keep your balance?
Being able to balance, especially standing and moving on two feet for long periods of time, is a pretty amazing feat that humans have mastered. Have you ever thought about what actually helps us keep our balance as we move around? It’s our vestibular system, which resides in our inner ear. This fancily named system uses a network of nerves to tell our body that we have moved, and in which direction. In turn, it alerts the eyes, muscles, and joints that they need to adjust accordingly.
Five factors that can affect your balance
Before we launch into a few simple exercises to help you strengthen your balance, let’s take a moment to look at some of the most common reasons why someone may struggle with their balance. Have any of them affected you?
Medical conditions: diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure fluctuations, and ear infections
Medications: Some medications have side effects that include dizziness and confusion. All package inserts include a list of side effects. It is also helpful to ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain the potential side effects to watch for if you don’t know.
Age: Your eyes and ears are less sensitive when you get older; your muscle mass might be declining.
Lack of sleep: We’ve all been there! Our busy lives (whether it’s for work or pleasure) often necessitate giving up needed hours of sleep. Being tired in body and mind may decrease your awareness, causing you to feel off-balance.
Footwear: an obvious one… high heels, flip flops and fancy shoes might look good but can easily become a hazard.
Being aware of those risk factors to your balance and mitigating them is step one. Step two is learning to improve your balance.
Four exercises to improve your balance
1. Walk barefoot
With age, the sensitivity of our skin decreases, (especially at the bottom of our feet), reducing our proprioception, or the feeling of where our body is situated in space. Walking barefoot (at home) for part of the day will maintain the neural connections between your feet and your brain and help you sense when and how your feet touch the floor. When you are sensitive to subtle changes in weight distribution in your feet, you have a better chance of catching yourself before gravity takes over and you find yourself on the floor!
2. Lift your toes off the floor
This is best done barefoot. Stand with your legs straight and lift your toes. Be sure you are only lifting your toes. The balls (or padding) of your feet stay on the floor. Sometimes this takes a while to master. You might find your big toes more willing to comply than your other toes. The more you practice this – even for just a few minutes at a time – the sooner you will be able to isolate your toes in this manner.
You will find that when you lift your toes, the arches of your feet lift naturally and give you better support as they strengthen. This also helps your ankles to align properly and the weight is distributed evenly across the sole of each foot, securing a stable foundation for your whole body.
A good time to practice this is while you brush your teeth. How long can you keep your toes up?
3. Stand on one leg
Another key aspect of balance is the strength of the musculature in your outer hips. Shifting your weight onto one leg while peeling your other heel off the floor will increase the demand on the hip muscles of your standing leg. Work towards lifting your foot all the way off the floor. Keep the standing leg firm and look straight ahead. If this is difficult at first, stand with your back to a wall so you can catch yourself while you practice.
When might you have time to practice balancing on one leg? One suggestion is while you are in line at the grocery store. That’s what I do, much to the mortification of my children. (“Mom, stop!! This is so embarrassing!”)
4. Strengthen your core
You’ve probably seen many ways to do this, from sit-ups to using weight machines at the gym (neither is my favorite.) As an alternative, I’d like to share an exercise that takes body awareness, but not any equipment or extra space. It’s Mountain Pose.
Stand with your feet hip distance apart, lift your toes and bring weight into your heels by pressing the thighs back. Lift the abdomen up and back – don’t crunch! The idea is for you to be able to breathe while you do this.
In yoga, we work on “drawing the navel towards the spine.” It is different from a hard crunch of the abdominal muscles, it is a pressing of the abdominal muscles towards the back body and a broadening of the abdominal cavity. This action is more sustainable than a short-lived crunch and aligns the body without shortening the front of the trunk. Once the abdomen is in its place, lift and broaden the chest and extend the arms down. Put it all together and you’re doing Mountain Pose.
How can you incorporate Mountain Pose into your busy day? Practicing this when standing is a matter of paying attention to your body alignment. Any time you are waiting, is actually a good time to practice. For example, while waiting for the water to boil, or for someone to put their shoes on, you have a minute or two to practice standing in Mountain Pose. An added benefit is that it does wonders for calming down impatient thoughts ;)
Yoga is the answer to improve your balance
There are a number of balancing poses in yoga that are fun to learn and will give you some variety. A regular yoga practice will yield benefits far beyond better balance! There are many styles of yoga, and each has a different approach. I recommend Iyengar Yoga, specifically because your teacher will demonstrate what to do step by step, with precise instructions. You won’t be left wondering if you’re doing it right.
In short, working on balance will maintain the musculature and sensory awareness necessary to keep you walking safely and participate in life’s activities for a long time to come. After eliminating risk factors you can control, start practicing a few simple movements during your typical day’s ‘waiting for something to happen’ periods. The results might inspire you to take on Iyengar Yoga!
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Nathalie Fairbanks, Iyengar Yoga Instructor & Yoga Therapist
Nathalie Fairbanks is an Iyengar yoga instructor who loves to witness her students' breakthroughs: physically, mentally, emotionally. Her students have better balance, stronger bones, reduced pain, faster recoveries and more joy as practice becomes a regular part of their lives. She makes yoga accessible to any body at any age and will inspire you to accomplish things you never thought possible, step by step. She teaches Iyengar Yoga and Yoga for Osteoporosis at Yoga for You.
