Assuming that you are comfortable doing Urdhva Dhanurasana, the next big milestone ahead of you is the "drop back." This refers to the action of dropping back from standing to the wheel position and then coming back up to standing. Unless you are a gymnast or a high school cheerleader, accomplishing this will be no easy feat.
Take it slowly and avoid the risk of injury. If you attempt the drop back and fail, you can seriously hurt yourself -- while a bump on the head may be tolerable, a concussion or broken neck is not. Don't hurt yourself. Above all, only follow the advice of an expert teacher you fully trust. Do not attempt a drop back just to keep up with your friend or neighbor on the mat next to you.
Using a wall as prop -- walking your hands up to standing or back to the floor -- can play a big role in learning drop backs. Using the wall does not require much flexibility but it does require the strength to hold yourself up and the confidence to avoid any panic as you come up or down. If you are unsure, wait until you are ready.
I have embedded two videos to demonstrate how the wall can be used as a prop. The first shows you how to walk your hands up the wall from Urdhva Dhanurasana to standing. The second shows you how to walk your hands down the wall from standing to the pose. After the videos, I give a number of tips to incorporate the wall effectively into your practice.
Here is the first clip:
Now, here is the second:
Here are my suggestions for using the wall.
1. Take it slowly and don't rush up or down. Instead, gently push against the wall to isometrically go deeper into your backbends. Remember that backbends are as much about opening the front of your body -- from head to toe -- as they are about bending any part of your back. Extend the front of your body as you flex or contract the muscles in the back.
2. Breathe -- with slow, deep breaths. You want to drop back on the exhale and come up on the inhale. When you are using the wall and stopping to move your hands up or down, keep this breathing sequence in mind -- inhale as you move your hands up and exhale as you move your hands down.
3. Spread your feet further a part if it helps you open your hips -- but not so wide that you are off the mat or can slip.
4. Practice the wall daily -- frequency is more important than straining or pushing too deeply into your backbends -- be comfortable where you are at the moment but do practice regularly against the wall.
5. "Feel" the cycle of going down and coming up. Visualize drop backs and learn the physical mechanics of going up or down. This memory will guide you as you progress over time. As you drop back, get used to looking behind you and towards the floor. And as you come up, get used to keeping your head back. Learning how to do all of this is much easier knowing that the wall is there to protect you.
6. Over time, try to use the wall less and less. In the beginning, you might touch the wall 4-5 times as you walk down and up. After a few months, you may need to only touch it once or twice. Before you know it, you won't need the wall at all. It took me a year of using the wall before I could drop back and then another year afterwards to first stand up. And almost four years later, I am still learning to do this consistently time after time (which is why I still use the wall as a prop even though I can go down 100% of the time and come back up... 98% of the time. It's the 2% I worry about!
7. While you are practicing with the wall, try to lower the point at which you need to touch the wall as you lean back to "drop". Don't rush to do this but don't be afraid to lean back either. If you go too far, the wall is there to catch you. And coming up, learn to touch the wall only one or twice before using it push up to standing.
8. Use the wall as your spotter. If you are going down and don't feel like you can make it all the way to the floor, then simply walk back up to standing. Or, if you push off the wall but can't stand all the way up, use the wall to catch yourself -- with your hands, not your head -- and go back down.
9. For me, going down was easier than coming up. After I could lower my hands to about 12 inches from the floor, I knew I was close to being ready to go all the way down. It took many months to do this comfortably. Even after I gained the confidence to go down safely, it was an even bigger challenge coming back up without assistance.
10. The key to coming up is simple to articulate but hard to execute (if you don't have a bendy back). First, for most people, the heels and feet need to be solidly on the floor -- even if the toes are pointed outward a bit, which seems to help. Coming up requires the strength of your thighs and legs and this strength is seriously impaired if you are just on your tip toes. Next, your hips need to move forward ahead of your knees. Your chest must remain open. And most importantly, your head must be kept back -- if you raise your head, you are trying to raise a 12 lb. weight and will surely fail -- keeping the head fully back allows you to lift this heavy ball last, rather than first. It may be counter-intuitive but it is essential.
