Backbend Sequence

When creating a yoga practice, we want to focus on moving the spine in all the ways possible: bending forward, backward, laterally, and twisting.  Today's sequence focuses on back bending, and the good news is that unlike my last few sequences, this one is appropriate for all levels.  I personally love strengthening my lower back, as it's an oft-neglected part of the core that protects the spine.  With that in mind we begin here with some back strengthening backbends, that may seem deceptively simple, before moving on to the more impressive looking backbends that work more on stretching out the front of the body.  With the more stretchy backbends, the key is to lengthen out of the lower back, keeping the spine as long as possible and not compressed.

While I was recording, my cat BooBoo decided that was the perfect time to play with me, so you can hear her a bit in the background.  I don't know what it is about cats and yoga, but they love it!  I like to think they attracted to the calm energy we emit from the mat.  When we first got my cat Roxy she pulled one of these on me.

My cat Monkey is fond of what we call "yoga mat attention." He is a connoisseur of every kind of attention possible: good attention (pets), bad attention (yeah right.  He just gets more pets.), on-top-of-the-refigerator attention, etc.  But his favorite is yoga mat attention.  He won't let me do yoga without first petting him on the mat for at least fifteen minutes.  

Here he is about to get "on the stairs" attention.

BooBoo loves yoga too, but she loves when I work out in general.  I swear she pretends to spar when I put on kickboxing dvds.  When I recorded this she was all over me, and you can hear her knocking things over and trying to knock me over on the recording.  Whoops.  You can also hear planes in the background, which I tried to get rid of but that messed with the audio so in the end I left it in.  

This is the kind of sequence I like to include in my "open level" classes.  Usually in these classes there are at least one or two yogis who add extra vinyasas between each pose as well as one or two yogis who have no idea what the hell the word "vinyasa" even means.  I like teaching those classes.  It's a challenge to try to, well,  challenge everyone.  This backbending sequence is challenging because it requires strength more than flexibility.  It is challenging because it strengthens the posterior muscles, muscles we tend to ignore because we can't see them.  It is challenging because we have to stay completely present in these poses; if your attention wanes your body loses the pose. The deepest bend we attempt is Camel Pose:

HERE is the audio.

Practice this sequence as part of your daily practice or on its own.  And let me know what you think on Twitter and in the comments!