swayback

Not all backbends are created equal. Healthy backbends happens at the lowest lumbar level (L5-S1); unhealthy backbends happen higher up in the lumbar spine.

Cecily Frederick (Gokhale Method teacher, Madison, Wisconsin), doing a back dive with a healthy L5-S1 backbend.  

This yogini is backbending (unhealthily) almost entirely in the upper lumbar spine. 

The L5-S1 joint is unique in having saddle-like properties and is capable of quite extreme extension (backbending) without injury.

B.K.S. Iyengar demonstrates a healthy 90 degree backbend that happens exclusively at the L5-S1 joint. Iyengar was one of the world's foremost yoga teachers until his death at age 95.

Peking Acrobats are trained to perform extreme backbends. The backbends happen exclusively at L5-S1, which makes them sustainable.

Higher up in the lumbar spine, repeated, sustained, or extreme extension results in wear and tear and injury in the related discs and vertebrae.

This young gymnast exhibits a classic gymnastics pose, with a significant (unhealthy) sway in her upper lumbar spine.  Gymnasts are notoriously prone to back pain and injury.

The majority of this dancer’s backbend happens at a single level in her upper lumbar spine that is not adapted for extreme backbending (ouch!).

The distinction between upper and lower lumbar curvature is rarely made, neither for baseline positions like standing and sitting, nor for acrobatic and yoga positions like backbends. This lack of distinction is true in modern lay culture (see post on Forward Pelvis) as well as in the medical literature (see this cross sectional study on the Correlation between Radiologic Sign of Lumbar Lordosis and Functional Status in Patients with Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain). Not surprisingly, findings involving a crude compound of all lumbar curvature are confused and contradictory. I have found only one scientific study on lower back pain that makes a distinction between upper and lower lumbar curvature - the findings are consistent with the Gokhale Method's claims about a "J-spine" being healthier than an "S-spine."

I consider that the significant back problems I suffered in my mid-20’s resulted in part from poorly executed yoga and gymnastic backbends in my childhood, as well as a chronic baseline extension (sway) of my upper lumbar spine. I was rewarded for my “flexibility” both in gymnastic competitions and as a yoga presenter and teacher—I received applause, awards, and signups for classes. Almost no one saw that I was systematically bending backwards in a problematic place.

Me in the INDUS fashion show (Mumbai, 1973) sporting a hand-me-down dress - and a significant sway.

I do recall my Bharatanatyam dance teacher Kutti Krishnan being vaguely disturbed by my baseline stance. He wasn’t able to articulate what exactly the problem was, or how to correct it, but I remember him trying to imitate my stance to help me out. It didn’t work, he stopped trying to correct me, and my sway persisted unchecked into adulthood, when it manifest as a problematic and then surgical back in my mid-20’s.

An old image of me teaching yoga as best as I knew how in 1979, standing with a sway in my back (and putting extreme flexion into my student's neck.)

To learn a healthy backbend, start with an “infant cobra,” in which you plan on lifting no more than two inches off the ground. Begin by lying face down with your hands placed near your armpits. Before lifting, engage an extremely strong rib anchor. Augmenting the rib anchor hard against the tendency to sway, press up an inch or two from the ground. Keep the neck aligned with the spine.

Notice how in this healthy baby cobra, the backbend takes place only at L5-S1 at the base of the lumbar spine, right above the butt.

Don’t expect to be entirely successful at the start. It’s challenging to eliminate a habitual sway entirely so tolerate a small amount of arching in your back unless that hurts. As you practice, slip a hand back to your midline groove and make sure the arch is not too accentuated.

If you backbend at L5-S1 and strongly engage your rib anchor muscles, the front lower border of your ribcage will not protrude, but rather remain flush with your torso. A bend higher in the lumbar spine will result in the ribs protruding visibly from the contour of the abdomen.

The extent of protrusion of the ribcage is a fairly reliable index of sway in the low back. This bridge position shows healthy spinal curvature, where the backbend happens almost exclusively at the L5-S1 joint. There is no protrusion of the ribcage from the smooth contour of the abdomen.

This yoga student’s backbend happens at L5-S1 (which is good) as well as the upper lumbar spine (not so good)-  her rib cage protrudes slightly from the contour of her abdomen.

This student backbends entirely in her upper lumbar spine (ouch) and we see her ribs lift away from her abdomen a great deal. 

As you get used to the practice of intensifying the rib anchor corresponding to the challenge that you’re imposing on it, you can increase the extent of your cobra by degrees and perform other types of backbends.

For extreme backbends, we recommend you leave them to the professionals. B.K.S. Iyengar was known to practice yoga eight hours a day. The Peking Acrobats are also singularly dedicated to their craft.  For some of us, bending back in the shower to avoid shampoo coming into our eyes is the most practice we'll have in backbending. It's enough to keep us flexible and healthy as we enjoy watching what others are able to do.

