Some Fundamentals For Reinventing the Wheel and Practicing Healthy Backbends

Extend, don't bend. Backbends create an immediate desire for people to bend backward. Not unusual since the word is right there in the name of many of the poses in this catagory. Almost immediately, we have a tendency to try and bend as far back as we can. Off we go into the wild, vast unknown of space where lower backs and necks can suffer the most in practicing these poses. Bending your spine rather than extending your spine in backbends is not the way to go back.

People over-bend and often compress their spine in backbends. Using the visual of extending your spine like an arc can help avoid deep, sharp angles along the spine, and could reduce the risk of shortening and possibly compressing the space between vertebrae.

White Lotus likes to instruct you to practice back bending poses along the front of the body. This keeps your attention focused on lifting and lengthening in the pose, no matter the type of back arching pose you are practicing. Bows, camels, wheels, even the standing back arch, or the opening of a C series salutation, when focused along the front of the spine, will keep you in the present and keep you practicing the pose in much safer and more beneficial way. 

We also like you to think of backbends as poses that require strength rather than flexibility. In truth, they require a balance of both. But focusing on the strength required to lift into a wheel, or to successfully bend back in the standing arch at the opening of a C series salutation, will help you remain anchored in the base or foundation of the posture. It will also keep you focused on moving from the correct parts of the body. Moving in strength will also keep you focused on your core and hopefully from collapsing in your lower back or from over-bending your neck. 

Bending is not the main aim of these postures. To emphasize flexibility in backbending asanas often results in too much bending of the spine. Aiming for spinal flexibility, rather than moving into these poses with the flexibility necessary in the quadriceps or from determining the openness of the shoulders, often results in compression of the spine. Attention is key in practicing backbends and you want to know where you are coming from.

These little keys placed into the fundamentals of practicing could help you reinvent your wheel.