Keeping Our Spine Healthy With Yoga
Yoga Connections
"It is difficult to explain to Westerners the difference between irritation and stimulation. Take jogging for example. Medical science says it stimulates the heart. But the difference should be made between irritation and stimulation. [...]In jogging, making the heart beat very fast is irritating to the heart. In yoga, back bends are harder than jogging, but that does not irritate the heart because we don't get out of breath and the heartbeat maintains a rhythmic pattern throughout. [...] Feeling nice after hard work means that the work was invigorating, but feeling exhausted after ten or fifteen minutes is a sure sign that you are doing irritating exercise." --BKS Iyengar, page 92, Tree of Yoga.
Monday night in Castleberry our all level class explored the role our upper back and groins play in the health of our neck and spine. We began by placing a block under the shoulder tips and supporting the head in a supine upper back arch. We lifted the sternum and chest toward the chin. With legs extended on the floor in a modified Dandasana or staff pose, we rolled the thighs inward to deepen the groin muscles and spread the skin of the lower back away from the midline.
Backbends begin very slowly in the Iyengar Method. We use props and chairs to give us the feedback we need to learn to work the proper muscles. Prone backbends proceed upward facing, Urdhva Dhanurasana or full bow as shown here by Patricia Walden on her 60th birthday. She is living proof that through the Iyengar Method, you can have a healthy spine at any age. The flexibility of the spine is directly related to how your body will age. Our vertebra can turn to stone or it can remain supple. It's our choice. It takes effort to maintain a healthy spine, but most of us can feel the rewards immediately from just arching over a chair or block. Change your perspective. Bend over backwards for yourself and feel how stimulating and enlivening it can be.
Namaste