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

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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