Can you stand on one leg?

Farburnfred

i was back to the physio this morning. Good progress on the hip stability (clam exercise) so we are advancing that one (legs off the ground!) but as for the rest of me...

Can you stand on one leg for more than 10 secs? i can't and even during the short time I can my supporting leg is wobbling all over the place. So I now have that and a couple of other exercises for my gluteus medius. I feel for the first time that the issues I have been having for years are being taken seriously, sad that it took a crisis and months of excrutiating back pain to get this far.

I am uniquely motivated to get everything strong again now though

elaine_des

No i can't, I was able when I was younger but somewhere along the way I completely lost my balance, I can barely do a lunge without losing my balance, my leg is just all over the place, forget about doing lunge with weight, I need my arm to keep my balance.. something to work on i guess! Good luck with your rehab

Troublemonster

Yes... but to be fair I do it often while demonstrating field sobriety tests.

Cindy873

I can do it without a problem. I guess I didn't realize it was something that everyone can't do?? Not that I need to stand around on one leg very often...with these legs I'd look like a flamingo. LOL

LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo

Yep especially with my left leg

chnkydnknmomma

No, I can't. I have some foot issues, and during an exam at the physical therapist's office, I was told I have very weak ankles. It's something I'm working on.

jrsey86

I can. I think it's from walking in heels all the time haha.

Bob314159

I can with my right leg for over 30 seconds , but now I find it much harder with my left, I broke my ankle several years ago and even though I can do everything else the micro muscles on my left that enable fine adjustments when standing one legged never got back 100%,

But now that I'm losing weight it might be worth attempting to retrain and strengthen the left.

MissNordicLight

Yes I can! I saw a tips on Oprah years ago that I follow, it's simple;

Stand on one leg while you brush your teeth!
One leg for when you brush the upper teeth, then switch leg when you brush your lower.

darisey

I can now since I've been doing yoga for balance and stability. It has helped me so much!

jdhosier

As I gained weight and got older, I lost the ability to balance well. An ankle surgery in 2004 made it even worse. I have found my balance has improved as I have lost weight and done strength and fitness training. My bad ankle also gives me much less trouble.

For me, improving my balance will be a lifelong endeavor.

sijomial

I lost a lot of stability when my knee got mangled - apparently ligaments help with balance!
Now do my quad stretches standing on one bent leg to work on balance.

jdhosier

Stand on one leg while you brush your teeth!
One leg for when you brush the upper teeth, then switch leg when you brush your lower.

I will definitely have to try this. Leaning over a sink brushing my teeth on one leg should be interesting and entertaining to the cat.

Illona88

I can stand on one leg for ages.

Practice makes perfect .

Troublemonster

For those practicing I can share the way I do it as I am demonstrating the one legged stand test on video that will be scrutinized by defense attorneys.

I stay centered on the foot that remains on the ground and bend that knee slightly. I then settle and lean back slightly so that my butt is right above my heel. I can pretty much stand that way all day long.

TheWinman

I have been working on this for the past year along with flexibility. Yes, I can stand on either leg for 30+ seconds.

PetulantOne

I have a hard time. I have lower back problems from a car accident, and hip problems from pregnancy. I can't stand on one leg for long, and have a very hard time with lunges. It feels like my knees are trying to overcompensate for my hips, if that makes any sense. I'm really wobbly. I'm working on it though. Good luck.

Farburnfred

I have a hard time. I have lower back problems from a car accident, and hip problems from pregnancy. I can't stand on one leg for long, and have a very hard time with lunges. It feels like my knees are trying to overcompensate for my hips, if that makes any sense. I'm really wobbly. I'm working on it though. Good luck.

yep these are my issues exactly.

shelbyfrootcake

I've only recently been able to do it. Last week was the first time in first I haven't had to hold a wall for stability during quad stretches.

divacat80

you might need to build strength in certain muscles. i used to not to be able to stand on one leg during the final stretching and relaxation part of my cardio classes. i was always the one losing my balance. After a few months of doing it everyday some muscles must have gotten stronger because I can keep my balance effortlesly now.

Also, there's a lot involved in balance. If you have a curved spine or flat feet it might affect your balance as well. For keeping your balance the position of the hips is also important, for keeping it on one leg it's a matter of lifting the hip a tiny bit along with the leg. If you keep the hip low, you'll lose your balance. I learned this while figure skating XD.

So, to make things short, the alignment of the whole body is important. Chances are you just need to practice more. If you still find it impossible and your spine is right, then you could also be having some kind of inner ear problem or something.

