For our final class of the shortened, six week course, we are playing with spinal extensions again – such an important aspect of our practice, but, often, quite challenging. Our lifestyles and the structures surrounding us (car bucket seats, armchairs, etc.) certainly don’t help us extend our spines and “un-hunch,” so we have to be quite intentional about it during our practice, and remain aware of our posture throughout our days. Here is a practice to help you do just that.
Mid-Spine bolster variations:
Allow the spine to be like a “wet noodle” – especially the lower back. Open arms enough to relax them to floor, especially backs of wrists.Bring elbows and palms together while lying over the bolster with relaxed spine. Stretch arms behind you to floor and beyond, if possible, as far as you can while keeping elbows together. Eventually, elbows and then hands will have to come apart. Relax lower back.Lift hips and place arms as though getting ready for full backbend. Keep elbows near ears, draw shoulder blades down back. Slowly lower hips, if possible, keeping lower back long and elbows near ears.
Block between shoulder blades:
Place block so it supports neck by catching bottom of skull. Pull shoulder blades apart (give yourself bear hug), lift hips to really settle onto block and dig between shoulder blades, then release down slowly and open into cactus arms. Elbows higher than wrists.
Block under hips and external rotation of arms:
Place block under sacrum at whatever height is appropriate for you. Externally rotate arms, one at a time or both at the same time, if possible, hold ankles, then lift hips. These are progressions, go only to point that is comfortable – engage abdominal muscles, not glutes throughout.Place forearms and hands parallel to each other, shoulder width apart. Lift knees and hips, keeping belly moving towards thighs (can bend knees)
Child’s pose -> Cat -> Cobra and back:
Begin in child’s pose, arms wide, draw belly in and up into cat pose, then shift hips forward and lift heart – either in cobra or spinhx (on elbows) depending on what the lower back needs (sphinx best if lower back is tight). Reverse process to return to child’s pose. Repeat 3 or more times.
Dhanurasana | Bow pose
Begin with forehead to floor, one leg stretched back, arm on same side stretched forward; hold inside of ankle with externally rotated arm on other side. Press top of long leg into floor. If back allows, hold both ankles with externally rotated arms. Engage abdominals, relax glutes as much as possible.
Ustrasana | Camel pose
Begin with toes tucked under – blanket under knees can help one feel more comfortable. If back allows it, place one hand on heel, then other, then both. If comfortable, try with toes pointed, but respect your back, please! 🙂
End with forward folds, plow pose (if appropriate) and twists.
While riding, have you ever been instructed to sit upright, draw your shoulders back, stop rounding, etc…? Some of us drop our heads to watch our horses’ heads and necks, some have tightness in the shoulders that has built up over time or due to injury, some suffer from a lack of confidence, and some women have unconsciously been hiding their chests since puberty.
For dressage riders, learning how to extend and lift the upper spine without tightening the lower back is especially important. We want to be able to sit elegantly and effectively on our horses while following their movements with suppleness, ease, and feel. “Sit like a queen” is often my mantra! 🙂
Even those of us who don’t suffer from actual kyphosis, or a chronically rounded upper spine, may find ourselves moving through the day in a less-than-optimal posture, often due to lifestyle, e.g., sitting by a computer and looking down at the keyboard and/or screen, and the structures around us, e.g., car bucket seats. The upper spine tends to get “locked long,” with the shoulders drawing forward, and the collar bones and sternum caving in and down. The good news is that, almost always, we can undo this limiting posture by making a conscious effort to undo the soft-tissue patterns that hold us in it. Read on about what you can do in your home practice to continue this work, which, of necessity, also involves opening the shoulders (password for this post: “knots”).
Warm up with a cat/cow sequence, then lie down over a bolster at your mid-spine, with the armpits just clearing the bolster, and arms wide (“cactus arms”). Placing the block under your head may be useful as you initially allow the back to release. Thursday practitioners can add “back-bending arms” – remember not to allow the elbows to splay out.
Lift your hips to initially place the arms into position, then slowly lower the hips. Take care to allow the upper spine to extend, rather than doing the work with the lower back.
