Balancing Tadasana (Mountain Pose) on the Toes

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How to do it

Begin standing with your feet hip distance apart, arms along the body.

Inhale: Lift up on the balls of the feet and sweep your arms up.

Exhale: Bring your heels back down and lower your arms.

Repeat the movement several times and then stay in the pose.

Breathing in Balancing Tadasana

Inhale: Lengthen upwards through the top of your head and your hands, lift your heels a bit higher. Keep the back of your neck long.

Exhale: Progressively contract your abdomen to create stability, soften your shoulders a bit and lower your heels down slightly.

NOTE: It doesn’t matter how high you lift on your toes, as long as you can maintain your balance. If your shoulders do not feel comfortable with arms extended up all the way up, you can keep your arms in the Y-shape instead.

 

Pose adaptations

Arms out

Balancing Tadasana: Arms out trains your balance and strengthens your calves. Moving up and down on the balls of your feet makes it more challenging for your legs and also makes your body renegotiate your balance at each point of the movement. If your student has trouble with this pose, she can touch her fingertips to the wall when her arms are out. This way, she can steady herself while still training her balance.

One arm movements

Balancing Tadasana: One arm movements works great to both train your balance and your concentration. It is hard to think about anything else when you are trying to figure out the position for each arm. To make it even more challenging, you can call out the arm positions at random, just to make sure that your students are paying attention. It’s a simple way to get their minds off the usual chatter and into their bodies.

Two arm movement

Balancing Tadasana: Two arm movement trains your balance and helps you focus. It is also supposed to help integrate the right and left brain hemispheres because of mismatched arm movements.