If you feel guilty about this, please raise your hand: When practicing balance posture in yoga class, you are determined to make your raised legs really high. Let’s face the reality, whether it’s the posture of stretching hands to toes, dancer’s posture, one-leg split, half-moon posture, tree posture, Warrior III, really any posture that requires us to stand on one leg, our tendency is to concentrate on the stretched leg-the one in the air. We are addicted to making the lifted leg higher and higher. Some of us even forced the raised leg to a height it was not entitled to!

Ah, that eternal self. It overwhelms our best intentions of practicing yoga-mindfulness, compassion, nonviolence, concentration and patience. It tricked us into believing that the higher we lift our legs, the more we will be great yogis! The fact is, if you turn your attention to standing legs, you will experience deeper expansion. That’s the leg connecting the powerful gravity.

The duality of the standing posture holds that in order for the raised legs to go higher, the standing legs must stick deeper to the ground. In other words, a raised leg must do the opposite of a standing leg. If we concentrate on taking root in the earth, play with the amazing power that wants to bring us down, and resist it with the strength of our muscles and the integrity of our arrangement, we will gain the power to ascend and expand on the other leg. The raised leg will be completed safely and completely without distorting the poor sacrum and buttocks, which happens when the strength and integrity of the standing leg and the raised other half are unbalanced.

Take the dancer’s posture (Natarajasana) as an example: two legs play that delicate binary dance to keep the standing leg stable and powerful and balance the whole weight of the body, while the other leg stretches and arches behind the back of the body passively. Just as muscles move joints in the example of agonists and antagonists, legs achieve the balance and length of standing balance posture with similar synergy. This balance is achieved by giving and taking from each other.

In Natarajasana, just like any other standing balance posture, quadriceps attempts to resist giving and taking of concentric and eccentric contractions. To put it simply, the muscles of the standing legs must generate defying gravity force and strength (they contract), while the muscles of the lifting legs yield and stretch while still active. The happiness of your spine, especially the lumbar spine, depends on this expansion.

Even the hips dance in duality: the hips of the standing legs are in flexion; Stretch the hips of your legs. The knees of the standing legs are stretched; The knees of the raised legs are in a flexed state. The neutral hip of the standing leg plays a role in abduction. Lift the hips of your legs and move during adduction.

Next time you play one-leg balance posture, check with the knees of your standing legs. Does the kneecap face straight ahead or twist to one side? The state of knees in this position is a good indicator of the integrity of your muscles and bones.

Practice inserting the inner edge of the standing heel into the floor, and pressing the front of the thigh back towards the back of the leg. Keep your knees straight ahead. Thinking: The left hip exceeds the left ankle. Keep the muscles of the standing legs strong and jointed, and don’t fall into the standing hips.

Respect the function and strength of standing legs in a balanced posture, and you will be able to ride to a very high place with your raised legs.