Soft and Strong: Finding a Balanced Yoga Practice

One of my first yoga asana teachers used to tell me that when I first came to him, my poses were like pouring a glass of water. As a flexible body type, I gravitated toward asana because it was fun. I could put my leg behind my head, do a full split, and go deep in backbends simply by virtue of my natural suppleness. I was flexible but not very strong. I wouldn’t say I had a balanced yoga practice at that time.

As I became more serious about my practice and learned about balanced yoga practice, I worked to build greater strength and stability. I held poses longer and made sure I was regularly working on poses that were hard for me—instead of avoiding them!

Over time, and supported by my meditation and contemplative practices, getting stronger in my body translated into how I showed up in my life. I became more decisive, focused, and self-confident. Eventually, the strength I developed on the mat helped me face my fears and insecurities enough to teach yoga.

What is Strength in Yoga Practice?

Looking back on this evolution taught me something important about the nature of strength in yoga. In the Western context, we tend to think of strength as force, toughness, or muscle-bound power. But that alone can cause us to harden and shield ourselves – not only from others but from our vulnerability.

On the other hand, yoga teaches that true strength comes from forging a connection to a steady and unchanging inner essence. Rather than closing us off to our vulnerabilities, the strength of the yogi is one that fortifies us to hold our soft and tender parts with compassion while knowing that they are not the final word in who we truly are.

Meditation teacher Sally Kempton wrote:

The spiritual journey often looks like a dance between the two poles of vulnerability and boundaries. It’s a continuing dialogue between the impulse to soften and open and the impulse to contain and protect. The two apparent opposites turn out to be equal partners in the process of embodying spirit and heart.

My experience is that the physical and energetic strength we cultivate in an integrated asana practice helps us to become stronger vessels to contain our emotions and moods without fully identifying with them. It helps us build the discernment that allows us to create appropriate boundaries for our energy and time. It empowers us to embrace our vulnerability and live with greater sensitivity and compassion toward ourselves and others.

2 Ways to Explore Balanced Yoga Practice

Backbending poses, where the spine is in extension, offer a powerful way to explore balancing strength and softness in yoga. The chest opening in backbends can feel vulnerable or scary for many people. One of the best ways to feel safer and more secure in opening the front of the body is by strengthening the back of the body. 

Try these two exercises to get a sense of how the strength of the back body can help to support and bolster the opening of the front of the body in backbends:

Mountain Pose (Tadasana) with Shoulder Stretch

1. Stand in Mountain Pose with your fingers clasped behind your back or holding a strap with your hands about 6 inches apart.
2. Bend your elbows slightly and rest your hands on your lower back.
3. Inhale, lift your chest and roll your shoulders back. 
4. Exhale, draw your elbows closer together, and press your forearms back as if you were pressing them into a wall. 
5. Move the bottom tips of your shoulder blades toward your ribcage.
6. Lift your sternum forward and up.
7. Hold for 3-5 breaths.
8. Continue to press back through your forearms and feel the strength of your upper back supporting the lift and opening of your chest.
9. Exhale to release your arms down to your sides.

Locust Pose (Salabhasana) Variation and Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

1. Lie on your belly with your legs together, your hands behind your back, and your fingers clasped or holding a strap just as you did in Mountain Pose.
2. With your elbows slightly bent, create the same actions with the forearms as above, this time pressing your elbows toward the ceiling.
3. Keep pressing your pubic bone, hips, thighs, and the tops of your feet down into the floor. As you inhale, curl your head, neck, shoulder, and upper chest off the ground. 
4. Reach back through your clasped hands to straighten your arms and lift them away from your back.
5. Hold for 2 breaths.
6. Exhale and release.
7. Repeat a second time, except this time, instead of releasing back down after 2 breaths, release only your fingers. Keep your head, neck, and chest lifting and maintain the strength of the upper back as you place your hands down alongside your middle ribs for Cobra Pose.
8. Keeping your elbows slightly bent, roll your shoulders back. Feel the support of the muscles between the shoulder blades, broaden your chest, and let your sternum soften forward. 
9. Keep your legs grounded as you continue to deepen the upper back arch. Rather than pressing into your hands and lifting up, extend your ribcage forward as you roll your shoulders back and move your chest forward and up. From the strength of your upper back, allow your chest to broaden softly.
10. Stay here for 4 to 5 breaths.
11. Gently roll yourself back down to the floor to release.