Simple Balancing Exercises You Can Do in 30 Seconds (or Less)

As with many physical skills, balancing is something you either use or lose. When you’re not regularly challenging your body, you lose the much-needed coordination among the various systems involved in balancing, meaning your eyes, ears, brain, and body. So if you find balancing to be the most challenging part of any yoga class, you’re not alone. Everyone wobbles. Enter balancing exercises.

Unlike complicated arm balancing poses that require a proper warm-up and dedicated practice, the following balancing exercises can be attempted anytime—no warm-up or mat required. Try one when you’re standing at your desk, waiting in line at the grocery store, even brushing your teeth or washing the dishes. Even better, these simple balancing exercises can be practiced in less than a minute.

Balancing Exercises You Can Do in 30 Seconds (or Less)

Remember, just because balancing comes easily on a particular day or on one side of your body doesn’t mean it’s going to be the same the next day or on the other side. Approach these exercises with a sense of humor. Some of these exercises require zero yoga experiences. Others ask you to incorporate some dynamic movement into balancing yoga poses you already practice in class.

1. Standing with Heels Lifted

Stand with your feet together and your arms at your sides in Mountain Pose (Tadasana). Lift your heels off the ground while trying not to tip forward. Then increase the balancing challenge by trying to…

• Lift your arms either to straight out to the sides or overhead
• Lower your heels and lift your toes
• Bend one knee forward, then the other, as if you’re running in place
• Adjust the position of your legs by widening your stance or turning your toes slightly outward, as you would in a Squat (Malasana).
• Close your eyes
• Do all of the above while lifting your heels in Chair Pose (Utkatasana) instead of standing

2. Standing to Warrior 3

To create dynamic balance in the forward-and-back plane, you can alternate back and forth from standing with one leg lifted and leaning forward into Warrior 3 (Virabhadrasana III). Inhale as you lift one knee. Exhale as you lean forward into Warrior 3. Inhale come back to standing with your knee lifted. Do several rounds on one leg before trying the other side. Note of any differences between the sides. Increase the challenge by committing to each pose for at least one full breath before transitioning into the next pose.

3. Warrior 2 to Tree

This playful transition starts with a shortened-stance Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana II). Slowly shift your weight onto your back foot until you come into Tree Pose (Vrksasana) with your right foot against your left leg. Let your lifted leg land wherever it arrives on your standing leg without reaching down to hike it higher. When you’re ready, return to Warrior 2. Take several rounds, back and forth, before you commit to lingering in Tree Pose. Then switch sides. This is a chance to be with things as they are and practice equanimity.

4. Reverse Your Eagle Pose

This transition allows you to adjust the amount of challenge to what you need on any given day. Bend both knees slightly and wrap one thigh over the other in Eagle Pose (Garudasana). Keep your standing leg steady and slightly bent at the knee as you unwrap your top leg and extend it behind you in a curtsy-like lunge position. Your toes can remain lifted or touch the mat, whichever feels like the right amount of challenge for you. Take several rounds on each leg.

5. Create a Distraction

Make any balancing yoga pose—including standing on both feet!—more challenging by introducing the unexpected.

Change Your Drishti
Switch your gazing point. Rather than focus your sight straight ahead…

Look upward
Lower your eyelids halfway
Completely close your eyes

Change the Surface
Move onto a less stable surface, such as…

A yoga mat folded in half or into four layers
A blanket or yoga bolster
A yoga block or two
A balance-training ball or stand-up paddleboard

Introduce More Distraction

Further challenge your balance by attempting to…

Turn your head side to side
Wave your arms around
Introduce visual disruption by doing jazz hands and moving them in front of you, looking around the room, or focusing on your dog with the zoomies
Move your raised leg around
Add a figure-4 to Chair Pose or Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Don’t stop here. Follow your instinct or play around with your creativity as you explore more variations on the approaches above. But remember that yoga is also about the balance of many non-physical things, including effort (sthira) and ease (sukha).  The work takes place over time, not in 30 seconds.