Next, take half-dog pose, with the option of keeping the crown of the head on the ground (Thursday practitioners) while lifting into the pose. Note that the arm alignment is absolutely vital here, with the elbows no wider than shoulder width apart – almost all of you can hedge your bets and place the elbows no wider than the block (see photo below). The earlier blog post, half-dog and variations, has details about this asana, and is a great place to start for those of you new to this practice.
Details of correct and incorrect arm alignment for half dog. Upper left photo shows middle finger in line with middle of elbow. Upper right photo shows practitioner holding onto block, while lower two photos show elbows too wide (lower left0 and wrists coming in (lower right).Remember parallel alignment of your lower arms, pressing down on inner wrists, and drawing lowest ribs in towards each other.
Move onto our child’s-pose-to-cobra dynamic vinyasa. Starting with arms wide on the mat while in child’s pose, remember to externally rotate your upper arms and to “suck” them back into their sockets. Exhale while coming into cat pose (arms are a little more forward than we would usually have them in cat pose), then inhale as you come into a cobra. Reverse the movement to get back to child’s pose, and repeat 3 or more times, feeling the spine becoming more supple and snake-like with each repetition.
Keep elbows bent back (not out to sides) if keeping arms straight irritates your lower back.
Lie down on your back, and place a block under your sacrum, clasping the hands if you can reach beyond the block.
Block under hips, arms clasped: place block under sacrum, and relax hips completely. Interlace your fingers beyond block if you can reach. Lift sternum (breastbone) up. Make sure your feet and knees are no wider than hip width apart.
If you’d like to extend the spine and chest more, rotate your arms out and take hold of your ankles from the inside.
Turn your arms into external rotation, as shown in photo – start with thumb up and then rotate it away from body towards floor.With both arms externally rotating, hold ankles from inside. This may or may not be available to you, so don’t struggle – simply try one hand at a time, and eventually your spine will extend enough to allow for this asana.
Thursday practitioners: take the ustrasana, or camel pose, dynamic variation from child’s pose to camel pose and back. Remember that we continue to hold the heels throughout the movement between postures – you could think of this as the pose above (sacrum on block, hands holding insides of ankles), except with a different relationship to gravity. Take care not to rush into this variation, as the lower back will again try take over the work of the upper spine if the latter is not ready to unlock just yet, causing irritation and even pain in the lower back. Be patient and disciplined in your practice, and all will come 🙂 .
Keep knees, lower leg and feet parallel and hip width apart during this dynamic set of poses.
Thursday practitioners: Securely lean two blocks against the baseboard of a wall. Place head between blocks, feet hip width apart, lift heels, push hands into blocks, and lift sternum up and towards wall; hips will follow and you will find yourselves in urdhva dhanurasana, or a backbend!
Be sure that elbows do not flare out to sides. If lower back feels good, you can place heels down.
Thursday practitioners: if the backbend on the blocks was comfortable, you can take the same pose on the ground. Same principles of alignment apply as for the pose on the blocks. If, and only if, you are very stable in your arms and have no neck issues, you may push into the backbend with the intermediate step of pausing on the crown of the head, then with a second breath pushing into the full pose. If that is not the case, then please don’t attempt the pose on the ground just yet.
Full backbend with intermediate step and breath on crown of head. Be sure to use your core and relax your glutes.
End the practice with some easy forward folds and twists to undo all of the spinal extension work, and then enjoy a well-deserved savasana!
Our four weeks of spinal extensions conclude with the full backbend, a pose towards which we have been moving by exploring how to extend and stretch the spine and undo muscular patterns that make such movement challenging. Much of this has to do with tight shoulders, of course, but mid- and upper-back muscles that are “locked long” are also culprits. We also need strong abdominal muscles to do a backbend, something that might be surprising to those new to this practice. Strong use of the abdominals allows the back muscles to relax into the backbend/spinal extension pose and ensures that the spine stretches out evenly into the pose.
We begin by opening the fronts of the hips, including the psoas muscles.