In sum, practice regularly and slowly over time. Do not try to be a hero. Use the wall to safely learn how to drop back and stand up.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Myth #1 -- The loss of range of motion as you age is predictable and permanent
People who are chronically inflexible may feel that this condition is permanent and that it will get progressively worse. However, flexibility and range of motion may be more like being overweight than tall or short. Just as you can shed a few pounds if you really want to, you can enhance your range of motion. Anyway, that is what my experience has taught me. With hard work and dedication, almost anything is possible. Over the course of my yoga practice, I have looked at any number of asana and said to myself -- I will never be able to do this in my lifetime. And then I learned that in fact, there would come a day when I would do these postures one after another. Am I an "advanced" student? Not by any stretch of the imagination -- and I still struggle with certain asanas that I may never fully master. But, I do make progress over time. The point I am making is this -- don't arbitrary limit yourself. Believe that you can make change, and this will help make it happen.
If you are under the assumption that physical strength, stamina and range of motion automatically decline as you age, then watch this video of 81 year old yoga guru BKS Iyengar doing his daily backbending practice. This should be all the proof that you need. link
The Road Ahead
My physician once commented that some of his happiest and ache-free patients were the ones who did the least physical exercise. Their sedentary lifestyles did not tax their bodies – they rarely challenged their agility, stamina or range of motion. They were not sore and suffered few aches and pains. That is… until they bent over to pick something up off the floor or spent the unusual day doing lawn work. And whoa, out went their back. Muscle relaxants, painkillers, physical therapy and alternate treatments helped but never really allowed them to fully recover. As we age, we limit our physical activity by choice, force of habit and the constraints of schedules and time – we sit way too much. This ultimately impacts our range of motion. The more or less you move, the more or less range of motion you have -- just compare a toddler such as the one shown above easily performing Baddha Konasana --physically active, supple and playful all day…
to a middle aged executive, slouched in an airline seat, hunched over a computer or at the desk facing loads of work.
As you age, you have two choices ahead of you. The first is to accept the misleading fact that your flexibility will decline as you get older; and prepare yourself to do less and hurt more. Or, you can take the other route; slowly and methodically work to re-build and maintain your mobility. While you may never return to the flexibility and suppleness you had as a young child, you can regain much of it.
This will require work, persistence and some discomfort – but the benefits are worth it. The sooner you start moving again, the faster you will feel better.
Backbends like this are impossible!
Unlike the young, supple woman above, coming up in wheel pose – Urdhva Dhanurasana – was beyond me. Attempting Urdhva Dhanurasana was as hard as pushing a car up a hill with the parking brake on! My wheel felt rectangular and barely off the floor; not round, open and high like the photograph above.
But, in a bulldog fashion, I kept at it. Often discouraged, regularly in pain and without visible signs of progress, I never surrendered. And slowly over time, breakthroughs came. After a few years, I could come up in Urdhva Dhanurasana -- even though it still felt more like a coffee table than a wheel.
Years passed and I started using a wall for support to walk up from wheel to standing position or walk down from standing to the posture. After a year or so of this, I managed to “drop back” to the floor from standing. And a year later, I found a way to rock myself back up. And, after much more time, I actually walked my hands back while in Urdhva Dhanurasana and touched both heels with the assistance of Eddie, my teacher. Maybe in 10 more years, I will walk my hands up and touch my calves – but by then, I will be well into my sixties and this should not matter all that much anyway.
The practice of rebuilding the strength and flexibility of my back has not come easy. But slowly over time, the aches and pains eased as did the tension tightly gripping my body. Pushing to open my body occasionally caused minor injury. I learned to pace myself and work diligently not recklessly. The patience to allow your body to open slowly over time is the greatest lesson of all.
How I came to love backbends
I have practiced yoga for about 10 years and marveled at the benefits. I feel better physically, emotionally and spiritually. Physically fit throughout my adult life, I have completed marathons, short triathlons and many long distance recreational events. Lean and built unmistakably like a runner; unfortunately, I am also stiff and usually feel like a six foot piece of lumber. Flexibility is not my forte – before yoga, bending forward to touch my toes or bending backwards to look at the ceiling were all out of my reach.
