5 Things You Should Know About Yoga Backbends

There’s one type of yoga pose that typically elicits more questions than answers when it’s cued in class—and that’s any type of backbend.

On the one hand, these postures can feel like antidotes to the aches and pains suffered by desk dwellers. Drawing your shoulders away from your ears, arching your back, and lifting your gaze is a liberating rebellion to the default hunched position you probably assume on a daily basis.

Still, uncertainty can linger in the back of your mind while you’re in Camel, Bow Pose, even milder backbends such as Upward Salute and Cobra. You might think, “How far is too far while bending back?” or “Is it normal to feel so vulnerable?”

5 Tips to Ease Your Backbend Anxiety 

Go-to advice for you to consider before your next backbend.

1. Strengthen Your Back (and Start Small)

The word “backbend” might conjure images of bendy postures. In fact, these poses require just as much strength as flexibility. Start with less-intense backbends that ask you to make only a slight arch. Locust, for instance, has a mild shape compared to most backbends but effectively activates the more underutilized stabilizing muscles of the back, says Denver Clark, yoga therapist, anatomy teacher, and founder and director of Embodied Yoga Institute in Bradenton, Florida. Whereas many backbends draw on gravity or support from your arms or legs to create the shape, this pose relies exclusively on your back muscles.

Locust also teaches you to maintain an active backbend with a less-intense shape, which doesn’t overly compress the lumber spine.

2. Don’t Forget About Your Front Body

The name “backbend” is kind of a misnomer. Sure, your back is bending—but that doesn’t mean your front body isn’t involved. Clark advises to “think of a backbend as an experience in balancing two opposite sides of the body.”

“In a backbend, we are exploring balance between the core muscles at the front of the body and the back extensors on the back of the torso,” says Clark. That push-and-pull between the front and back body is also what helps you keep control over your movements.

Drawing your navel toward your spine, pressing your hips forward, drawing your shoulders down your back, and lengthening your neck are all ways your front body can better support your spine while in a backbend.

3. Gravity Isn’t in Control—You Are

Active backbends, including Locust and Cobra, involve resisting the pull of gravity. In other backbends, the pull of gravity actually helps you come into the shape, including Camel and Puppy Pose (also known as gravity-assisted backbends). Even when gravity is helping, that doesn’t mean you should abruptly “drop back” into Camel, notes Clark. There are ways to keep the backbend active and make sure gravity is helping, not hurting you.

Working on your core strength is one way to support yourself and help you resist passively falling into backbends. There are also other ways to support yourself against the pull of gravity, including using props to bring the floor closer to you and keep you from bending too deeply. Place blocks outside of your ankles in Camel Pose or a block underneath your sacrum in Bridge Pose. When in doubt, explore prop placements that allow you to keep your spine as long as possible.

4. Your Gaze Is Up to You

Lifting your gaze can be one of the most intimidating parts of a backbend. Even in a common backbend such as Cow Pose, you might wonder how much lifting is too much. Clark emphasizes that it’s totally up to you.

“Gaze is subjective to the individual’s body story,” says Clark. “Those who have had injuries in the past are more prone to sensitivity in the neck and therefore should be more mindful when approaching a lifted gaze in their backbend.”

But that doesn’t mean lifting your gaze is something you should never do.

If you spend most of the day looking down at a computer or your phone, says Clark, a lifted gaze  can feel as if it brings the body back into balance. “When in doubt, only do what feels natural to your body.” That goes for backbends—and your entire practice.

5. It’s Okay to Be Cautious

It’s almost hard-wired in us to feel nervous about doing backbends, especially since that type of motion isn’t something we do often or at all in daily life, says Clark. Coming into one can trigger the nervous system into responding with fear or even panic, she says.

The front body also represents protection—of our internal organs and our heart space—from the outside world. “Opening the front body and exposing these areas is an intimidating experience for those who are in protection mode, emotionally,” says Clark.

Backbending can feel completely counterintuitive. Give yourself time, patience, and a chance to find what works for you.