Yoga Journal recommends holding most standing balance poses for 30 seconds to one minute. You can eventually hold the headstand for up to five minutes. While you practice yoga, try to breathe deeply through your nose, allowing the abdominals to slightly contract as you exhale and to expand as you inhale.
Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Yoga instructor, Barbara Kaplan Herring, writes in Yoga Journal that Mountain Pose prepares students for balancing on one foot by developing their sense of the mid-line of the body. To practice Mountain Pose, stand with your big toes touching and your heels slightly apart or with feet parallel. Become aware of the bottoms of your feet and root them into the floor. Make the knees a little soft as you contract your abdominal muscles and tuck your hips slightly forward. Stand in as upright a posture as possible with your arms floating by your sides. Challenge your balance more by closing your eyes.
Tree Pose (Vrksasana)
From Mountain Pose, bring the bottom of your right foot to the inside of your leg, just below the knee. Your hips should feel a stretch as you actively press your knee out to your right side. Feel the crown of your head rising to the ceiling. You can keep your hands together in a prayer position at the chest, or raise them both upward. To calm the body and mind, focus your eyes on the floor, or higher up for more balance intensity. Switch sides. Herring again emphasizes the importance of focusing on the mid-line of the body while practicing Tree Pose. Without this focus, students tend to place too much pressure on the foot of their balancing leg.
Warrior Three (Virabhadrasana III)
From Mountain Pose, extend your right leg straight back behind you and lean forward. Your right hip will try to turn outward. Do your best to point your hips down throughout the pose. Actively lengthen your right leg back and try to get your left leg straighter (do not lock your knee). Keep your abdominal muscles contracted. Try variations for your arms including extending them out in front of you, out to your sides, or straight back resting on your back. Look toward the floor, but keep the crown of your head reaching toward the wall in front of you.
Headstand (Salamba Sirsasana)
Getting into Headstand takes a strong core. Until you are confident, practice against a wall, or as B.K.S. Iyengar recommends, in a corner. From a hands and knees position, place your elbows on the floor straight under your shoulders. Clasp your hands gently around the back of your head and place the center of the crown of your head on the floor between your arms. Lift your hips into the air as you start walking your feet as close to your body as possible. From here, avoid kicking your legs up to get into the pose; rather, lift one heel in toward your buttocks. Contract your belly muscles tight as you bring in your next heel. Work on slowly straightening your legs up to the ceiling, keeping the legs together. Maintain strength in your forearms to alleviate pressure on your head. It may take weeks or longer to build up to holding the pose for more than a few seconds.
About this Author
Clarissa Adkins is a freelance writer and 200-hour, registered yoga teacher. With a B.A. in English and a creative writing concentration from James Madison University, she has happily written and continues to write hundreds of articles about healthy lifestyles and yoga for various online publications.
