Why (Healthy) Yoga Backbends Are Easier Said than Done

The short answer to this question is that, from an anatomically functional point of view, yoga backbends are counter-intuitive. How so?

When we are in utero, our entire spine is in flexion, that is, it has a convex shape, as in child's pose (balasana). This is known as the primary curve. As we are born and begin to learn to hold the head up and look around, our necks develop a concave, inward, curve, as do our low backs as we begin to crawl, stand and walk. Thus, the cervical (neck) and low back (lumbar) spinal curves are known as secondary, that is, they develop post-birth. The thoracic (upper back) curve and the convex shape of the sacrum are primary, that is, they develop and are present prior to birth.

In terms of movement, the primary and secondary curves interact in a reciprocal relationship per Kaminoff and Matthews (2012): the more you decrease or increase one, the more the other wants to do the opposite. So, if I increase my upper back curve (like a cat), for example, my lumbar and cervical curves will decrease, that is, they will flatten or round. Reversely, if I decreased my upper back curve by lifting my chest, for example, my lumbar and cervical curves will increase, that is, they will deepen and arch more. This is true regardless of where I choose to initiate the movement from: if I increase one of my primary curves, the secondary curves will decrease; if I reduce one of my primary curves, the secondary curves will increase.

Anyone who has been to a few yoga classes knows that when we do yoga backbends, we want to "bend" from the upper back while lengthening the low back and keeping it from over-arching (hyper-extending). Based on what I said in the previous paragraph, this might seem counter-intuitive, and you will be correct.

Going a bit deeper with this, in an intuitive backbend, if you lifted and spread your front chest--broadening the collarbones, lifting the sternum, externally rotating the upper arms, and contracting your upper back/shoulderblade muscles--and you didn't do anything else, your low back will then arch to the best of its ability, the front of your pelvis will widen and disengage in a sense, the back of your pelvis will contract or over-engage if you will, your legs and knees will turn out and you will end up with Charlie Chaplin feet, which, whether you feel it or not, creates enormous compression in your low back, especially in a backbend. This is true regardless of how much flexibility/fluidity you have in your spine. If someone doesn't tell you to turn your legs in and you don't train yourself to do it on a consistent and mindful basis, you will invariably end up with Charlie Chaplin feet and a crunched low back. In essence, in an intuitive backbend, the opening of the shoulder girdle in the front will create a corresponding opening of the pelvic girdle in the front.

In a yoga backbend, we would be wise to backbend counter-intuitively. That is, if/as/before you lifted and spread your front chest, you would be wise to align your legs and pelvic girdle in the opposite direction, that is, the back of the pelvis broadens and widens, while the front of the pelvis engages and lifts up to facilitate further opening of the chest above it. In very schematic and broad terms, in a yoga backbend, we want the shoulder girdle to open from the front and contract in the back with the corresponding external rotation of the upper arms; conversely, we want to the back of the pelvic girdle to widen and broaden while the front of the pelvis engages like a drawstring in the front, which draws the hips points towards each other, coupled with a zipping action from the pubic area on up the front of the torso.

Going even a bit deeper with this, I would like to talk about the breath, because what kind of yoga are we doing if we are not breathing mindfully and coordinately with our movement. When we inhale, the diaphragm moves down, the ribs expand, the lungs fill with air and turn in, the hip points in the front gently (imperceptibly) turn in towards each other, and the low back and sacrum regions spread. (As a caveat, from that point of view, the cue to lengthen the spine on an inhale, often used in yoga classes, doesn't make much sense.) When we exhale, the opposite happens: the diaphragm lifts, the ribs draw in, the lungs turn out, the whole spine elongates, the chest lifts, and the arms turn out. This I learned from Jenny Otto a few years back.

So, to practice an optimal yoga backbend, we broadly need to create an inhale quality in the low back and sacral areas, while creating an exhale quality in the upper back/chest area. Ironically perhaps, in order to do that, we need to keep the diaphragm lifted on the inhale (so that it doesn't push down into the abdominal cavity and distend the belly), which will expand the ribcage laterally/sideways. On the exhale, though, we still need to exhale as if we expanded the belly on the inhale, and draw the belly in and up even further. And all this without clenching your teeth and bulging your eyes for example. Have fun and good luck! Healthy yoga backbends are easier said than done, but they are worth it, even if a bit overrated :).