Developing a Healthy Developing a Healthy Backbend PracticeBackbend Practice

•In yoga, there is a selection of poses that offer various levels of backbending intensity. When working toward a full backbend, such as wheel pose, you should build up to the pose with a series of less intense backbends throughout the practice. For example, in a vinyasa-style class, you may integrate several series of cobra and work up to upward facing dog, both of which open the chest and invite a bend into the back. Bridge pose and bow pose also offer an opportunity to explore your back's natural capabilities. Likewise, you can perform camel pose in small steps that will allow you to first stabilize the sacrum and tuck the tailbone to ensure lower back safety.

•As always, throughout your practice, be sure to pay attention to your body and breathe into each pose. In yoga it can sometimes be challenging to sense the line between the discomfort of a difficult pose and the pain that takes your body past its limits. In backbending, it is especially important to tune into this balance and to avoid any competition with the students around you.