Revealing interesting facts about backbend pose in yoga

Backbend in yoga is quite a beautiful movement, however, to be able to master these movements is not easy.

Did you know the spine is a combination of strength and flexibility? The spine has strong bones and strong muscles that help protect sensitive nerves, while ligaments and tendons help the spine move flexibly.

The backbend movements in yoga will help protect these two characteristics by increasing mobility, while strengthening the supporting muscles around the skeleton. Curious about backbend moves? Let’s see the sharing below with easyhealthylive.com to understand more about this group of movements.

Overview of the backbend

Backbend, also known as leaning back, bending back … is a very familiar group of movements for yoga practitioners, whether new or experienced. This group of movements will include basic movements that almost every yoga class has, such as cobra pose, bridge pose, back plank pose…

Backbend moves are divided into 3 types:

• Traction group: The body bends and pulls the body completely backward. Typical representatives of this group are camel pose (Ustrasana) or wheel pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana).
• Lever group: Use the strength of your arms or legs to bend your back deeply backward. Typical representatives are bow pose (Danurasana) and cobra pose (Bhujangasana).
• Contraction group: This is a group of movements where the back muscles are contracted to resist gravity. The representative of this group of movements is the grasshopper pose (Salabhasana).

Principles when practicing backbend movements

Backbend is a group of movements very familiar to yoga practitioners

Warm up before training

This is necessary when doing all yoga exercises, not just backbend movements. Normally, in daily activities such as sitting, working, driving, texting… we tend to bend our back and shoulders. Meanwhile, back bends will do the opposite of this and so you will need to warm up gently to make your body more flexible before performing.

You can warm up gently with a series of sun salutations. The first poses in this series will help you easily do the cobra pose or the dog face up.

Practice postures that support back bending

Leaning back movements also work to stretch the front of the body, thereby expanding and relaxing the hip and surrounding muscles such as the upper thighs (quadriceps), hip flexors, and low back muscles. can be useful for backbend practice. To do this, you can practice movements such as lunge, reclined hero pose.

In addition, the chest and shoulders also need to be warmed up and extended when performing the recline. To do this, you can practice forward bends with feet wide, hands clasped behind you (Prasarita Padottanasana C) or some back-bending movement like grasshopper pose. to best prepare your body before conquering more difficult backbend poses like wheel pose.

In addition, doing core exercises before practicing the back lean movements can also be helpful as these exercises will help you pay more attention to the front of the body, which in turn can protect the core in the postures. backbend position. However, doing core exercises before backbend poses can cause muscles to contract, to avoid this situation, you can do an inversion like dolphin pose between core and dynamic exercises. Backbend to neutralize the muscles and warm up the back and shoulders.

Benefits of backbends

Backbend – A group of beautiful poses with countless health benefits

Physically

Reclining movements can help:

• Soften the spine and circulate the energy flow from the bottom of the spine to the top.
• Stretch the quadriceps and hip flexors, while also expanding the shoulders and chest, an area that’s often stressed.
• Build strength in legs, arms and back muscles
• Stimulates the activity of the digestive system
• Protect the health of vertebrae and spinal discs
• Improves posture and helps relieve back and neck pain by increasing mobility and awareness of the spine

About the spirit

When faced with danger, our bodies will tend to shrink to protect the most vulnerable part – the heart. However, backbend does the opposite of this by helping you express yourself, courageously overcoming fear, both in yoga and in life.

Not only that, difficult backbend movements also help to release accumulated emotions in the body such as disappointment, fear, anger, sadness as well as joy and love.

Suggested backbend exercise sequence from 40 to 50 minutes

Camel Pose – The backbend is beautiful, but it’s not easy to conquer

1. Hero Pose – Virasana – 2 minutes
2. Supta Virasana – Supta Virasana: 2-3 minutes
3. Cow Face Pose – Gomukhasana: 2 – 4 minutes (1 – 2 minutes on each side)
4. Adho Mukha Svanasana Downward Dog Pose: 1 minute
5. Adho Mukha Vrksasana Banana Planting Pose: 30 seconds
6. Tadasana Mountain Pose: 1 minute

Then step your feet away to do:

1. Extended Side Pose – Utthita Parsvakonasana: 2 minutes (hold for about 1 minute on each side)
2. Warrior Pose 1 – Virabhadrasana I: 2 minutes (1 minute on each side)
3. Purvottanasana Reverse Plank Pose: 2 – 3 minutes (Repeat three times, hold for 30 seconds to one minute each time)
4. Cobra Pose Bhujangasana: 2-3 minutes (repeat three times, each time holding for 30 seconds to one minute)
5. Salabhasana: 2 – 3 minutes (repeat three times, each time holding for 30 seconds to one minute)
6. Bow Pose Dhanurasana: 1 minute
7. Ustrasana Camel Pose: 1 minute
8. Urdhva Dhanurasana Wheel Pose: 1-3 minutes (Repeat three to five times, hold for 15 to 30 seconds each time)
9. Salamba Sarvangasana Shoulder Stand: Hold for three to five minutes
10. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana Bridge Pose: 1 minute
11. Matsyasana Fish Pose: 30 seconds to 1 minute
12. Marichyasana III: 3 minutes (Turn each side three times, hold each side for 30 seconds)
13. Savasana Corpse Pose: 10 minutes

Note when practicing reclining movement

Should you practice reclining movements if you have a back injury or have health problems such as spondylolisthesis, herniated disc…? This will depend on your condition, there will be some poses that are suitable and there will be some that should be avoided. Therefore, it is best to consult a doctor and only practice under the guidance of a professional yoga teacher.

Reference source

Bend Back, Feel the Buzz https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/yoga-sequences/backbends/ Accessed date: 8/1/2021

5 Steps to Safer Backbends https://yogainternational.com/article/view/5-steps-to-safer-backbends Accessed: January 8, 2021

All about backbends https://www.ekhartyoga.com/articles/practice/all-about-backbends Accessed: January 8, 2021