Physics of balance in yoga. Part 1: alignment

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The three pillars of balance are alignment, strength, and focus. Body alignment is critical as it makes balance physically possible. Strength allows us to hold and adjust alignment. And attention is to constantly track it, giving us an understanding of when and where to direct our efforts to maintain balance. We will devote a separate article to each of these three whales. Today we'll talk about alignment.

Pink flamingos can easily take a nap on one leg, even with noisy neighbors, and still not fall. They can change their legs and continue to sleep sweetly.

Can a person take a nap while standing on one leg? Of course not. Some people do not just take a nap - they will not stand on one leg without support for a few seconds. Even relatively simple asanas for developing balance, such as the tree pose and the crescent posture, require our full attention. As soon as we lose focus, we fall.

But the most interesting thing in training balance with the help of such asanas is that with complete concentration and tension, we clear our consciousness and calm down, since it is calmness, complete control over the whole body and concentration that allows us to maintain balance.

When balancing, we achieve physical balance with the fundamental forces of nature. However, this harmony cannot be achieved by remaining absolutely motionless. We must constantly change the center of balance and renew our sense of balance every second. And when we succeed, not only our body finds its state of balance, but also our nerve impulses, thoughts and emotions.

Equilibrium brings with it equanimity.

The loss of balance in "one-legged" asanas occurs due to our instinctive fear of falling, and the inability to maintain balance strikes directly at our ego. The most interesting thing is that in reality we rarely fall to the floor and hit painfully. We just put the other foot on the floor - that's it, no one falls. Nevertheless, the inability to perform such a simple action can sometimes be very angry. When we lose balance in such a simple asana like the pose of a tree, and cannot stay in it long enough, our inner critic begins to whisper: “What's wrong with you? Why can't you resist? It's so easy! " A fall in a yoga class with the whole group can make us feel ashamed and mildly angry with ourselves, since our failure has just been shown to a large number of people.

But do not give up, as regular execution of the tree pose improves concentration, gives calmness, strengthens muscles, develops coordination and balance, which positively affects our gait (makes it more stable), how we stand and how we perform many everyday actions that we usually do not think about. You could even say that all of these benefits extend our lives by helping to avoid falls, which often lead to injury and even death among the elderly.

Alignment

In many ways, maintaining balance on one leg is similar to balancing on a board swing: both the same laws of physics apply. If you place the center of gravity above the support base - keep the balance, if not - one of the sides will definitely outweigh.

However, keeping balance is not so simple. As you stand in mountain pose, preparing to move from it to tree pose, your legs form this very base of support. The center of gravity (the point that you should place directly above the base) is different for everyone, since everyone is different. But, as a rule, it is located slightly below the navel in the depths of the abdomen and, since most people are more or less symmetrical, it is located right in the middle.

If you stand in front of a mirror and visualize a vertical line that goes from floor to ceiling and goes straight through this point, you should see that it ends right between your legs, in the center of your support base.

Your weight will be evenly distributed on both sides of the line. It is very easy to keep balance in this position.

But the moment you lift your right leg and begin to move your right knee to the side to enter tree pose, everything changes! Your base of support is narrowing - it is now just your left leg. The weight of your right leg, which is pulled to the right, moves the center of gravity, and it is no longer on the conditional line passing through the center of your body. To compensate for this, you automatically move your torso to the left while working to draw a new line and define a new support base.

Again, you must distribute your body weight evenly on both sides of the horizontal line. To understand how this works, imagine two people of different weights trying to keep a balance swing in balance. Balance can be achieved if the lighter person sits on the very edge of their side of the swing and their heavier partner moves closer to the center.

In yoga, the same practice is used: the lighter part of the body moves away from the center, and the heavier part approaches. In tree pose, your slightly bent leg extends to the right rather far from the center of the support base. You can achieve balance by shifting the heavier parts of the body - the hips and body - slightly to the left.

Using your arms to balance, spreading them apart like a tightrope walker, you intuitively accept the fact that as soon as the weight is far away from your center of gravity, it immediately affects your balance. If you have difficulty balancing in tree poses and the like, try to balance yourself with your arms first.

Moving the center of gravity up and down affects balance as much as horizontal movement. Check it out for yourself: in tree pose, place your arms outstretched to the side in front of your chest, palms folded. It will be even more difficult to resist if you raise your hands in the same gesture above your head.

This is because with each movement you move your center of gravity slightly upward. And when it is high, a deviation to the side just a few degrees can lead to loss of balance. When the center of gravity is lower, you have more room to maneuver. So if you're having trouble keeping your balance in the tree pose, try raising your bent leg a little and resting on your ankle first. Later, you can pull your leg higher - up to the knee or hip. Another way to improve your balance in posture is to try to extend your foot as much as possible by spreading your toes.