How to Prep for Backbends

In yoga, backbends are by far one of the trickier postures to grasp. There’s lots of engagement occurring in the body and not just in the back, but in the hips and shoulders as well. This is why it’s incredibly important to properly prep for backbending postures.

Basic spinal movements

Before starting any yoga practice, especially one where back bending is involved, it’s important to move the spine in all six directions. This means twists, lateral bends, spinal flexion, and extension. Not only does this help warm up your spine, creating space between your vertebrae, but it also helps move your bodies natural energy or prana.

Traditionally, the yogis believed the spine was the container for pranic energy or vital life energy. This particular energy channel is referred to as the Sushumna Nadi. Furthermore, the seven main points of the chakra system are also believed to reside along the spine. Therefore, moving your spine in all six directions is a great way to clear the major pranic channels in your body, and energize you for your practice.

Shoulder prep

The shoulders are one of the toughest spaces to work into in regards to backbending. In fact, tight shoulders are the reason many people have difficulty bending evenly throughout their spine. Most practitioners focus on opening up their chest and shoulder heads before moving into a full backbend. However, it’s necessary to make space at the back of your heart in order to properly open up the front of your chest. Your shoulder blades need a space to move into, in order to facilitate that bend in your thoracic spine.

The best way to create space at the back of the heart is through eagle arms. Eagle arms encourages your shoulder blades to protract, meaning they move away from midline (in this case the spine). By doing so, you’re stretching out the major muscles in your thoracic spine and shoulder blades. Taking ten rounds of breath on either side will help soften these muscles and allow your soulder blades more ease with their movement.

Of course, once you’ve opened up the back of your heart, you don’t want to neglect the shoulder heads and chest. My favorite way to do this is by laying on my belly, extending an arm off to the side, and slowly rolling onto my hip.

Once you’ve opened up the back of your heart, and shoulder heads, it’s nice to move into anahatasana, melting heart pose or commonly called puppy’s pose. This is where you can really focus on the movement in your shoulder blades, and fine-tune the engagements in your thoracic spine.

Hip prep

Tight shoulders are not the only culprit though when it comes to moving into backbends with ease. Your hips also play a major role in backbending postures, so much so that I wrote a whole other post about hips and backbends. Not only do the muscles in your hips and thighs help stabilize your backbends, but they also facilitate that opening you’ll feel all along the front side of your body.

This is why it is so important to open up your frontal hip before bending backward. Lunging postures such as anjaneyasana, are beneficial to facilitate this movement. It’s especially beneficial when your back knee is lowered on your mat. This way you can focus on that deep stretch without worrying so much about balance or strength.

Creating Space and Counterposing

Lastly, let’s talk about counterposes. When it comes to backbending, the counterposes you will take are also helpful warm-up postures. This is because these postures focus on creating space in your spine. Not only is this space helpful to relieve tenderness in your spine after you backbend, but they also help create space in your spine before you backbend. This is crucial to ensure you’re bending evenly in your spine when you enter backbending postures.

After you backbend, one of the best ways to counterpose is with forward folds. Seated forward folds tend to be best since you’re grounded on the earth. There is less room for error when you’re hips and seat are stable, it allows you to focus more on creating space throughout the back side of your body.

Twists are another great counterpose. Twisting not only helps facilitate space in your spine, but it’s also a great way to relieve tension after a backbend. Once again, seated twists are best since your lower body is grounded. This brings the focus to the movement in the spine and shoulders.

Hips, Twists, Folds, & Shoulders

All in all the key focus of backbend prep is to create space through the spine, and frontal body. When prepping for backbending postures it’s vital that you focus on bending evenly throughout your spine. A great way to ensure an even bend is to prep with forward folds and twists. These postures help elongate the spine and create space between the vertebrae.

Additionally, opening up your shoulders, heart, and hips makes the backbending experience far more enjoyable. If you’re tight in your shoulders and hips, it can cause hinging in your lower back – which means you’re not bending evenly. You can avoid hinging by properly opening up the back of your heart, your shoulder heads, and your frontal hips.

Once you’ve properly warmed up, you’re good to go! Remember, backbending is challenging, so take it slow. It’s best to move slowly and methodically to ensure you’re not hinging – especially in your low back. Once you’re in your backbend check in with your breath. If you find it difficult to breathe with ease, back out a little. It’s more important to breathe deeply than to move deeply. Eventually, with proper breath and a great deal of mindfulness, you will be able to move deeper and deeper as your practice progresses.