Almost everything we do in life involves bending forwards.   Think about your average day beginning with eating breakfast then driving the car to work, reading, writing, speaking on the phone, to bath-time and bedtime.  In all these everyday activities your arms are in front of you and your spine and shoulders come forward.  Over the years, our forward bending lives can take its toll and we end up in a slump with decreased/increased lumbar curves, shortening of the spine, increased fatigue, discomfort or even worse, acute pain, injury and, therefore, misery.

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Fortunately, our Yoga practice is a wonderful antidote to our forward bending tendency.  Yoga gives us proper alignment, strong abdominal muscles that protect the lower back, increased flexibility and a healthy spinal structure with muscles that work.    When we have a healthy back we tend to have more energy, are more alert, open, adventurous and happy.   Furthermore, we look better and have a spring in our step.

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It is important in our Yoga practice that we include backward bending postures to counteract our

habitual coming forwards.    However backward bending is not quite as familiar as forward bending.  

Forward bends tend to be soothing and introverted in nature.   Backward bends are postures that

turn the body out to face the world.   They are stimulating, dynamic and extroverted.   They can be a little frightening and uncomfortable for many of us.   Backward bending involves leaning back into the unknown, the unseen and challenge our sense of comfort and ease.

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Backward bends are therapeutic.   In the upper spine they open the shoulders, deepen the chest wall and encourage inhalation.  In the mid spine they stretch the abdominal muscles, tone and strengthen the abdominal walls, massage the internal organs and are good for a sluggish digestive system.   In the lower spine they help prevent slipped disc, sciatica and other degenerative changes, strengthen the legs, stretch the groins and tone the spinal nerves running along the whole length of the spinal column clearing congestion and correcting imbalances.   As blood tends to pool in the lower back at the end of the day causing sluggish circulation, discomfort and tiredness backward bends are a perfect antidote. They increase spinal circulation, purify the nerves enriching the blood supply in the spine and psychologically make us feel and look a lot better, taller and stronger.

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It is important to perform our backward bends comfortably and honestly with proper control and synchronisation of the Ujjayi breath so that the whole group of muscles is uniformly and correctly stretched.

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Most of us can achieve a beneficial backward bend to some degree in our practice. 

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However correctly performing some of the more rigorous poses like the Camel, Cobra, Wheel and Bow and gain optimum and lasting benefits from these extraordinary asanas can take months and years of regular practice and patience.  This is why Yoga is not a quick fix.   But the amount of practice is surely worth the effort in later life when we suffer less from discomfort, pain and injury preserving a healthy spine that brings us youth, joy, admiration and personal happiness.    When we use backbends to explore the unknown there is a freedom from fear.  

 

Backbends reach far beyond the physical and into the depths of our personalities helping to remould and,

literally, reshape ourselves.

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Sources:   Yoga Journal, Pub. J B Abbott:: Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, Bihar School: J S Wren personal notes