Many Sides of Backbending

This week my students and I have practiced backbends. Lots and lots of backbends. We included warm up versions of bhujangasana (cobra pose) and salabasana (locust pose), practiced many repetitions of urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog pose), and went deeper into dhanurasana (bow pose). We practiced the backbends one would expect in this group including ustrasana (camel pose), setu bandhasana (bridge pose), and urdhva danurasana (wheel pose).

Why work on so many backbends? In yoga philosophy, the asana (poses) practice is only part of yoga. If there is an objective to the physical practice it is basically to make the world a better place one person at a time. We practice to awaken our consciousness to the unity of all beings. Part of this awareness includes compassion and gratitude. According to yoga philosophy, the anahata chakra (heart center) lies beneath the sternum (breastbone). By practicing backbends, the yogi awakens and becomes aware of this center, allowing compassion and gratitude to flow.

Yoga practice does have physical benefits as well as the philosophical benefits. In addition to all the backbends we worked on poses to strengthen the abdominal muscles like plank, forearm plank, and chaturanga dandasana (low plank pose). We practiced poses intended to stretch the chest and shoulders like gomukhasana (cow face) arms and garudasana (eagle) arms. I included these stretches in the classes to support the backbends with the objective of countering the rounded postures of daily life.

Most of us sit at desks and computers or drive much of the day. Hours of these sitting activities contribute to a rounded upper back with tight muscles around the chest and front of the shoulders. The other side, the upper back muscles, becomes long and weak. Practicing backbends helps to correct hours of sitting by stretching the front of the body and strengthening the back of the body.

Our backbend practice this week can help to prevent repetitive strain injuries by stretching what is tight and strengthening what is weak. But we spend many hours in poor postures and it will take more than a weekly yoga class to reverse the tight chest and shoulders and weak upper back. It helps to take stretch breaks each hour with gomukhasana (cow face) or garudasana (eagle) arms.  We need to be aware of posture all day long in addition to participating a yoga asana practice or gym resistance training and stretching regimen. We can help to correct rounded postures by being mindful throughout the day of drawing the scapula (shoulder blades) onto the back and opening the clavicles (collar bones). Along these lines we can consider almost any pose or posture as a backbend. Even in navasana (boat pose) the correct alignment is to draw the shoulder blades onto the back and to lift the sternum up toward the ceiling. Adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog pose) also is done with a slight backbend with the sternum reaching through the upper arms. Most yoga asanas support good posture by shining the sternum forward rather than collapsing the trunk thus rounding the spine. 

Any of these poses can help to stretch and strengthen as well as to feel compassion and gratitude. Practicing so many backbends this week has certainly awakened my now slightly sore upper back muscles. It also has made me think more about how grateful I am for the students that come to my classes to share their practice with me and to all the people that read my blog posts. Thank you to all of you!

Grateful for Backbends

A student requested that we work on backbends this week. She has tended to neglect those poses in her yoga practice out of concern out of not doing them correctly. I’m glad that she was aware enough to know that backbends done without correct alignment could create pain. The worst part is that experiencing injury in a pose or in any exercise might make anyone hesitant to continue a yoga practice or exercise routine.

So we worked on loads of backbends, from eka pada rajakapotasana (one leg king pigeon pose from low lunge) and bhujangasana (cobra pose) to urdhva mukha svanasana (upward facing dog pose) and ustrasasna (camel pose). We practiced many variations of salambhasana (locust pose) and both dhanurasana (bow pose) and urdhva dhanurasana (wheel pose).

The safety precaution we took in each of the poses is to generate length through the spine even before lifting into the back bend. Imagining the crown of the head reaching forward and the toes reaching backward helps to energize the muscles through the back and strengthen the space between the vertebral bodies, giving a foundation from which to bend. The back bend should truly be from the entire spine, not just the lumbar portion of the spine (low back).

We also worked to stretch the hips and shoulders before going into deeper backbends. These joints need to be flexible even more than the spine does to achieve a pain free backbend. Students also are surprised at how much leg strength is needed in a backbend. So we worked on strengthening the quadriceps muscles (front of the thigh) because these need to contract to find deeper expressions of dhanurasana, urdhva dhanurasana, and ustrasana. Injuries are more likely to happen if people take backbends without preparing the shoulders, hips, and quadriceps.

The intention we set throughout the practice was to experience gratitude. Moving into backbends opens our hearts up to the sky, a great way to breathe gratitude into the heart center. However deep our pose was on the mat during that class, our bodies were working hard to coordinate flexibility in the front of the hips and shoulders, strength in the front of the thighs and strength in the muscles along the spine to create the expression of the pose we found at that moment. Our bodies are amazing and always give us so much for which to be grateful. Even in days we are ill or injured, even when seasonal allergies are acting up, for the most part we need to find gratitude for all our bodies do for us.

Appreciating my body for all it does

Physical aches and pains, even major injuries or illnesses, escape no one. Still, our bodies, whatever their condition, serve us. I commit to treating this body well. This body that moves me from place to place, helps me to sense beauty through scent and sight, this body that interprets sunshine on my skin as a warm and comfortable feeling. I am grateful for all this that my body does for me and in return I will treat it well. I will get up and exercise on a day that I feel like lounging around. I will eat wholesome, pure food when I feel like grabbing an easy, unhealthy meal. I will nurture and protect my body as a way to thank it for serving me so well 24/7/365.