2023 Movement Challenge - Back Arch March
So firstly, I apologise for missing Handstand February and not really posting much through January either. I moved to the other side of the world, underwent intensive teacher training and just generally did not have time for anything. Still, I’m trying to get back on this now.
Back Arch March is a well-established challenge that takes place in March every year. If you search the tag on instagram, you’ll come across thousands of posts. It’s mostly the pole dance and circus community that get involved, but it’s open to anyone!
The goal is in the name - improve your back bend! But, as you can see from the “muscles worked” section here, there’s a lot going on in back bends. Just pushing yourself into a cobra/bridge/needle every day will do more damage than good. And given we only have one spine and it’s essential for so many things, it’s paramount that we take care of it!
Now, I can’t teach you everything there is to know about back-bending in a single tumblr post; there’s just too much. However, I can give you some pointers to help you get started on a safe back-bend journey:
The spine can be split into four sections: cervical spine (your neck), thoracic spine (from your shoulders to your mid-lower back), lumbar spine (lower back) and pelvic (saccrum and coccyx). When back-bending, you should be involving at least the thoracic and lumbar spine. In contortion, we use the cervical spine a lot too, but in many practices (and for those with neck problems) it’s recommended that you keep your neck in a neutral position.
The lumbar spine is naturally easier to bend from than any of the other parts of the spine. For this reason, it’s really important to actively think about engaging other areas in your back. In yoga, you might hear people talk about “heart-openers” when they talk about opening the chest. I also tell my students “aim to be a swiss roll, not a jack knife”
It’s also important to strengthen and engage the muscles that support the spine. This includes your core muscles and glutes.
When stretching your back, try to think about lengthening and curling the spine, not just squishing back as much as you can. Lengthen first (push forwards) and then lift over and back.
After finishing a back bend, you need to counter it with a forward bend. For advanced back-benders looking to train contortion poses, it’s sometimes better to do this at the end of the session so you’re not reseting your spine between stretches, but for newbies, you should do a counter pose between stretches. Forward bends include things like forward folds, child’s pose, japana, pike stretch, cow pose etc.
Stretching your hip flexors is a very neglected, yet very important, part of back bending. Lunges, glute bridges and pigeon pose are good ways to stretch your hips in a way that will benefit your back bends.
Back bends can be relaxing if you take them easy (and there is definitely merit in doing gentle back bends just to stretch it out!) but if you want to try and improve positions like bridge, needle, standing backbends etc, it’s really important that you engage your muscles and don’t just passively push into these positions.
If you’re delving into advanced back bends/contortion, please please please get a coach. Don’t just try to do anything crazy without proper individual instruction and spotting.
Even if you’re not aiming for advanced positions, it’s worth trying to find yoga classes or other stretching classes with a qualified coach rather than just attempting things on your own with no guidance.
I’m planning to post some exercises and stretches you can do for your back bends on here throughout the month, so stay tuned!
