Achieving Balance in Your Yoga Practice: Strengthening Your Back
Yoga is a transformative practice that aims to bring harmony and balance to the body and mind.
However, it's important to recognize that certain yoga sequences, such as Sun Salutations, may inadvertently create an imbalance in the strength and flexibility of different muscle groups.
Specifically, the traditional Sun Salutation sequence tends to emphasize forward bends over backward bends, resulting in excessive flexion of the spine and potential weaknesses in the back.
In this article, we will explore various techniques and modifications to improve back strength, fostering a more balanced and stable yoga practice.
Do You Know What Is the Ratio of Times We Bend Forward vs Backward in 1 X Sun Salutation/Surya Namaskara A?
The correct answer is 5:1.
Undoubtedly, you may agree that a profound imbalance exists between hips and spine being flexed five times instead of extended only once.
Pause momentarily and think how many Sun Salutations you would repeat in 1 class, in a week, month or year?
Let that sink inâno claims for right or wrong.
To have a greater balance in how frequently you flex your spine in comparison to extending it, start with the following:
Elevating Your Half-Way Lift: Ardha Uttanasana
To counterbalance the forward bend-heavy nature of Sun Salutations, pay attention to your Half-Way Lift or Ardha Uttanasana.
Instead of simply draping your body over your thighs and pressing against your shins, strive to lift your torso parallel to the floor or even higher, bringing your spine into extension.
Simple logic, if in Uttanasa/Forward Bend you drape your body over your thighs and press against the shins, then in Ardha Uttanasana, you would inevitably lift your torso parallel to the floor or as high as the level of your pelvis, if not higher.
What Does It Do?
fires up your posterior chain
actives your spinal muscles/erector spinae
recruits hip extensors/gluteus muscles
reduces no.s of times we lengthen hamstrings, instead it conditions your hamstrings to engage in their end range.
Incorporating this adjustment strengthens and stabilizes your spine, promoting a more balanced practice.
Adding Hip Extensions with Lunges
Another effective way to address the imbalance between hip flexion and extension in Sun Salutations is by incorporating lunges into your practice.
Variations such as Crescent Lunge, Low Lunge, and Lizard Pose help counteract the excessive hip flexion and engage the hip extensors more prominently.
Step into these lunge positions instead of moving directly into Plank or Chaturanga Dandasana.
This modification promotes greater strength and flexibility in your back body.
This alleviates excess hip flexion and, instead, incorporates more hip extensions.
You reduce disproportion in how much you stretch muscles on your back body. You, therefore, help condition hip extensors (gluteus and hamstrings).
You then inevitably reduce the chronic shortening of muscles on the front of your hip joint and instead bring more strength to your back body.
This continues to complement and take away from forward bending heavily.
Building Spinal Strength with Prone Backbends
While deep backbends may be visually appealing, focusing on building spinal strength is equally important.
Big, opening and spacious backbends do not feel satisfying. However, equally important to a big range of motion is spinal strength.
Prone or face-down backbends, such as Locust Pose, Cobra Pose, and Bow Pose, offer excellent opportunities to strengthen the back muscles, hamstrings, and gluteus.
These poses may not have the same dramatic range of motion as Upward Facing Dog, but they provide significant benefits with minimal movement.
By substituting Chaturanga for Upward Facing Dog with these prone backbends, you activate the posterior chain, engage the paraspinal muscles, and recruit the hip extensors and hamstrings, fostering a more robust and stable spine.
Considering that sitting has now become a new 'smoking', we usually sit rounded forward with tightness around the shoulders, chest and front of thighs.
As a result, we suffer from weak back, hamstrings and gluteus.
Face-down backbends are only sometimes the first choice students make. They do not share the same appealing ascetics or depth of movement that Upward Facing Dog/Urdhva Mukha Svanasana does.
However, they are valuable because it only takes a small motion; you work hard with great returns.
Thus, to achieve a more significant physical balance in conventional Sun Salutations and to build your stability and strength.
Instead of routing through yet another Chaturanga to Upward Facing Dog, try swapping for Locust or Cobra pose.
Balancing Push and Pull: Shoulder Joint Extensions
In the traditional Sun Salutation, there is often a greater emphasis on flexing the shoulders overhead and bearing weight on the arms, neglecting the importance of shoulder joint extensions.
We are, therefore, proficient at building strength in the push muscles of the shoulders much more than we are at strengthening the pull muscles of the joint.
This creates an imbalance between the strength of the push and pull muscles in the shoulder joint.
Yet, another imbalance in the conventional way of practising Sun Salutations can easily be improved.
To address this, incorporate Half-Way Lift (Ardha Uttanasana) with extended arms, allowing the shoulder joint to move into extension.
This simple adjustment strengthens and stabilizes the back, spine, hips, and legs, opens the chest, lengthens the collarbone, and strengthens the upper and middle trapezius muscles and rhomboids.
Striving for Balance: Enhance Your Yoga Practice Through Back Strengthening
Striving for balance is crucial in yoga, ensuring overall physical well-being and optimal body functionality.
You strengthen your back and promote spinal stability by addressing the imbalance between forward and backwards bends in Sun Salutations.
Modifications such as elevating your half-way lift, incorporating lunges, practising prone or face-down backbends, and focusing on shoulder joint extensions activate the posterior chain, engage the hip extensors, and strengthen the back muscles.
These adjustments improve back strength while enhancing the effectiveness of your yoga practice.
Embrace these modifications to cultivate a more muscular, balanced body on and off the mat.
