Flamingo Pose: How long one can stand like a flamingo? The one-leg pose reflects volumes about one’s age and health | – Times of India

Nature has a sneaky way of being an inexhaustible resource when it comes to finding elements that can help us live a healthier, richer and more sustainable life. Whether it’s resorting to Yoga for better mindfulness or organic eating habit that promotes better health – all of it is easily found around us if we take a good look. Natural species too are a source we learn heavily from.Take Flamingos for example. The Flamingos are a type of wading bird mostly found in throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean), and in Afro-Eurasia. Although Flamingos are two-legged, their signature pose makes them a one-legged species with another leg kept crookedly in their standing posture. As per scientific studies, Flamingos expend less energy standing on one leg than in a two-legged stance. While the one-legged stance may be their signature pose, how and why the birds perch on one limb has been a longstanding puzzle. However, according to a new study, how long a human being can keep their balance on one leg can be a good test of their health.

What is flamingo pose?
As the term suggests, flamingo pose is the spitting picture of the bird where one stands on one leg while balancing the other leg. The longer one can hold the balance, the better you perfect the pose.
Benefits of flamingo pose

flamingo yoga pose

Why do Flamingos stand on one leg? This question has been a longstanding puzzle. A team from the United States of America has shown that flamingos employ no active muscular effort when they’re unipedal, meaning they are also expending less energy. Previously, researchers had wondered whether their one-legged position might help reduce muscle fatigue. However, now the studies show that a passive mechanism is engaged in the one-legged position, allowing flamingos to stand proud while having a doze. As per some other researches, it has been proposed that this behaviour helps them regulate body temperature as well.
In humans, the Flamingo pose is a good yardstick to determine their bodies’ health condition. By testing how long people ages 50 and older could hold a one-legged stance, researchers found that the amount of time in which a person can stand on a dominant and nondominant leg significantly decreased with age — and had a larger decline than gait and muscle strength.
According to research, being able to stand on one leg is a good measure of one’s overall health system because balance reflects how the body’s systems are working together. Balance is an important aspect of injury prevention as well, and those who are unable to balance on one leg for more than five seconds could be at risk of falling more. Research says that good balance provides the ability to carry out activities of daily living without the fear of falling, and this leads to improved quality of life and healthy aging.
How flamingo pose reveals one’s fitness level
Studies reveal that the ability to balance is linked to a longer life, with an 84% higher risk of death from any cause for people unable to stand on one leg unsupported for 10 seconds. A good thumb rule is to be able to hold the stance for about 30 seconds or longer for those 69 and younger, about 20 seconds for those 70 to 79 and 10 seconds for those older than 80. For those unable to stand on one leg for long, it could be a symptom that they have a health condition. Such health conditions include cardiac problem or a brain or nervous system issue such as a stroke, dementia or Parkinson’s disease. One could lack balance due to experiencing side effects from medication too. If someone is unable to stand on one leg for more than five seconds, it is advisable to make an appointment with a physician for a full body check-up.
The Flamingo pose test is applicable for younger people as well as it is better to start training one’s body from a younger age, so that one can increase the chance a healthier living in their older age. The Flamingo pose also promotes developing core strength that helps a smooth run of day-to-day activities, and promotes healthy aging.

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