VitVit18

From skating for so many years and always hanging around with other skaters, yogis and some dances and the like, I never really knew that not everyone could do that either. From what I've noticed it seems like a lot of problems some people have come from a lack of strength in the foot or around the knee.



(sorry if the picture's giant)

etoiles_argentees

This might help, good luck to you.

Toppling over in Tree Pose? Build a solid foundation with your feet, then allow your pose to grow from there.
By Julie Gudmestad

One gift of yoga is learning to be centered. This isn't just an interesting philosophical idea; it's a real mental and physical discipline you practice every time you do a pose. And the best poses to develop that sense of center, of course, are balancing poses.

While there are a wonderful variety of balancing poses in yoga, students usually begin with standing balances. In all balance poses, the part of the body that touches the ground forms the foundation of the pose, and this foundation is vitally important. If the foundation of a house is misaligned, the walls won't be straight and may crack. Similarly, if the feet are misaligned or the body weight is off center on the feet, it will be very difficult to have a tall, spacious, centered pose--and to maintain healthy alignment throughout the body.

The Well-Balanced Foot
Ideally, the weight of your body should be evenly distributed between the outer and inner foot and between the heel and ball of the foot. As you stand, become aware of the four corners of the foot: the base of the big toe, the base of the little toe, the inner heel, and the outer heel. If the inner points of the foot feel heavy, the arch of the foot is probably collapsing. This is called pronation. If the outer aspect of the foot is heavy, the arch of the foot may be nice and high--which is good--but the base of the big toe is probably lifting and the outer ankle may feel strained. This is called supination.

To make a strong, well-balanced foundation for your standing balance, your arch should feel lifted and light, while the inner heel and base of your big toe stay grounded. The muscle that grounds the big toe, the peroneus longus, lies along the outer calf. Its tendon crosses the outer ankle and then the sole of the foot before attaching to the bottom of the bones that form the innermost part of the arch; when it's engaged, you should sense firmness on the outer calf as well as the big toe mound pressing down. The tibialis anterior, one of the main muscles that supports the arch, lies along the outer surface of the shinbone. Ideally, you should be able to sense a balance between the tibialis anterior lifting the arch and the peroneus longus grounding the base of the big toe.

It's easier to begin work on the feet in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) than in one-legged balances. Begin by noticing your toes, a very important part of your balancing mechanism. Make sure they are spread on the floor to give a wide base of support. Notice that if you shift your body weight forward, the toes tend to grip the floor, and if you shift your weight backward, the toes lift off the floor. The toes are a very clear indicator of your anterior-posterior centering. Keep them relaxed as you lift the arch; at the same time, press down the base of the big toe to counter the tendency to shift too much weight to the outer foot.

Now practice shifting more weight onto one foot, without disturbing its balance. As you take all your weight onto one foot, any bad habits you have will become more obvious, such as collapsing the arch or gripping with your toes. (Did you shift your body weight too much forward to help balance?) Taking a moment to establish your foundation in your feet before coming up into a balance pose can help your balance considerably.

Vrksasana (Tree Pose) is a good beginning standing balance in which you can practice foot awareness. After establishing the balanced action of your right arch, ankle, and toes in Tadasana, lift your left leg up and place the sole of the foot as high as possible on the right inner thigh, toes pointing straight down. Imagine a root extending from each of the four corners of the right foot down into the earth, giving your pose great stability. From that root system, lift up from the arch of the foot through the inner aspect of the leg to the pelvis and from the pelvis through the spine to the crown of the head. Notice that the correct action of the foot literally gives you a strong foundation that helps you balance and sets the stage for your pose to grow upward.

The Key to Pelvic Stability
0nce you've established the balanced action of the foot, it's time to pay attention to another important foundation within the pose, the pelvis. The pelvis transmits the weight of your torso to your leg and forms the foundation for your spine. If the pelvis twists, tips forward or backward, or leans to one side, the lift and symmetry of the spine will be disturbed in poses like Vrksasana and Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana (Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose). Weakness in the muscles that support the pelvis contributes to these pelvic misalignments and makes it difficult to balance on one leg.

Many muscles work to stabilize the weight of the body when you stand on one leg, but one of the most important is the group of muscles called the hip abductors. This group consists of the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, and tensor fasciae latae. These muscles lie on the outermost aspect of your hip, between the top of the pelvis and the greater trochanter (the part of the femur you can feel at the outer, upper thigh). If you place your fingertips into that space on the left, you can feel the hip abductors contract as you stand on your right leg and lift your left leg out to the side (hip abduction).

