Love your Lower Back
- Caitlin Kerr
- Oct 15, 2018
- 3 min read
Hello!
So if you've ever met me in person, the chances are I've told you that sacroiliac dysfunction basically ruined my life for nearly a year until I realised what the problem was. This led me on a very intense journey of patience and respect for my body, but ultimately led me to Yoga Therapy. Yoga Therapy is where western medicine agrees to meet with yogic practice. It became a major part of my personal yoga practice and continues to provide me with valuable insight for teaching yoga asana safely.
As a teacher, I feel incredibly responsible for the people who attend classes with me. When working one-on-one or in small groups, I know I can assist each person individually to move their body in an optimal way. When teaching large group classes at the gym, I have to rely heavily on verbal cues and demonstration, without over-explaining and overloading the participants with information.
Time and time again I emphasise the importance of lower back safety in forward bending, yet people seem to love reaching for their toes and mistake the straining of the lower back for some kind of "good deep stretch pain." The point of forward bending asana is not to reach the toes, or even to stretch the spine. It is to facilitate hip mobility - specifically the forward rolling motion in the pelvis. Too often young yogis are hasty to reach the nose to the knee rather than close the gap between belly and thigh.
There are two things that are vital to consider to protect the lower back and SI joints when forward bending. First, look at the image below to understand what happens in the vertebrae when we bend the spine. What you're seeing is a clear depiction of the pressure exerted on the intervertebral discs. This is exactly what we want to avoid, hence the emphasis on keeping a straight spine.
The second thing to consider is that the sacrum can move a maximum of 4 degrees, before you start to risk straining the ligaments. Speaking from experience, this can cause IMMENSE discomfort in the hip and lower back, and can even stuff up your digestive system as well as cause migraines and fatigue.
TO SUMMARISE:
Keep your back straight, and try and keep the sacrum and pelvis moving as a single unit when leaning forward. Visualise a rolling motion as you push your tailbone out behind you. Pro tip: don't allow the belly to drop and overemphasise the dip in the lower back, keep the core strong to support the spine.
Let's take a look at 3 poses (well, really just the same pose in different relationships with gravity) that will give you an idea of you how far you should be bending forward (with straight legs):
Please note that seated forward bending is not recommended if the legs are not yet at 90 degrees when raising the legs from prone position.
In my next post we will take a look at how you can also protect the lower back by bending the knees in forward folds. I hope you have benefited from this post - please let me know in the comments! And next time you're doing yoga, remember that the teacher is giving you those cues for a reason, we're not trying to cheat you out of touching your toes - I promise!
Comments