Packing the Low Back in a Standing Back Bend

If you're practicing any kind of yoga, you are probably doing some form of back bend or another. There are many different types of back bends in yoga. In one of Bad Dog Rebel's Power Yoga classes, you are doing dozens of backbends every practice. 

Back bends are wonderful for counteracting so much of the damage we do to our spine and core by sitting ALL OF THE TIME! This is why they are such a main feature of our Power Yoga classes. However, if you are not engaging all of your postural muscles each time you do a back bend, you are actually putting your low back at greater risk for pain and injury! 

When we engage the postural muscles around the lumbar spine, we "pack the low back" in a muscular bubble wrap that protects the spine itself. If we have chronic low back pain (which so many Americans do because of the aforementioned constant sitting and lack of core strength), consistent practice of back bends is actually GREAT therapy for that BUT -- ONLY if done with muscular engagement and postural integrity.