The hip abductors have the important job of holding the pelvis level as you stand on one leg. They contract with every step when you walk, as one foot is planted on the ground and the other is lifted to swing through. They also must contract firmly during one-legged standing poses. If they are weak during Vrksasana, for example, the pelvis will sway to the right and drop down on the left as you stand on the right leg. To feel the instability this weakness brings to Vrksasana, stand on your right leg, press your left foot strongly into the inner thigh, and let the pelvis sway out to the right. Notice how your torso begins to lean to the left and your balance becomes shaky. Now press the right thighbone into the sole of the left foot. Feel how strong and stable the standing leg becomes, how the pelvis aligns over the standing leg, and how the whole pose can now extend up. Pressing the right thighbone into the left foot elicits the strong, stabilizing contraction of the right hip abductors. As you continue to hold the pose, the hip abductors will co-contract with the hip adductors (the inner thigh muscles) to fine-tune your stability.

With standing balances like Ardha Chandrasana (Half Moon Pose) and Virabhadrasana III (Warrior III Pose ), the buttock muscles are the primary stabilizers. These include the gluteus maximus, piriformis, and other deep hip rotators. To explore these muscles in Ardha Chandrasana, start again with awareness of your foot. Grounding the base of the big toe will help you keep your balance as you lift from the inner arch to the inner groin and roll your pelvis up off the standing leg so that your navel points to the side instead of to the floor. It's the buttock muscles that provide the lift of the pelvis. To build strength and endurance in these muscles, try using a little support: Rest the hands lightly on a ledge in Virabhadrasana III, for example, or stand with your back lightly against a wall in Ardha Chandrasana. Even a tiny bit of support will allow you to hold the pose longer to build endurance. Support can also help you maintain correct alignment, using and strengthening the right muscles instead of compensating for their weakness with other, less optimal actions.

Obviously, keeping your equilibrium in standing balances requires fine coordination of several muscle groups. But just as important as muscle training is training the mind to be focused, present in the moment and in the pose. Over time, balancing poses teach the mind to be centered, a benefit that spills over into the rest of your life, making you better able to concentrate at work, be present with your loved ones, and savor the experiences of your life.

divacat80

From skating for so many years and always hanging around with other skaters, yogis and some dances and the like, I never really knew that not everyone could do that either. From what I've noticed it seems like a lot of problems some people have come from a lack of strength in the foot or around the knee.



(sorry if the picture's giant)

awww I miss skating so much!!! where I live now there are no rinks. In that pic you look a lot like me when I used to skate!.
Sorry for the Off-Topic everyone!

BinaryPulsar

Yes, because I am a dancer I need to be able to stand on one leg and be able to lift my leg all over the place and dance like that. When I am waiting for the train I stand on one leg because I might as well do something while waiting for the train (I just make sure to alternate legs).

etoiles_argentees

Oh, and IMO and experience the best approach to correcting right-left imbalances is to focus on asymmetrical poses. Work one side first, then the other and watch for differences. If you have an imbalance do the same pose 3 times, starting and ending on the more difficult side.
Symmetrical poses will just result in the same difference or exaggerate it, leaving you more out of balance.

wellbert

yep, nearly indefinitely.


Hope things continue to get better for you!

almc170

Yes, for well over a minute on each leg. But I do a lot of yoga.

PamelaKuz

I had no idea if I could, so I just tried. I had no problem doing it for 5 minutes on each leg, I could have kept going but I got bored. I could start to feel my quads working by the end of it though, I'm really out of shape, but I guess I've got good balance,

Edit- I just did it again, and my calves are killing me!!

Viveyp21

Yes... but to be fair I do it often while demonstrating field sobriety tests.

haha me too!

Farburnfred

Oh, and IMO and experience the best approach to correcting right-left imbalances is to focus on asymmetrical poses. Work one side first, then the other and watch for differences. If you have an imbalance do the same pose 3 times, starting and ending on the more difficult side.
Symmetrical poses will just result in the same difference or exaggerate it, leaving you more out of balance.

the problem is that the compensatory mechanisms my body is doing to stand on one leg are doing alot of damage. you have to make sure your body is doing it right first

dbkrantz

I can do it without a problem as I did a lot of ballet dancing when I was young.

One thing that might help you is to stare at a point in the distance right in front of you and focus on that. It can help with your balance.

Good luck !