Backbend helps with:
- Improves posture, spine flexibility and mobility
- Strengthens the back, help alleviate back and neck pain
- Improves breathing
Often, people do not practice backbend properly, as a result, they injure their back instead of alleviating their back pain.
Some tips to improve on your backbend:
1. Do not extend from the lumbar spine area.
The lumbar spine is naturally arch and quite flexible and mobile. This is is the area where most people focus on backbend since it can bend easily. However, too much of extension at lumbar spine will cause pain around the area.
2. Lengthen the spine to allow greater spinal extension and focus on extending the thoracic spine
The thoracic vertebra has a bony piece that sticks out towards the back of our body known as spinous process. If the spine is not lengthen before extension, these spinous process are compressed, creating a “jam” feeling. This limits your ability to bend. This will cause the person to bend on his lumbar spine.
3. Avoid engaging the gluteus Maximus and focus on internal rotating the thigh at hip joint area
Our gluteus Maximus is one of the biggest muscles at hip and it externally rotates our thigh outwards. You will notice your right feet will tend to point outwards rather than forward. What this means is that it creates more range of motion, which allows us to easily slip into bending our lumbar spine. To prevent this, avoid engaging the gluteus Maximus. Instead focus, on internally rotating at the hip joint, lift our knee caps and press onto our feet, with our feet toes pointing forward. This helps to minimise bending at the lumbar spine.
