Back Bends

*With all back bends you need to have great awareness and care while performing them. If you feel any lower back pain back off of the pose and reduce your range of motion.

Back Bridge
Cues:
  • Place your feet and knees hip distance apart
  • Have your arms at your side with palms facing up 
  • Bring your spine into a neutral position
  • Feel into the four corners of your feet (big toe mound, little toe mound, inner and outer sides of the heel)
  • Inhale relax, exhale engage the pelvic floor, inhale lift the hips off of the ground engaging through the gluts

Common Errors:
  • Foot and knee placement is either too wide or too narrow
  • Lack of awareness in the feet
  • Pelvic floor is not engaged
  • Gluts are not activated sufficiently

Balancing Bridge
Cues:
  • Come into a standard back bridge
  • Feel into the four corners of the right foot
  • On an inhale lift the left leg up and out keeping the knees even
  • Engage through the left foot bringing the toes towards the shins
  • Your arms can be on the floor in this pose or you can bring the arms to a 90° angle at the shoulders with the finger tips pointed straight to the ceiling
  • As you are balanced on the right foot continue to press into the four corners of the foot and engage through the glutes keeping the hips as high and even as possible
  • To come down exhale and place the left foot down, inhale bring your hips up higher and on the next exhale lower down to the ground slowly

Back Bridge Shoulder Stretch
Cues: 
  • Come into a back bridge
  • Once in your back bridge externally rotate your shoulders bringing both arms under your body
  • Interlace the fingers and then allow the arms to extend while bringing your hips up higher

opposite leg and arm extended back bridge

Baby Back Bridge
Cues:
  • Place your feet and knees hip distance apart
  • Have your arms at your side with palms facing up 
  • Bring your spine into a neutral position
  • Feel into the four corners of your feet (big toe mound, little toe mound, inner and outer sides of the heel)
  • Inhale relax, exhale engage the pelvic floor, inhale lift the hips off of the ground focusing on the deep core rather than activation in the gluts
  • This is a subtle movement where the hips only come two to three inches off of the ground
Common Errors:
  • Foot and knee placement is either too wide or too narrow
  • Lack of awareness in the feet
  • Pelvic floor is not engaged
  • Gluts are over activated
  • The hips are lifted too high off of the ground

1/2 Bow
Cues:
  • Start by laying on your stomach 
  • Right arm extended out in front of you palm down, press the hand into the floor engage through the shoulder and chest, lift the chest off the ground
  • Bring the heel of the right foot towards your seat, hold on to the left foot with the left hand
  • Press your foot into your hand and hand into your foot and possibly bring your knee off the ground

Common Errors:

Baby Cobra
Cues:
  • Lying on your stomach places your hands directly under your shoulders with your elbows tucked into your ribs
  • Press the top of the feet into the ground engaging through your quads and feeling the knees lift
  • On an inhale press into your hands and lift your shoulders and chest only an inch or two off of the ground
  • If you feel any pain in your lower back lower your chest and shoulders until the pain is eliminated
  • You will lower yourself down to the ground on an exhale

Cobra
Cues:
  • Lying on your stomach places your hands directly under your shoulders with your elbows tucked into your ribs
  • Press the top of the feet into the ground engaging through your quads and feeling the knees lift
  • On an inhale press into your hands and lift your shoulders and chest off of the ground to a height that you feel comfortable with
  • If you feel any pain in your lower back lower your chest and shoulders until the pain is eliminated
  • You will lower yourself back down to the ground on an exhale

Updog
Cues
  • Lying on your stomach places your hands directly under your shoulders with your elbows tucked into your ribs
  • Press the top of the feet into the ground engaging through your quads and feeling the knees lift
  • On an inhale press into your hands and lift your shoulders and chest off of the ground to a height that you feel comfortable with
  • If you feel any pain in your lower back lower your chest and shoulders until the pain is eliminated
  • If you still have more mobility without pain while continuing to push into your feet you can lift your thighs off of the ground

Sphinx
Cues
  • Place your elbows under your shoulders with your forearms pointing straight forward from the elbows with the palms flat on the ground
  • You can either have your chin up facing forward or you can allow the chin to drop and relax the neck

Seal
Cues
  • Place your elbows under your shoulders with your forearms pointing straight forward from the elbows with the palms flat on the ground
  • You can either have your chin up facing forward or you can allow the chin to drop and relax the neck
  • This pose is the next progression from sphinx. If you would like to increase the intensity this pose move your hands out to a 45 degree angle at your elbows and begin to bring your arms towards straight

1/2 Locus (Alternate Arms and Legs)

Cues
  • Lying on your stomach extend your arms straight forward from your shoulders and your legs straight back behind you
  • On an inhale keeping your hips flat on the ground press into your left foot and right hand while raising your right leg and right arm
  • On an exhale lower your leg and arm back to the ground and repeat the same movement with the alternate leg and arm

1/2 Locus (Legs)
Cues
  • Start by lying on your stomach with your legs extended behind you, forehead on the ground and arms by your sides with palms facing down
  • On an inhale keeping your hips flat on the ground pushing down into both hands lift both legs off of the ground
  • On an exhale lower the legs back down to the ground

Locus
Cues
  • Start by lying on your stomach with your legs extended behind you, forehead on the ground and arms by your sides with palms facing down
  • On an inhale keeping your hips flat on the ground lift both legs and arms off of the ground
  • On an exhale lower the legs back down to the ground

Bow
Cues
  • Start by lying on your stomach hands by your side forehead on the ground legs extended behind you
  • On an inhale bend your knees brining both heels to your seat
  • Reach around behind you and hold on to both feet or ankles
  • Bring your chest and shoulders off of the ground while kicking your feet into your hands and pushing your hands into your feet
  • If you have the openess you can start to bring the knees and thighs off of the ground

Standing Back Bend
Cues:
  • Find mountain pose with the four corners of your feet firmly placed on the ground
  • Place your palms on your seat with the heels of your palms on the top of the hips
  • Inhale feel greater length in the spine on an exhale begin to bend backwards keeping length in your spine and a strong base in your lower body
  • Ensure that your neck is still extended and engaged so that you do not collapse through the cervical spine

Camel
Cues:
  • Start by coming into a high kneeling position - fit can be tucked or untucked
  • Make sure the core is strong and the spine is long - as it is in mountain pose
  • Inhale feel greater length in the spine on an exhale begin to bend backwards keeping length in your spine
  • Ensure that your neck is still extended and engaged so that you do not collapse through the cervical spine

Wheel