New
BALANCE CHALLENGE
Good balance requires the coordination of multiple parts of the body… the central nervous system, eyes, muscles, bones and joints.
Training your balance becomes even more important with age.
Many factors compromise your balance, including underlying medical conditions, medications, and of course alcohol.
Today’s new move is a glute and leg exercise that will also challenge your balance.
1. Standing tall with feet hip-width apart, step back with one leg into a reverse lunge.
2. Lean forward, lifting the leg behind into airplane pose. Keep a soft bend in your standing leg. Internally rotate your lifted leg, so your hips are even. Don’t allow your chest to dip toward the floor.
For beginners, the leg may be only a a few inches off of the floor. The more advanced you become, the more parallel the lifted leg will be to the floor.
3. Finish off by releasing the back leg and sweeping it forward until it’s parallel to the floor with the knee bent.
Pro tip: Throughout the move, focus on “Drishti,” which is used in yoga to describe the the method of locking in on a focal point during your practice. By focusing on one specific point in front of you, it helps cultivate a deeper level of concentration and allows you to move through the exercise with full awareness.
Practicing proper progressions is an important first step in taking on this balance challenge.
Any bodyweight exercise you’re trying to do that seems too advanced or too complex needs to be broken down into a baby step progression series.
Breaking it down and starting with the basics will help you level-up to the next variation with confidence and control without injuring yourself.