The lack of flexibility and the need to offset the effects of a highly stressful executive job is why I turned to yoga. As I passed fully into middle-age, I found myself becoming noticeably stiffer and subject to regular aches and pains. My lower back throbbed. From time to time, an intense sharp pain between my shoulder blades would remind me of a car accident I was in decades ago. I suffered from pinched nerves in my neck and had a difficult time looking up or turning sideways. I lived with the nerve-tingling, numbing sensations in my arms and hands. On a family trip to Rome, pain in my neck prevented me from enjoying the wonders of the Sistine Chapel.
Multiple visits to physicians, chiropractors and physical therapists offered little relief. MRI images indicated compression of the vertebrae and loss of the natural curve to the spine. Reports of spinal bone spurs narrowing nerve canals led me to believe my symptoms and complaints were permanent.
Once I started my daily practice, it became crystal clear that backbends would be my most difficult challenge. My hamstrings lengthened and soon enough I could easily touch the floor. And, blessed with what appears to be innate ability, I found twisting postures quite easy. However, any and all backbends appeared to be next to impossible.
The lack of flexibility and the need to offset the effects of a highly stressful executive job is why I turned to yoga. As I passed fully into middle-age, I found myself becoming noticeably stiffer and subject to regular aches and pains. My lower back throbbed. From time to time, an intense sharp pain between my shoulder blades would remind me of a car accident I was in decades ago. I suffered from pinched nerves in my neck and had a difficult time looking up or turning sideways. I lived with the nerve-tingling, numbing sensations in my arms and hands. On a family trip to Rome, pain in my neck prevented me from enjoying the wonders of the Sistine Chapel.
Multiple visits to physicians, chiropractors and physical therapists offered little relief. MRI images indicated compression of the vertebrae and loss of the natural curve to the spine. Reports of spinal bone spurs narrowing nerve canals led me to believe my symptoms and complaints were permanent.
Once I started my daily practice, it became crystal clear that backbends would be my most difficult challenge. My hamstrings lengthened and soon enough I could easily touch the floor. And, blessed with what appears to be innate ability, I found twisting postures quite easy. However, any and all backbends appeared to be next to impossible.
Why backbends are good for you
This is a photo of Sharath Rangaswamy – grandson of Ashtanga Yoga master, Sri Pattabhi Jois – assisting an advanced student in backbending at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India.
Don’t attempt this on your own! And, even with able assistance, only the most flexible among us will ever be able to do this. Why would any sane person even want to try? The motivation should not reside in your ego.
You will probably never come close to having a back so flexible that you can bend in half and grab your calves like this. Don’t be discouraged. This should not be the obsession or goal of your yoga practice. Such goals or obsessions will only set your practice back further. Don’t do backbends because they look good – do backbends because they are good for you.
Yogic backbends provide many tangible benefits for the least flexible among us – even if showing off will never be one of them. A healthy back will allow you to comfortably bend forward, backward – and sideways too. You will be able to perform physical activity without injury. A flexible and strong back will be pain and ache free. Your spine is the gateway of the nervous system, which is essential to your overall well being. Bending the back will help you feel better physically, emotionally and mentally.
An Introduction
This blog is intended to help yoga practitioners who are struggling with backbends. I offer these insights and suggestions based on my own personal experience. I too struggle with back bends, and yet have made slow, steady (and some would say, amazing) progress. Through hard work and determination over many years, I have regained lost flexibility and range in motion. It has not been easy -- my practice feels more like physical therapy than yoga.
I would like to thank Eddie Stern, my yoga teacher and the director of Ashtanga Yoga New York. Without his inspiration, assistance and support, none of my progress would have been possible. I urge anyone reading this to follow your teacher’s direction first and foremost – use my ideas as an adjunct to expert guidance. When in doubt, listen to your own teacher or doctor. Ignoring or disagreeing with my ideas will not offend me. Above all, avoid the risk of injury.
My focus on backbends has been a journey over a decade. I offer these personal insights to those who feel the need to follow a similar path.
I would like to thank Eddie Stern, my yoga teacher and the director of Ashtanga Yoga New York. Without his inspiration, assistance and support, none of my progress would have been possible. I urge anyone reading this to follow your teacher’s direction first and foremost – use my ideas as an adjunct to expert guidance. When in doubt, listen to your own teacher or doctor. Ignoring or disagreeing with my ideas will not offend me. Above all, avoid the risk of injury.
My focus on backbends has been a journey over a decade. I offer these personal insights to those who feel the need to follow a similar path.
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