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Improving Balance with Yoga

Fitday Editor
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Improving balance with yoga is possible. Balance is important in flexibility, agility and even strength. Yoga is an exercise that is low-impact, and it also can work wonders for improving your balance. In yoga, a combination of a few different poses can work together to improve your balance. Relying on only one type of yoga exercise is not the way to go to improve your balance. There is not one perfect pose to miraculously improve your balance. What is required is an approach that relies on several poses.

Body Awareness

One of the ways that yoga improves your balance is by improving the awareness you have of your body. Yoga is based on the principle of being mindful of how your body responds to any movement. When practicing any yoga pose, a person is encouraged to always be fully present and live in the moment of the yoga pose. This means always being aware of the sensations happening in the body as a pose is held. If you strike certain poses, you will have to be aware of the adjustments and real concentration it takes to maintain your balance. With enough practice, your body will learn just how to precisely shift its weight to retain balance within the poses. Hence, you will then have improved your balance through being totally present in the moment. With increased balance, you will note that you will be more secure against falling.

Range of Motion and Muscle Strength

Yoga exercises designed to improve your balance have the beneficial side effect of also improving other aspects. They will naturally work to improve your range of motion and the strength of your muscles. While you're concentrating on the swaying of your body, your muscles also naturally get stronger. This happens as a result of the length of time that you hold your balance-improving poses. Some poses for balance improvement require you to squat or lunge, which further works to strengthen your leg muscles. Yoga poses are based largely on stretching for the entire body. This has the effect of improving the range of motion of your joints, too. As your balance improves, so does your flexibility, because your joints are also getting the pose benefits. Due to the increased range of motion, your balance improves since you won't fall as easily.

Yoga Classes

The best way to launch your yoga training is by finding a yoga class. While they are different from studio to studio, the basics remain. Don't be discouraged when you find that there are very many styles of yoga, and even teachers are different in their methods. Don't be shy to try one class and teacher after another until you have found the one that is right for you. Before you work at improving balance with yoga, you should feel comfortable in class.

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