Low lunge with arms up: Imagine the you are about to slide the front heel backwards (but it doesn’t budge) – this will engage your core and provide you with stability and balance. If needed, a blanket can be used under the back knee, but try to become light on that knee by pressing the top of the back foot strongly into the ground – another way that you can engage core and maintain stability.If you are stable and able to relax the trapezius, you may take your head back. Do so only if this feels comfortable – the neck arches out gracefully from between the shoulder blades. Reach the arms strongly up and back, keeping the elbows straight. Strong abdominals are the key; lift the sternum up.
Taking a pose from last week’s practice, we open up the shoulders, with or without the block.
Clasp the hands and move the elbows just wide enough apart to wiggle your head through them. Make sure that your elbows do not move out when you take the position. If using the block, draw the upper arm bones back into the shoulder socket consciously. Keep the core strong so that the lower back does not sag.
We then prepare the lower body for the backbend action.
Bridge pose, arms clasped: Feet are hip-width apart and parallel; imagine that you are holding a soccer ball between your legs (or, you could place a block between the thighs and hold it very lightly). Lift the sternum, open the angle at the backs of the knees and clasp the hands under your back, rolling the outer arms under you. There is a small space under your neck, and the head presses somewhat into the ground. Breathe well.
Next, we prepare the upper body, using the bolster as we did last week. The bolster informs the mid-spine how it needs to extend when attempting the backbend.
Lift the hips to place the hands in position, then slowly replace the hips to the ground without losing the hands. Soften the back muscles to do so. If the hands insist on coming together and the elbows go out, use a block under your head to help you keep the arms apart, and a belt just above your elbows to help keep the elbows from splaying out (“side reins”).
Finally, we move into the backbend by lifting the lower body first, then lifting the upper body.
Place the hands shoulder-width apart on either side of the head. Lift the heels, which are as close as possible to the hips, and then press the knees forward – this action will pull the hips off the ground slightly, allowing the spine to stretch and sway, like a hammock.Next, open the angle in the back of the knees and lift the hips, bringing the shoulders close to the feet and the ribs more vertical. Be sure to engage the abdominals, but keep the glutes are relaxed as possible.Finally, push the ground away with your hands and you lift into the full backbend. Again, check that you are engaging your abdominals, relaxing your glutes, and imagine a soccer ball between your knees. You elbows must remain no wider than shoulder-width as you are coming up to execute this pose in correct alignment and without undue strain in the shoulders or lower back. Eventually, you will be able to shift the shoulders over the wrists more and straighten the legs.
Backbends/heart openers are powerful poses that can release a lot of emotions. They are energizing and fun, but they do take practice! Do not be discouraged if they feel impossible at first – practice the previous week’s poses, practice the poses that lead up to backbends, be disciplined, and all will come 🙂
We are continuing our four weeks of spinal extensions with another delicious pose, ustrasana, or camel pose. The preparatory poses for this “main event” are the same as for dhanurasana, so please review the sequence from last week’s post.
You might notice that ustrasana is just dhanurasana on the knees and with the head back. However, the different relationship to gravity makes this pose challenging in different ways. Once you have prepared you body by practicing dhanurasana, you may mindfully move onto the following poses:
With toes curled under, and possibly a blanket under your knees if they feel sensitive, take the knees, shins and feet hip width apart. Place the hands with the fingers pointing up on your sacrum. Keep the chin in as you lift the sternum and extend the spine, while keeping the hips over the knees. Engage the abdominal muscles, release the glute muscles.From the previous pose, if you shoulders can release back and down and your neck feel comfortable, allow the head to go back. All of the alignment cues from the previous pose apply here as well.With legs and feet in the same position as in previous poses, take one arm to the heel on the same side, and the other arm reaches up strongly to the sky.Switch to the other arm on heel and opposite arm up.Ustrasana, camel pose: With toes curled under, take the hands to both heels, palms facing out with upper arms in external rotation. Engage the abdominal muscles, but try to release the glute muscles – they will engage a little, but tend to “misbehave” and get too tight, thereby stiffening the back. The hips remain over the knees, and the sternum lifts.Ustrasana: If you were comfortable with the toes curled under and able to keep your hips over your knees, you can try the pose with toes pointed. If all is well, continue onto the active transition in and out of the pose, available in the mini-video below.
