By Kreg Weiss, B HKin • December 5th, 2009

Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is one of the most recognizable classic yoga postures demonstrating the beauty of balance, focus, and serenity. Often considered an introductory asana for teaching basic balance techniques, subtle alignment applications can be readily overlooked when participants view this pose as ‘easy’. Starting from the ground up, here are some important anatomical adjustments and tips to improve the integrity of your Tree Pose.>

1) Relax your hold on the earth: Like most standing balance postures, participants often over-compensate stabilization efforts in the foot by ‘grabbing’ down into the mat with the toes. This aggressive contraction by the toe flexors can quickly develop into uncomfortable lactic acid in the bottom of the foot. Instead, fan the toes outwards to increase the surface area of your foot. You can also step off to the side of your mat using a firmer surface to balance on.

2) Keep the play in the knees: We are encouraged to feed energy down into the earth in standing poses with the intention then to expand vertically through the crown. This grounding motion is often mistaken for driving the knee into full locking extension. When the knee locks, we tend to allow the thigh muscles to go flaccid resulting in reduced ability to stabilize and counteract subtle shifts in body position. Maintain a very slight amount of softness in the supporting knee to sustain thigh muscle engagement.

3) Watch for hip dips: When we balance on one foot, the free hip natural drops due to lack of support. The outer hip muscular on the opposite hip is designed to counter this and shift the pelvis back to neutral. If we allow the pelvis to drop on one side, the spine is taken into a scoliosis-like curve. When we then contract core muscles around this undesired curve, we essentially foster a spinal imbalance. Wherever the free limb is placed, insure that your opposite outer hip muscles engage enough to restore equal hip lines....

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Location:  Montreal, CA

Kreg is a co-founder of My Yoga Online and certified Hatha Yoga Teacher. Several years ago, Kreg discovered yoga while teaching health and fitness. Yoga dramatically transformed Kreg's approach to teaching health and...