Embodying the Serpent: Finding an open back bend

Why is it that some people have better backbends than others?

And when we are working on backbends, do we have to “protect” the spine?

Should I tuck my tailbone to get a deeper backbend, even though that makes it more difficult?

And why is everybody always talking about heart opening in backbends?

As a teacher, backbends are some of my favourite poses to teach. People leave classes focused on backbends worked in a way they don’t get in other poses. It seems there is a special quality in these poses, that creates energetic shifts in the body in amazing ways.

And yet, many of my students struggle with backbends. Either they don’t “go deep enough” or they have a history of back pain, and hold fear around backbending. Some are trying to “protect” their spines by activating their abdominal muscle wall. Others are naturally flexible, and after a few years are starting to develop pain, or discomfort in the backbends.

Sometimes how we think about a pose can have a profound affect on how we feel in the pose, and even on the outer form. The idea that we need to protect the spine can create tightness around what should be a fluidly moving chain of bones. It is true that some parts of the spine have more mobility than others, but it is also true that if the spine all works together, the load and bend gets shared throughout all the joints.

Instead of freezing, or stiffening one area of the spine, we must learn to create movement and flow in all areas.

One example is this. I took an “anatomy” class a few years ago, and the teacher told me that the thoracic spine does not bend backwards. Lumbar vertebrae, she said, have all the bend, and the thoracic just go along but do not have extension in their joint structure. She had all the students in the class watch me do a cobra-like movement and then said “see, it doesn’t move.” This teacher was trained in shiatsu, and other massage disciplines.

So for a few years I was holding this notion, which does indeed create the scenario, in which the majority of the bend in the backbend comes from the lumbar spine. (If you want to try this, lay on your belly, tuck your chin to your throat and do a little push up, until the ribs come off the floor. The pushing up movment with your arms hinges in the lower back, which is where the bulk of your movement will be).

 It wasn’t until working with someone with a better understanding of movement mechanics, that I started to understand, which went along with my own initial instincts.

The spine is a chain. Healthy backbending means each facet of that chain participates with the rest.

We can take inspiration from the names of backbend poses – cobra, fish, wheel, bow, or bridge. When a snake moves, the balance of curves in the snake is what moves it forward. A snake literally can’t move without moving as a whole. And Similarly with a bridge, or a bow, without an even distribution of weight and bend, the physics would not work.

But it is not only that. When the whole spine works as one, it creates a sense of freedom in the body. Backbends don’t get “deeper” through straining the joints. They get deeper thorugh moving through the whole chain of the spine, and letting the whole chain extend. When you find this flow, this snaking quality in the pose, it can feel more expressive, open and energetic. Usually poses done in this way also look better more balanced.

 All yoga poses are dynamic, and back bends are no exception. When you move with the whole spine, and breathe in the pose, what open are possibilities of feeling that are not available in other poses. Some people call this “heart opening”, others experience clarity, energy or presence. Camel pose is the pose I have experienced the most students (and myself) feeling emotional or bursting into tears. It is the magic of backbends, and why we should practice for long term health – so we can do more!