Standing Backbend is Easy like ABCD

Backbend may sound scary to many people. Our spine is born naturally in that curvy shape and bending the spine in opposite way will look like we try to break it and hurt our body.

A big NO NO here.

Backbend is so so good because we usually do not work on our spine. We sit, we stand and we walk with unconsciously rounding our shoulders and back in daily activities. A stretch of the body part that we habitually stay for the same position for too long hours is extremely important to help in mobilizing the spine, preventing us from getting injury easily. It is a way to get the back muscles strong and flexible while stretching the front body muscles at the same time.

To get into backbend safely, here you go.

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STANDING BACKBEND

ANUVITTASANA

You can stand with your feet in hip width apart, to stabilize your body better.

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OPTION 1: Place both palms on the back of hip (sacrum position)

A- INHALE - lengthen the spine, chest up

B - EXHALE - push your hip forward

C -INHALE - roll your shoulder blades back and further lengthen the spine, chest up

D -EXHALE - drop your shoulder blades down, chest still up, thigh is active

Fact Fun is..... You will feel your glutes or buttock muscles so firm and nicely engaged!

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OPTION 2: Interlock your fingers at the back of the hip

A - INHALE - lengthen the spine, chest up

B - EXHALE - push your hip forward

C - INHALE - roll your shoulder blades back and further lengthen the spine, chest up

D - EXHALE - drop your shoulder blades down, chest still up, thigh is active

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OPTION 3: Raise both arms up above the head, possibly next to the ears

A - INHALE - raise both arms up, lengthen the spine, pull shoulder blades up

B - EXHALE - push your hip forward

C - INHALE - roll your shoulder blades back and further lengthen the spine, chest up

D - EXHALE - drop your shoulder blades down, chest still up, thigh is active

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The reason I highlight the B -EXHALE in backbend is because most of the people may forget to push the hip forward. Without working on your hip or pelvis, lower back or your lumbar spine will be compressed.

There is a saying, you will experience sweet pain during the yoga practice. If you still have the pain after the practice, it is a bad pain and you most probably worked on the wrong muscles or posture.

Highlights:

Always remember to work on the hip.

Each INHALE, chest is UP.

Rolling the shoulder blades is great in opening up the chest and bringing the arms more backward, and deeper backbend!

For every backbend, it must be followed by a forward bend to counter-stretch the body.

I am happy if you can share me your backbend journey in the comment below! :)

Here I created my very first yoga tutorial as many people asking me how-to in yoga poses, especially basic yoga poses. Once I started to teach, I only realized there are a lot of experienced beginners where they knew what are the yoga poses and how to perform it, but not doing it right and missed many chances to gain the full benefits of such yoga pose/asana.

Sometimes, a simple thing comes so easily and making us might have had ignored our intention while drawing our attention to complication in our life.

Watch the full tutorial video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPxFkwAZn5I

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P.S. This is for beginner, only 2 breaths stay with A-B-C-D guidance. For experienced one, try to roll and drop the shoulder blades down in step B to complete one full cycle of breath, and repeat for 3 breaths.

Cheers!