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Yoga With Denise Austin: Dancer Pose

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This pose can help boost your balance

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Updated March 27, 2024

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Quick Win: The Dancer can help improve your balance and stretch your chest, shoulders, thighs and abdomen.
Try this today: Stand with one leg stretched farther behind you. Bend that leg at the knee and grab the inside of your ankle or foot with your hand.

Reach your empty hand up. Slowly lean forward so that your arm is parallel to the ground and your back leg is lifted.

Hold the pose and breathe deeply for 30 seconds hen switch sides.
Why: The Dancer can help enhance balance, stretch muscles and strengthen ankles and legs. A meta-analysis of 12 studies in adults in their 60s and 70s found that incorporating regular yoga sessions into their lives moderately improved their physical fitness, but it especially benefitted their upper limb strength and balance. The greatest effects were seen in participants who practiced yoga for 9 to 12 weeks, according to the work published in 2021 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

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