Balance is a dynamic quality in both tango and yoga. Can you stand perfectly still on balance? No! Your heart is beating (I hope!), your lungs are moving in and out as your breath, and your body consists of many moving parts that all must adjust to each other to remain balanced. But that’s a GOOD thing! Who wants a statue when you can have a person?!
Start at the feet
Build the basement first: the arch
There are nineteen muscles involved in your foot and ankle. Add to that a system of arteries and veins, fascia, and bones, and you have a complex system that connects your body to the ground. There are three arches in your foot that need to adjust for optimal balance. Think of this system interacting with the ground: there is always something moving: trying to grip for balance will not help. Instead, embrace the equilibrium dance!
The ankle
The ankle helps the foot to balance your body. It has mechanical receptors that communicate with the brain to constantly adjust your balance. There are other parts of the body that also relay balance information to your brain, but the ankle plays a key role in proprioception. For many of us, we tend to count on what our eyes see and not listen to the rest of our body. However, if you train yourself to listen to your feet and ankles, you can fix balance problems right at the base, which is easier than making bigger corrections higher up from the floor.
If you have ankle injuries, it’s important to strengthen and retrain your body to regain optimal balance. I have issues with hyper flexibility and injured myself often as a child and teen in sports events: I was always the kid in an Ace bandage. However, I have collaborated with trainers and physical therapists, and strengthened my ankles through dance, yoga, and exercises, and now I can easily wear stiletto heels. I understand the challenges of learning to (re)balance.
If you would like more in-depth information about the ankle, I found The Role of Ankle Proprioception for Balance Control in relation to Sports Performance and Injury an interesting read.
Steps to the first floor: Wobbly knees
When I started working on my tango balance, I put too much work into my knees. Instead, I found that, if I ignored my knees and focused on my ankles and hip joints, my balance and dance improved. Let your thigh bones balance on your tibia and fibula, with as little tension as possible. Your knees may feel wobbly, compared to the gripping that you may have been doing. When that happened to me, I got a lot of positive feedback from my leaders: “Wow! I can feel your feet really well!” That’s because, when you clench at your knees, the partner can’t feel from there to the floor (and that goes for leading too!). So let those knees wobble!
First floor: Find your hip joints
Now, balance your pelvis on your femoral joints, or hip joints. On either side of your pubic bone, your hips joints are not located at the sides of your body: they are only a few inches apart. As a ball and socket joint, the hip has a lot of flexibility and give. That also makes it more difficult to figure out where to position your pelvis on your leg bones. I will go into more detail about the hip in the next blog. For the moment, lift your pelvic floor and your deep belly, creating a little space at the hip joints. Then play with the balance at your joints until you find a spot that feels like you have a lot of room. Again, this might feel less secure than dropping into your knees and clenching your gluteals, but it will provide better balance even if it feels more variable.
Second floor: Stack your spine on your pelvis
Your spine stacks on your sacrum, which is part of your pelvis, so there is less of a dilemma about how to connect from pelvis to your core. There are a lot of ways to put too much strain on the lower back in tango, and I will address this in a future blog. For now, let your deep core muscles and your breath hug into your spine and support it in your natural alignment. Adjust lower down so that your spine feels comfortable.
Attic: Balance your skull on your spine
Your skull attaches to your spine at the level of the upper palate in your mouth. Put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and your thumbs at the sides of your skull. Adjust it until your neck feels comfortable and stretchy both at the front and back. I find this easier to do with my eyes shut so that I don’t readjust to where I am used to looking. FEEL the new position.
Even if the rest of your alignment is not “fixed” yet, training your neck to stay long and lifted to balance your skull will cut down on neck pain and headaches, as well as aid in improving your balance for tango and yoga.
Homework
You can’t build the attic without first constructing the second floor. The second floor won’t work unless the first floor is solid. The first floor won’t be stable until the basement construction holds up the building that is your body. Be patient and give yourself time to build your balance and your body map, piece by piece. Eventually, it will all work together, without you thinking about it! I promise :-)
HOWEVER, sometimes there is a piece of the puzzle that makes the most sense to you and it’s not the foot or ankle. If some other element that you understand, run with that. Build up/down the part that works, rather than trying to do from the floor up. You know yourself best, and you can use that knowledge to improve your alignment, balance and endurance in the way that works for you.
See you on the dance floor and the yoga mat!
Note: There will be no yoga class on Wednesday, April 6th. It’s my birthday and I’m taking the day off!