It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog (juggling teaching and toddler-mum life with a pandemic put the brakes on all my best writing intentions!) but I’m back and excited to start sharing more of this beautiful practice with you on here again.
Our focus for March is backbends, and we kick off the month with one of my favourite workshops to teach: Spacious And Easeful Backbends, Saturday 6 March, 2-4.30pm at Eastside Yoga Edinburgh (book your spot here).
Backbends are my go-to family of postures when I’m feeling tense and in need of an energetic and emotional boost. When done with patience and a steady approach, backbends are rejuvenating, revitalising and can provide us with a great sense of clarity, spaciousness and openness. They open up the entire front body, open the diaphragm and lungs, create strength and flexibility in our spines, all of which boost our vitality and resilience.
However, when we’re tight, unprepared, or overly forceful, we can wind up creating unnecessary tension, strain and even agitation and overstimulation.
The secret to successful backbending is cultivating balanced sensations throughout the spine, as well as the shoulders and pelvis (and arms and legs). You want to distribute effort evenly between the lumbar, thoracic and cervical spine.
The lumbar and cervical spine naturally have more range of motion, but we want to feel an even sensation throughout the spine, rather than compression and discomfort in one region (most commonly the lumbar or cervical). It can therefore also be really helpful to focus on mobilising the thoracic to minimise this (I’ll share my favourite thoracic openers soon), especially if you experience a lot of restriction here.
These are the key actions that form the foundation of all backbends and what I’m looking to create when I practice them:
Ground and firm the legs: The legs are the pillars of the pelvis and create a stable base from which to lift and lengthen the spine
Internally rotate the thighs: This broadens the back of the pelvis and helps create space and length in the lumbar. If you or your student has a greater natural degree of internal rotation, allow for a bit of external rotation to create balance in the pelvis.
Move the pelvis up and back over the thighs: Think about lifting the front of the hips up and away from the thighs and lengthening your tailbone towards your heels, to minimise compression in the lumbar.
Press the shoulder blades against the ribs: Like the pelvis, the shoulder blades are also a fulcrum to facilitate movement. Firm them against the back ribs to help lift and open the chest. This also helps distribute the backbend more evenly throughout the spine.
Remember to breathe: Go slow, go steady. Notice the pace and texture of your breath as you practice backbends, and use that as an indicator as to the physiological impact of your practice. Moving fast or forcefully will create unnecessary tension in body and mind.
Start by applying these techniques to prone backbends such as cobra, sphinx and locust to build awareness and sensitivity, then work on building deeper backbends such as wheel and forearm wheel from there. Take time to balance and calm the nervous system afterwards by doing a few gentle forward folds (for example: sukasana, baddha konasana) and twists to round out your practice before savasana.
Backbends are a family of postures that require a lot of patience, integrity and balance, but when they feel even and integrated, they are a wonderful tonic for mind, body and spirit.