A yoga teacher says this is how you develop confidence in your balancing abilities

Maintaining your balance as you age is important.

Strength training and single-leg exercises can help, but building stability starts with trusting your body.

“If someone believes they can’t balance or aren’t flexible, their body may brace, grip or hesitate,” says yoga teacher Veronique Ory.

The instructor explains that you can boost your bodily awareness and balance confidence with practices like yoga.

“Many of my clients are over 55 and in our sessions we practice dynamic mobility, functional range of motion, balancing and creative variations of classic poses,” she adds.

This means that rather than holding static poses, she teaches her clients to move around, playfully exploring their balance in a safe way.

Here are three poses you can try at home.

1. Balancing tabletop

“This pose builds core stability, cross-body coordination, spinal mobility and balance,” says Ory.

“Moving slowly invites the stabilizing muscles to engage, which is essential for everyday movement and fall prevention.”

How to do it:

Hold: 3-5 breaths

• Start on your hands and knees with your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.
• Extend your right leg straight behind you and your left arm forward.
• For extra stability, keep your right toes and left fingertips touching the floor.
• Gently rock forward and back, moving slowly and mindfully with your breath.
• Hold for three to five slow breaths, then swap sides.

Make it harder:

• When you feel steady, raise your right toes and left fingertips.
• Extend your spine by lifting your arm and leg higher as you inhale.
• Exhale and draw your elbow and knee toward each other under your torso as you round your spine upward.
• Repeat this three to five times.

2. Thread the needle

“This variation combines thoracic mobility, spinal rotation, breath and balance,” says Ory.

The pose challenges you to counteract uneven weight distribution, which forces your stabilizing muscles to switch on.

How to do it:

Hold: 1-2 breaths

• Start on your hands and knees with your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees.
• Inhale, raise your right arm overhead, rotating your torso to look at your hand.
• Exhale, lower your right arm under your chest and left arm, resting your right shoulder and the side of your head on the floor.
• Hold for a few rounds of breath, then repeat.
• Perform a few rounds of cat-cow, then repeat on the other side.

Make it harder:

• Extend your left leg straight back behind you, keeping your toes on the floor at first.
• Once steady, gently raise your left foot and hold for three to five breaths.
• Raise your unthreaded arm up, balancing on your shoulder, if you’re stable enough.

3. Tree pose

“Tree pose helps translate floor-based stability into upright balance. It strengthens the feet, ankles, hips, and core while improving focus and confidence,” says Ory.

How to do it:

Hold: 3-5 breaths

• Stand beside a wall or chair for support if you need, with your feet hip-width apart.
• Shift your weight side to side, front and back through the soles of your feet to find your balance.
• Focus on a point on the floor in front of you.
• Shift your weight onto your left foot, placing your right toes on the floor and your right heel against your left ankle.
• If you feel steady, place the sole of your right foot on your inner left calf or thigh.
• Keep one hand on the wall or chair, or bring your hands palms together at your chest.
• Hold for three to five breaths.
• Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.

Make it harder:

• Try slowly turning your head from side to side.
• Try lifting your arms overhead like you’re growing your branches.
• Try closing your eyes briefly while staying near support for an extra balance challenge.