How to Achieve Deep Backbend Yoga Series

Pre-warm up and mobilization can be beneficial prior to perform sun salutation A and B. Use this moment to get a little mobility around your hips and shoulders and wake up your spinal articulation.

Sun salutation A and B are traditional ways to start the class in certain routines (Like in Ashtanga) while in a vinyasa yoga class usually, they are coming right after the warm-up. You will be quickly able to memorize both sequences. It is important to take a few moments before starting the sun salutations and set up the intention of your practice, and center your mind. Traditionally we perform a 3-5 sequence of both sun salutations flowing with deep ujjayi breathing. They say if a practitioner has serious time limits, and only can practice sun salutations she already did something for her help. The reason for this is simple: They involve forward fold, mild backbend, push up and, squat, mild hip-opening (Warrior 1), and a back neutralizer pose (downward dog). Simply put, they got all you need to keep your condition.

Sun salutation A and B are traditional ways to start the class in certain routines (like in Ashtanga) while in a vinyasa yoga class usually, they are coming right after the warm-up. You will be quickly able to memorize both sequences. It is important to take a few moments before starting the sun salutations and set up the intention of your practice, and center your mind. Traditionally we perform a 3-5 sequence of both sun salutations flowing with deep ujjayi breathing. They say if a practitioner has serious time limits, and only can practice sun salutations she already did something for her health. The reason for this is simple: They involve forward fold, mild backbend, push up and, squat, mild hip-opening (Warrior 1), and a back neutralizer pose (downward dog). Simply put, they got all you need to keep your condition.

As we described already in the introductions backbends are front body stretches. While the anterior chain (the front part of your body) is stretched our back body (posterior chain) is contracted. To simply put this you will need a lot of flexibility at the front part of your body and strength at the back part of your body. A part of your front body chain is the hip flexors and the quadriceps what we are targeting right now to get open. They are as just as essential for your success as the other series which are about the opening of your shoulders.

In order to achieve a nicely balanced arch in the backbend, you need a significant amount of mobility in the shoulders and in the upper back. In case the bend is only coming from the lower back you risk placing too much tension in your back. You need to try to balance and divide the extension the most equal possible to you. In the case of inflexible shoulders, we also can get slightly blocked in our practice. You need to develop flexibility in order to nicely place your hands underneath your shoulders in Urdhva dhanurasana and in order to change your grip. I suggest you look up this series and to practice the drills given at the bow pose.

Here I am showing you some modifications of pigeon pose which are used commonly. I am starting up introducing the postures from easier modifications and going toward the complicated ones. You will find here the variations of seated pigeon poses with modifications of the arm position, hip flexor stretch with pigeon, mermaid position, and 3 flipped grip variations: playing with the distance of the leg while bringing it toward the head or away from the head and giving an alternative position for one of the hands.

In this Royal Cobra video, I am showing how to do a changed grip with one arm. This is a highly advanced movement. Once you are familiar with the other elements of the practice you can put the pieces together and eventually achieve fluid transitions between the asanas. Practice and all are coming. The video was originally produced for my YouTube channel, but I decided to insert it here as it is fitting with our thematic.

Tiger pose or Vyaghrasana is a beautiful front body stretch. The simplest version of it, when we are lifting the leg up toward the sky. Another option is to simply take the opposite leg without flipping the grip. This way the movement involves a mild twist. For a complete beginner, therefore, it might be really challenging already. While we change the grip, we are using usually the arm on the same side. Like this, the movement does not involve twist but will challenge your balance quite extremely. You will have a hard time finding your center and not leaning to the side. After this lecture, you will understand how the posture can be varied and you will have an idea about the general alignments.

Camatkarasana or wild thing is a beautiful front body opener. Just like most of the backbend, it is helping to open the front of the legs the hip and it is also helping to build strength in the shoulders and reinforce the upper back. It can be a great preparatory position for your urdhva dhanurasana since  you will need even more strength there

In this lecture, you will learn some variations of the posture and you will learn how to enter the wheel pose from the wild thing.

Wheel pose similarly to other backbends: stretch the heart and lungs complex and stretches the front body. Increase energy and counteract depression. Stimulates the thyroid and pituitary. Due to its effect of stimulation, the lungs can counteract asthma.

In this lecture, you will find different variations of the wheel pose: e.g. straight leg version and lowering down to the elbows.

In case your main interest drops backbend, you will find it in a different lecture.

Front splits are requiring a lot of flexibility in the hip flexors just like backbends. For this reason, they can be sequenced to a strong backbend flow. However, the practice of splits/ hanumanasana also requires your hamstring to be flexible and other muscles around the hip need to be also souple to be able to execute this posture with the squared hip. Once you mastered this movement you can start practising splits with mermaid grip just like the pigeon and later on you can progress to flipped grip and backbend together with your front split.