Asana Spotlight – Balancing Series

by Jamie Pantea | Anatomy, Blog, Community Activities, Yoga poses

Balancing yoga poses are more than just a test of physical strength—they challenge our focus, coordination, and mental clarity. In this Spotlight, we’ll explore a series of balancing poses that can help you build stability, improve posture, and enhance body awareness. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced yogi, these poses will elevate your practice and bring a sense of harmony between body and mind.

Standing Big Toe Pose

Standing Big Toe Pose or Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana is a balancing yoga posture that strengthens the legs, improves focus, and increases flexibility, especially in the hamstrings. This pose involves standing on one leg while holding the big toe of the opposite leg and extending it forward or to the side. It’s a great way to enhance stability, concentration, and flexibility simultaneously.

Aligning Your Big Toe Pose…

1. Activate lifted leg, press through the bottom of your foot.

2. Draw both shoulders back to promote good posture.

3. Gaze forward, lengthen through head and neck for a straight spine.

4. Extend opposite hand outward or up for counterbalance.

5. Standing leg is active, lift through need and quad for a strong foundation. Draw hip in to stack over your knee and ankle.

6. Ground through standing foot, press evenly through the ball and heel of your foot.

Moving from Modified to Full Variation…

Once you feel grounded, stable and open in the modified variation, it’s safe to begin progressing into a straight leg. This takes time and patience!! Follow these steps and trust the process..

Struggling to Wrap Fingers Around Your Toes??

Try a strap instead!! Loop the strap around your foot and give yourself as much space as needed to find a straight spine!

1. Change Connection: Move your hand from knee and wrap your pointer and middle finger around the big toe. Refocus on pulling shoulders back and finding your straight spine again.

2. Engage: Gently begin to straighten your bent knee, pushing energy through your foot into your fingers.

3. Find Your Edge: Extend your leg until you feel resitance in your hamstring. Hold here and take deep breaths until that resistance begins to fade. Continue extending to find your next edge…hold, breath, repeat.

4. Be Mindful and Use Your Best Judgment: forcing yourself past your edge can lead to strain and injury, listen to your body as you progress. Remember that Yoga is about how you feel, not how you look!

Airplane Pose

Airplane Pose, or Dekasana, is a powerful balancing posture that challenges your strength, stability, and focus. This pose engages the entire body, working the legs, core, and upper body as you extend your arms out like wings and lean forward. It’s a wonderful way to build concentration and body awareness while opening up the chest and strengthening the back muscles. Whether you’re working on finding your balance or refining your alignment, Airplane Pose offers an opportunity to explore your edge and grow your practice.

Aligning Your Airplane Pose…

1. Set Drishti (gaze) on a fixed point to help maintain balance.

2. Engage core and pull chest forward for an open heart.

3. Fully grounded through all four points of the foot (both sides of heels and bones beneath the big and pinky toe). Toes relaxed and not gripping.

4. Slight bend in standing knee to soften pose and help with balancing.

5. Back leg extended directly behind, toes point down for a closed hip.

6. Actively reach arms behind with palms down — allowing shoulders to roll back and heart to open.

Struggling to Stay Balanced??

That’s okay! We practice these poses to help build strength and endurance, but some days will be better than others. If you’re having a hard time holding Airplane Pose, try using a wall to assist you.

Stand next to the wall, facing to the left or right of it. Use the hand closest to help guide you as you find your angle and deepen the pose. When you start to feel shaky, simply connect your hand to the wall until you feel stable or are ready to exit the pose!

Standing Splits

Standing Splits, or Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana in Sanskrit, is a pose that enhances both flexibility and balance. It is often practiced toward the middle or end of a yoga sequence, allowing the body to tap into deeper stretches and greater strength after proper warm-up. Although the goal may appear to be to reach the highest leg lift possible, the true essence of this pose lies in balance, control, and mindful engagement of the muscles.

Aligning Your Standing Splits…

1. Firmly ground into all four corner of standing foot (both sides of heels and bones beneath the big and pinky toe).

2. On standing leg, kneecap faces forward and thigh rotates inward.

3. Toes reach directly upward (not pointing out to the side) and heel draws down to ensure a closed hip.

4. Inward rotation of floating leg to draw him closed.

5. Ribs are even, drawing back towards standing leg.

6. Top of head reaches down to the mat, reaching nose to standing knee.

1. Ground into the four points on your standing foot, toes relaxed and not gripping the mat.

2. Extend your lifted leg directly behind you, creating a capital L shape with both legs (hence the name of the pose ).

3. Flex your floating foot, toes point directly down to the mat to ensure a closed hip.

4. Hands on blocks to support the upper body as you find a straight spine and actively lengthen through the top of your head.

5. Engage core by drawing your navel up towards your spine & actively draw shoulders back to open heart and chest.

Warrior III

Warrior III, or Virabhadrasana III, is a powerful yoga posture that embodies strength, balance, and focus. Often seen as one of the more challenging standing poses, Warrior 3 requires both physical stability and mental clarity. This pose strengthens the legs, core, and back, while improving balance and body awareness. It’s also great for balancing the bodies energy and promoting confidence and higher self-esteem. With greater challenge comes greater reward — start practicing your Warrior III pose today!

Aligning Your Warrior III…

Ground through the four points of your standing foot (both sides of heel and points beneath the big and pinky toe).
Floating foot flexed with toes turned down towards the mat. Press through your heel.
Roll inner thigh of floating leg upward to create even hips.
Lengthen through sides of the body.
Extend arms forward, biceps in line with your ears. Find length through fingertips.
Drishti (gaze) down towards mat, reach through the crown (top) of your head.
Draw navel in to engage core, protecting your spine during the pose.

1. Begin your pose at a less intense angle…allow yourself space to focus on the fundamentals. Ground into your standing foot, keep hips even, engage your core and find length from heel to fingertips.

2. Use Blocks… using blocks to create a Standing L is a perfect way to build leg, core and back strength. Float your hands from the block to test your stability and strength before moving forward.

3. Prayer Hands at Heart…feel the power of Warrior III pose with less core engagement. Focus on your alignment from heel to head and practice core engagement by drawing navel to spine while holding balance.

We will be updating this blog post throughout the month with more info on this pose, videos & more. Subscribe to our mailing list (Below) & get notified when we update with new content!

If you have a specific pose you would like us to feature in the future, let us know!

Join us for a class online or in-studio! Namaste.

Explore More Yoga Poses!

Asana Spotlight – Standing Big Toe Pose

Standing Big Toe Pose Standing Big Toe Pose or Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana is a balancing yoga posture that strengthens the legs, improves focus, and increases flexibility, especially in the hamstrings. This pose involves standing on one leg while holding the...