Lower back, hips, knees and ankles

Tree Pose: Classic

Challenges your single-leg balance, building the ankle, hip, and core stability that keeps you steady on your feet and reduces fall risk.

How to do it

1. 1

   Stand tall and settle your weight on one foot

   Find level ground and let the weight spread across the whole standing foot. Rest your eyes on something still in front of you.

2. 2

   Turn the other knee out and lift the foot

   Bend that knee, open it out to the side, and place the sole against the inside of the standing thigh, above the knee. Never rest the foot on the side of the knee joint itself.

3. 3

   Press the foot and the thigh into each other

   Light pressure in both directions gives you something to stand up through. Both hip points stay level and facing forward.

4. 4

   Bring the hands together at your chest

   Shoulders stay down and the chest stays open. The standing leg is long with the knee soft.

5. 5

   Hold for thirty to sixty seconds, then change sides

   If the placement is a stretch, rest the foot on the calf instead, or keep the toes of the lifted foot on the floor. A chair or a wall within reach is fine to use.

What to watch for

The foot sliding onto the side of the standing knee, and the standing hip swinging out sideways to carry you. Both mean the shape is propping you up rather than you holding it.

Ways to adjust it

• Chair
• Wall
• Toes floor
• Foot on calf only

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

• Tree Pose: Holding Chair

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Tree Pose versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

• Tree Pose: At Wall
• Tree Pose: Foot on Chair
• Tree Pose: Holding Chair
• Tree Pose: Lift & Lower
• Tree Pose: Side-Lying
• Tree Pose: Toes on Floor

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.