Advanced Practice: Opening the Front Body (Back Bends)

Disclaimer

Advanced practices are for those who have been attending classes regularly for five years or more, who have a consistent and regular home practice, who are able to balance comfortably and safely in Head Stand in the middle of the room for 5 minutes or more, who are able to kick up safely into Hand Stand against the wall on their own and/or who are able to straighten their arms in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose). In these practices, the information is more technical and begins to incorporate themes of a more esoteric nature. Always seek out the guidance of a qualified teacher before you attempt new or challenging poses, especially inversions and Head Stand, so that they may instruct you in the safest way to approach them. There is no substitute for instruction from a seasoned teacher.

About The Practice

This advanced practice begins with standing poses and inversions to activate the torso and integrate the legs while strengthening the upper body and opening the chest and shoulders. It follows with a series of back bends over the chair to open the abdomen, hip creases, chest and shoulders while minting integration of the limbs into the spine, ending with Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) from the floor. It ends with a short series of supported forward bends and restorative poses to widen the back and settle the energy.

Practice Tips

• Soften and widen your lower abdomen, your hip creases and the tops of your thighs.
• Mentally divide the front of your torso into parts: your lower abdomen, your upper abdomen and lower ribs, and your upper chest, softening and widening each.
• To take your back bends, allow your lower abdomen to move towards your feet and your upper chest towards your head (a lengthening movement), while turning your lower abdomen and upper chest away from each other (a spiraling movement).
• Look within yourself and see if these movements are balance. If you find you are lengthening or turning in one direction more than the other, ease up and re-direct until there is a more even sense of movement.
• Keep your mid-back wide.
• Undo the back of your neck and throat so that your jaw and the back of your head are not being pulled towards your torso.

Sequence

Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior Pose 1) front shin on block against wall, leaning forward from hips with hands up wall

Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Facing Dog Pose)

Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose) feet hip width apart, hands on blocks

Prasarita Padottanasana 1 (Wide Spread Feet Pose)

Shirshasana (Head Stand) Cycle:

1. Salamba Shirshasana 1 (Head Stand 1)
2. Eka Pada Shirshasana (Single Leg Head Stand)
3. Parshvaikapada Shirshasana (Single Leg to the Side Head Stand)

Supta Padangusthasana 2 (Reclined Big Toe Pose 2) bolster under thigh

Lunge back knee down, hands on blocks

Vajrasana (Thunderbolt Pose) bolster across calves and under sitting bones

• Stay for several breaths in the upright, then gently lean back, rolling back on your sitting bones while sending your thighs forward so that the tops of your shins stay grounded. Keep your head parallel to the floor so as not to over-activate your neck muscles.

Chatushpadasana (Four Footed Pose)

Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand) Cycle:

1. Salamba Sarvangasana 1 (Shoulder Stand 1)
2. Salamba Sarvangasana 2 (Shoulder Stand 2)
3. Halasana (Plough Pose) with arm variations
4. Eka Pada Sarvangasana (Single Leg Shoulder Stand)
5. Eka Pada Sarvangasana (Single Leg Shoulder Stand) reach raised leg back into a split
6. Active Viparita Karani (Upside Down Pose) arching back and lowering pelvis into hands with legs vertical
7. Eka Pada Parshva Sarvangasana (Single Leg Side Shoulder Stand) reduce blankets under shoulders to one or two
8. Parshva Sarvangasana (Side Shoulder Stand) on low blankets

Viparita Dandasana (Inverted Staff Pose) over bolster across chair seat

Viparita Dandasana (Inverted Staff Pose) mat roll under spine and back of head

Viparita Dandasana (Inverted Staff Pose)

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) hingeing back over bolster over chair back

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) from bolsters on chair seat, hands on blocks against wall

Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose) from floor

Back Release Cycle:

1. Forward bend over chair with bolster across thighs.
2. Bent-leg Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose) bolster between chest and thighs
3. Straight-leg Uttanasana (Intense Stretch Pose) bolster between chest and thighs
4. Forward bend over chair with bolster across thighs.

Supta Padangusthasana 2 (Reclined Big Toe Pose 2) bolster under thigh

Parshva Bharadwajasana (Side Bharadwaja’s Pose) over bolster

Shavasana (Corpse Pose) bolster under knees, blanket under head

About Yoga: Art+Science

This post originally appeared on my former blog, Yoga: Art+Science, a passion project that I ran from 2004 to 2014 that accumulated more than 1000 posts and articles. It appears here as part of a project to revisit all that material and update it to make it fresh and relevant to a modern yoga practice.

If you enjoyed this practice, I’d love to share my approach to yoga with you. I hold weekly classes online and new students are very welcome. Hope to see you there!