This week’s main event pose, dhanurasana, or bow pose, starts the backbending/front opening series we are undertaking for the next month. Most people who find backbends challenging have tight shoulders, a difficult time allowing the thoracic spine to extend, or both. Those who find backbends easy need to really focus on alignment and strength, as they can easily overdo the action in the shoulders, elbows, or lower back.
It is especially important to focus on engaging the abdominal muscles when backbending (when is this not important?! ;-), as this will prevent the lower back from overarching, and move the curve up into the thoracic spine (technically, we are not really curving the mid-spine when backbending, we are simply straightening it out; however, thinking of the curve moving up the spine might help one visualize the pose).
The level of difficulty increases as one moves from backends that originate on the belly > to back bends that originate on the knees or standing > to backbends that originate on the back (standing backbends can be some of the most demanding as well when balancing on one foot). The following series will help you explore the mid-spinal extension necessary for undertaking backbends, and introduce the easiest backbends, those practiced from the belly.
Bolster under the mid-spine area, with block under the head. Drape over the bolster (a rolled up blanket or towel) and ensure that you are not arching the lower back.Once your body has adjusted to the bolster, you may wish to experiment with taking the block away from under the head. If, however, you end up looking and feeling like the photo at the top, replace the block or use a blanket under the head – this will simply tighten the very muscles you are trying to release. Your spine will eventually drape over the bolster like a wet noodle 🙂Place the block between the shoulder blades with the narrow side up, so that the upper part of the block just catches the bottom of the skull (this will support the neck). Place your hands under your head to help make the transition and traction your neck long. This may feel very intense at first, so try to soften the muscles in the back and make certain that you are not over arching the lower back.Eventually, you will be able to drape over the block, as you did over the bolster, with the block massaging the tight muscles between and under the shoulder blades.Block under hips, arms clasped: place the block under the sacrum, and relax the hips completely. Interlace your fingers beyond the block if you can reach. Lift the sternum (breastbone) up. Make sure your feet and knees are no wider than hip width apart.Turn your arms into external rotation, as shown in the photo – start with thumb up and then rotate it away from the body towards the floor. Notice that I am lifting the heels up to bring the feet as close to my hands as possible.With both arms externally rotating, hold the ankles from the inside. This may or may not be available to you, so don’t struggle – simply try one hand at a time, and eventually your spine will extend enough to allow for this asana.From the hands and knees, place the pinky fingers on the edge of the mat, while being mindful to “plug” the upper arm bones into the shoulder sockets by externally rotating the upper arm bones. Relax the head and neck, while adjusting the knees to be under the hips. Then, with abdominal muscles well engaged, release the sternum towards the floor (it us unlike that it will touch! it’s just the general direction of the energy)From the previous pose, lift the back and arch into a cat-like pose (even though your arms are quite a lot more forward than in a normal cat pose). Pull the belly button up to the spine. [Margarita Cat decided to come and help with alignment..]From cat pose, let the spine ripple forward and into a cobra pose. Keep the hands where they are, and keep the elbows straight it you can; if you cannot, then bend them as little as possible to allow your spine to make the movement. The hips ripple forward and down to the floor. Then bend the elbows and rest on your belly.
Use balasana, or child’s pose, between the following poses to release the back.
Stretch one arm forward, and hold the inside of the back leg (on the same side) with the other arm. Gently push the hipbone into the ground without over-squeezing the glutes.Lift the upper body and front arm, while simultaneously lifting the bent back leg only. The straight leg remains on the ground.Hold both feet from the inside of the ankles, forehead on the ground. Engage your abdominal muscles strongly, gently pushing the front hip bones into the ground while simultaneously releasing over-squaring in the glutes.Begin by lifting the knees and thighs off the ground, then lift the upper body off the ground. Imagine your are holding a soccer ball between the thighs. Breathe!
Finish the practice by stretching out the back in child’s pose, or halasna, plow pose, if it’s not counter indicated for you.
