Beneficial Back Bends

I love back bends. I am sure they have helped my back ache. Those of us who do gardening naturally take our hands to our hips afterwards and stretch back as a counter pose. We are very aware of how our back feels and therefore rarely over do the movement preventing aggravating something in your back. In general backbends are not a natural movement and therefore it is important to focus on them in our yoga practise. However, sometimes we can try too hard.

Rodney Yee – a yoga teacher likens the heart to Grand Central Station. “You want everything to flow through it. When you over bend anywhere in the spine, it’s like creating a kink in a garden hose. You block the energy flow. When you align yourself properly, you can bring energy to your heart centre. And at the end of your practise, you will feel euphoria. There’ll be an energetic clarity instead of an energetic blasting.”

At the end of practising backbends have you sometimes felt completely exhausted when you’ve just been told they are energizing poses? This may be because there is some compression of the vertebra in the lower back or perhaps the neck.

When you practise back bends and be gentle with yourself.
Be gentle with your spine – imagine it like a wheel. Always keep the lower back long and free from compression. Also avoid over bending your neck, especially at the nape of the neck. Learn to keep your neck long thinking of it as a natural extension of the spine.

Stimulate Your Immune System

After John had his cold I thought how could I prevent myself and my students from catching the bug. I decided to focus the lesson on poses that help stimulate the immune system. Back bends are heart opening and invigorating and as you breathe deeply in the poses you can almost feel your body becoming stronger. The three poses we are focusing on are Bhujangasana – the cobra, Setu Bandha Sarvangasana – the bridge, and Matsyasana – the fish.

We warmed up with stretches, neck warm ups and standing poses Trikonasana and the dancing Warrior I (see Jan blog). These heart openers stimulate blood flow and the immune system and therefore practicing these three poses once a day can help prevent colds and flu.

If you are a beginner each of these poses can be lightened. After preparing for the cobra by lifting, lengthening and releasing each leg 3 times, place finger-tips in line with the eyes rather than level with the shoulders. This gives a more gradual curve in the spine. Always remember your pelvic tilt and take long breaths in the pose.










Take nice long breaths visualise the energy travelling from your feet, up along your legs and up through your spine to your heart centre.

Draw back into Virasana Forward Stretch or child pose to release tension in your lower back.

The bridge can be lightened by lifting the hips to create a line from the shoulders, hips and to the knees. Start with the back of your neck long and feet close to your hips. Work your gentle pelvic tilt as you keep the hips lifted so keeping tension out of your lower back. As we’ve been thinking about protecting knees work to keep the knees facing up and not falling in to each other or out.

Take nice long breaths visualise the energy travelling over the front of your body all the way to your knees and down to your feet.





After releasing from the bridge bring your knees to your chest and hug them to you.

In the fish pose the chest lifts and there is no tension in the back of the neck.

Bend your knees, place your hands palms down under your buttocks, elbows tucked in. Don’t think about this next movement too much. Think light thoughts and lift your chest, arching the upper back and rest on your forearms.
Then energize your heart centre with nice long breaths.

Afterwards bring your knees to your chest or the Garland adaptation we did in class to lengthen the spine.

Enjoy!