Plumb Perfect

One-legged poses give us a chance to find our center of gravity and dance around its edges. Here's how to still the wobbling and create a sense of fluid stability.

By Roger Cole

When world-famous yoga master B.K.S. Iyengar visited the San Diego Zoo in 1990, he was struck by the effortless aplomb of the flamingos. He pointed to a gaudy pink bird as it balanced on one foot, steady as a boulder. Oblivious to its squawking neighbors, beak tucked under its feathers, the flamingo was fast asleep. Surveying the group of yoga teachers accompanying him, Iyengar playfully challenged them: "Can you relax like that?"

The answer, of course, was no. For humans, nodding off while balancing on one leg is out of the question. Even relatively simple balances like Vrksasana (Tree Pose) and Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) demand our full, wakeful attention in a way that other standing poses do not. There's no faking it: The instant we lose focus, we fall over. There is an unavoidable immediacy to these balancing asanas. Standing on one foot, we naturally drop extraneous thoughts to focus on the task at hand. That's why these poses can instill a deep sense of calm even though they require intense, unwavering alertness.

When we balance, we align our body's center of gravity with the earth's gravitational field. Quite literally, we place ourselves in physical equilibrium with a fundamental force of nature. But we can't achieve this harmony by remaining absolutely still. Instead, we must refresh our balance moment after moment. The sustained effort to center and recenter, when successful, brings not only our flesh and bones into balance but also our nerve impulses, thoughts, emotions, and very consciousness. Hence, we feel calm. Equilibrium brings equanimity.

Lack of equilibrium brings just the opposite. There is something uniquely frustrating about losing our balance in one-legged postures. It goes beyond the instinctive fear of falling and strikes directly at the ego. After all, we rarely tumble to the ground and hurt ourselves; we simply put our other foot down. Yet that simple act can be maddening.

If we fall out of Vrksasana when practicing alone, we often hear an internal critic saying, "What's wrong with you? You should be able to do this!" If we're in a class, the same fall can bring a sense of humiliation that's greatly disproportionate to the physical event. We feel out of control when we lose our balance, and the ego hates to lose control—especially when other people are around to see it.

Despite the frustration, one-legged balancing asanas offer so many benefits that it's well worth the trouble to practice them. In addition to promoting concentration and calm, these poses strengthen our muscles and build our coordination and balance, improving our ways of standing and walking as well as how we perform many other everyday activities. And these benefits might actually prolong our lives, helping us avoid the falls that often lead to injuries and death among the elderly.

Alignment
the physics of balance

The three essential elements of balance are alignment, strength, and attention. Alignment of the body with gravity is crucial; it makes balance physically possible. Strength gives us the power to create, hold, and adjust alignment. And attention continually monitors alignment so we know how to correct it from one moment to the next.

In many ways, balancing the body on one leg is much like balancing a seesaw. The same laws of physics apply: If you align the center of gravity over the base of support, you balance. If you don't, you don't. It's as simple as that. Of course, since your body is quite a bit more complicated than a seesaw, balance is often not so simple to achieve.

Let's explore Vrksasana to see how alignment with gravity works in a one-legged balance. When you stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) preparing for Vrksasana, your feet form your base of support. The center of gravity—the point you need to place exactly above the center of your base in order to balance—varies a little from person to person. But it's generally a little below the navel, deep inside the belly; and, since humans are more or less symmetrical right to left, it's right on the midline. If you stand in front of a mirror and imagine a plumb line that runs from the ceiling to the floor and passes through this center point, you can see that it ends right between your feet, at the center of your base of support. Your weight is evenly distributed on either side your midline. It's pretty easy to balance here.

But the moment you lift your right foot off the floor and start to draw your right knee out to the side for Vrksasana, everything changes. Your base of support becomes narrower; now it's just your left foot. And the weight of your leg swinging out to the right moves your center of gravity to the right, so it's no longer on your midline. To compensate, you automatically shift your whole body to the left, working to bring your center of gravity back onto the new plumb line that runs through your new base of support.

To do this, you must distribute your body weight in equilibrium on either side of the plumb line. But it's important to understand that distributing your weight in equilibrium doesn't necessarily mean placing equal weight on each side of the line, as you do in Tadasana. To illustrate how distribution of weight works, think of two people of unequal weight trying to balance a seesaw. They can balance if the lighter one sits farther out and the heavier one sits closer to the center.

In yoga, the same principles apply: A light part of the body far away from the center of gravity can counterbalance a much heavier one that's closer to that center. In Vrksasana, for instance, as your relatively light bent leg moves out to the right, quite a ways from your center, you counterbalance by moving heavier body parts—your hips and torso—slightly to your left. Just like two people striving to maintain balance on a seesaw, you must pair any movement you make on one side of the plumb line with an opposing movement on the other side.

Every time you use your arms to balance by holding them out to the sides like a tightrope walker, you're intuitively taking advantage of the fact that as weight moves away from your center of gravity, it has a greater effect on your equilibrium. If you have difficulty in Vrksasana and other one-legged balances, by all means use your arms to help stabilize yourself.

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