The Best Balance Basics: Connect your Feet to the Floor

I love being barefoot. My feet and toes like to spread and feel the grass, or sand, or dirt, or yoga mat. Even my shoes have a wide toe box so that my piggies aren’t squished. I’ve spent a lot of my life barefoot, between modern dance, yoga, and swimming, plus being GenX and running around outside without shoes during my entire childhood. Don’t get me wrong, I love a fabulous black boot with a chunky heel, but barefoot is how I prefer to spend most of my time.

What does this have to do with balance you ask? Everything.

Balance starts with your feet. Feeling your feet on the floor and establishing a solid foundation gives you the stability you need to balance. Whether you stand on two feet or one, you need to connect your body to the surface on which you are standing.

Balance is much harder on uneven surfaces, as well as in highly cushioned shoes, like most sneakers. While they have traction, it’s tough to feel the ground beneath your feet the way you can when you are barefoot. But, the more you practice your balance, the easier it gets, even when you can’t easily feel the ground beneath your feet.

That’s one of the reasons to practice yoga.

Why you need to work on balance

The phrase “use it or lose it” definitely applies to balance as we age. According to a 2022 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, people who can’t balance on one leg for 10 seconds in middle life and later had almost twice the risk of premature death than people who could. It was an observational study, and showed association, not causation, but it might give you pause.

Balance disappears slowly over time. You might notice that it’s harder to stand on one foot to put on your shoes than it used to be. Maybe you need to hold on to something when getting out of a chair. It might be more challenging getting in and out of the car or going up and down stairs.

Working on your balance a little every day can keep you from falling and injuring yourself. If you don’t fall, you most likely won’t fracture. It can be easy to work balance into your day if you are creative. Try standing on one foot while brushing your teeth or watching TV. Stand on one leg while your dog stops to sniff around. Start with 10 seconds on each foot and work your way up from there.

In a whisper voice: or practice yoga…

How to balance

In my previous post, “Moving From Two Feet to One: Building Balance” I give tons of information on how to balance on one foot, plus help with Tree pose/Vrksasana, Airplane pose/Dekasana, and Half Moon pose/Ardha Chandrasana. Please read that post then come back to this one.

Here are some basic balance tips to keep in mind:

• Balance is your ability to adapt to shifts in weight. You might notice your ankles wiggling as you stand on one leg. Let that be okay. The more you engage your core, glutes, quads, and inner thighs, the less wiggle you’ll feel (more on that in a moment). If you keep your body rigid, those wiggles will knock you down. If you soften a little, you’ll be better able to adapt. Like a willow tree, you bend but don’t break.
• Spread your toes. The wider your base (your feet) the more surface you have touching the floor. This gives you a more solid foundation on which to stand. If you can’t spread your toes easily, or if they don’t “want” to spread, all you need to do is practice. Sometimes you need to “Jedi Mind Trick” them into spreading by staring at them and visualizing them moving apart. It might take a few weeks or a month of daily practice, but it can happen. Visualize creating just a little bit of space between your toes. It also helps to spread the fingers to get the toes to spread. I don’t know why, but it helps.
• Press the inner and outer ball of the foot and inner and outer heel evenly into the floor. These four points are your foundation, in addition to your toes. It’s common for the weight to fall toward one foot, or toward the inside or outside of your foot. Try to center the weight on each foot.
• Activate your glutes, quads, and inner thighs. This applies to most one-legged balance poses. As you press your foot into the floor, think about lifting the pelvis up away from the thigh/femur. That oppositional movement will create stability through the leg and improve your stance on your foot. This is easiest to feel in Tree pose, but can be applied to many other balance poses. Collapsing into the hip doesn’t bring stability, engaging the hip and surrounding muscles does.
• Exhale at some point. Holding your breath creates tension and will knock you over. There is a relaxation response connected to exhaling that will make it easier to balance. Allow the breath to flow evenly and smoothly through the nose. Relax your jaw. The more you relax, the easier it is to adapt to the tiny shifts of weight.
• Relax your mind. Related to relaxing through the exhale, balance is much harder when you are either yelling at yourself or your thoughts are racing. Give yourself permission to fall over. Balance is found through falling a lot first. When you can let go of “having” to balance, your mind can relax. If you fall over, so be it. Focus on your breath and feel your foot on the mat. Everything else can drop away for this moment. Even if the thoughts don’t stay away, keep relaxing the mind, and take it one breath at a time.
• Focus your eyes, but softly. Your Gaze, or Drishti, is really important when it comes to balance. While it’s possible to balance with your eyes closed, it’s significantly harder. See something specific with your eyes and fix your gaze. Keeping your eyes there, soften your vision so that you are not grasping for balance using your eyes.

Practicing yoga for balance

A yoga practice is filled with all sorts of balance poses, on two feet, one foot, your hands, your head, even your sit bones. There are lots of ways to practice static balance, like when you hold a pose, or practice moving balance, where you move from one pose to the next. In life, we experience balance mostly when moving. With yoga, what you practice on the mat, you take with you off the mat.

I love moving from Crescent Lunge to Tree pose, moving from two feet to one, combining moving balance with static balance. The best of both worlds. Not only does this build core and leg strength, but it challenges the mind too. When you can relax and just perform the movement, it’s easier to do. When you are stressed over whether you’ll fall down or not, it’s much harder.

Feel your feet on the floor, and go from there.

Start in Crescent lunge with your right leg forward. Press your right foot firmly into the floor as you bring your left knee into your chest. Feel your standing leg, stacking your right hip over your knee over your ankle. Engage your right glutes, quads, and inner thigh to create stability in that standing leg.

Without moving the pelvis, rotate your left knee to the left and place your left foot somewhere on your inner right leg, pressing the foot against the leg and the leg against the foot. That equal, isometric contraction helps you find your midline. If you only press your foot into your leg, chances are you are also collapsing into that hip. Resist the pressure of the foot by engaging the standing leg.

Place your hands together in front of your heart (Anjali Mudra) and breathe. See something with your eyes. Stay about 5 breaths, then rotate the left knee forward again and step the foot back into Crescent Lunge. Repeat with the left leg forward.

More yoga practice

I teach yoga at Purple Room Yoga, an online yoga studio with classes specifically tailored to the needs of active adults over 50 who want to stay active. I teach balance poses every day, as well as poses to cultivate strength and mobility. Classes such as Beginner Yoga, 30 Min FitFlow, and Vinyasa Yoga with Janine all challenge your balance in different ways to keep you upright (or upside down). Click the button below to check out the full schedule of online classes that you can take live or on demand!