B.K.S. Iyengar doing an inversion combined with a healthy backbend.

As your mother always said, practice makes perfect. Luckily, every day you are presented with countless opportunities to perfect your posture while sitting, walking, sleeping and...showering.

Lathering is a good time to practice healthy posture

Yes, that’s right. You can, and should, be aware of your posture even while performing the most mundane of tasks. So before your next shower, take a few meditative minutes to enjoy the healing properties of warm water...and then pause before you grab your shampoo bottle. Why? Because the half-minute you spend lathering your hair is probably the most vulnerable shower-time for your back.

Just before you lather is an important time to pause and set your posture

Most people in industrial cultures, when lifting their arms above their head, will sway their backs and put themselves at risk for a couple of problems. Swaying is an excessive arching of the back that compresses spinal discs and compromises circulation around the spine--not good. In the shower, be careful not to lean your head too far back while shampooing because this movement can exacerbate the sway.

Raising the arms above the head can easily result in a swayback

To prevent this, I recommend a technique called “anchoring the ribcage”. I teach this maneuver to students to help them achieve a healthy shape in the low back. To anchor your ribcage, you want to contract your internal oblique abdominal muscles to pull the front of the rib cage downward and inward. This is easier said than done! Your goal is to lengthen and straighten your low back.  To isolate the internal obliques (as opposed to rectus abdominis, the ab muscle modern Westerners are more aware of and tend to overuse), it helps to guide the action with your forearm or fists. Place either your forearm or your fists over the lower border of your ribcage (you want to feel bone), and gently press backwards so as to rotate your ribcage forward a little.
 

 Gently pushing back on the lower border of your ribcage helps rotate the ribcage forward and fix a sway back

When you think you’ve got it, you can assess the spinal groove in your low back with your fingers. A healthy low back shape has a mild groove, embedded bumps (your vertebrae), and soft ridges on either side of the groove. If you feel taut muscle ridges on either side of a deep spinal groove, then your back is still swayed.  Perform this maneuver to maintain a relaxed and lengthened position next time you shampoo.  Lather, rinse, repeat, and before you know it, you’ll be a proper posture pro!

Esther demonstrating how to anchor the ribcage to prevent swaying the lower back

Join us in an upcoming Free Workshop (online or in person).  

Find a Foundations Course in your area to get the full training on the Gokhale Method!  

We also offer in person or online Initial Consultations with any of our qualified Gokhale Method teachers.

Though a sway back is commonly perceived as good posture, most people recognize it to be a problem. What is the best way to fix a sway? And for those of you who don’t quite know, what is a sway?

Arching the low back is common and problematic.

A swayback is an inappropriate curve usually in the upper lumbar spine. It is frequently the result of trying to “sit up straight,” or “stand up straight” in a sustained way. Sometimes it is the result of modern activities, most notably women’s gymnastics, women’s ice-skating, women’s ballet and misguided forms of yoga.

The directive to "stand up straight" often results in a swayed low back. 
Swaying compresses the discs and decreases circulation around the spine.

I know this problem intimately. Having done a great deal of misguided gymnastics and yoga growing up, I had a very pronounced swayback in my twenties. People complimented me on my posture (sways certainly make you appear upright), but I blame the sway for weakening my lumbar spine and the resulting problems I had with my back in my mid-twenties (this is no longer such a young age to have back problems, I regretfully note). 

Esther demonstrating her previous habit of arching the back to be "upright"

The conventional fix for a sway is to tuck the pelvis. But this causes as many problems as it solves. It is true that tucking the pelvis usually flattens a swayback, and often feels good because it stretches out the low back muscles, but tucking the pelvis also compromises the wedge-shaped L5-S1 disc. In my own case, I suspect that the tucking exercises I was taught after my initial episodes of back pain in my teens and early twenties contributed to my more serious L5-S1 disc herniation problem in my later twenties. 

The better way to address a sway is to tuck the ribs. By this I mean rotate the ribcage forward so as to make the lower border of the ribcage flush with the abdomen. As the lower ribcage descends and retreats into the contour of the torso, the lower back lengthens, flattens and has a healthier architecture.

Tucking the rib cage-- a healthy way to flatten the low back.

This move is usually quite difficult for those who need it most. If you have been swaying your back for years/decades, tucking the ribs makes you feel hunched (it shows whatever hunch you have, which you now want to address directly with shoulder rolls, neck lengthening, etc.) and ape-like. A quick glance in a mirror should reassure you that you don't look the way you feel. This is always a major aha! moment in our Gokhale Method Foundations course. So there you have it - tuck your ribs, not your pelvis!