How To Unsquash The Front Of Hips And Lengthen Lower Back In Yoga

In this post I show videos and step by step instructions on how to help unsquash the front of hips and lengthen lower back.  They are great tips for people who spend a lot of time sitting, which is most of us in general.

Key Instructions
I have a limited repertoire of what I consider some basic instructions.

No matter what sequence I teach these instructions repeat themselves over and over.

They repeat themselves over and over in single class.

Sometimes I wonder why people keep coming back since I do say the same thing over and over again!

I like to think that it is perhaps my wit and good humour that brings people back.

But I am pretty sure it is because while these instructions sound simple, they are actually tricky to apply, to apply consistently, and to apply in different orientations to gravity.

One of those instructions is "sitting bones down, top of pelvis back, lengthen lower back."

For people who have tight lower backs, and even people who do not, this instruction feels amazing on the lower back.

However, I could also say, "sitting bones down, top of pelvis back, unsquash front of hips."

You see, depending where you focus, or perhaps where you feel more tightness, the same instruction can help in two places.

Most people live a lot of their lives squashing the front of hips.  Well, those that sit for most of the day do.

So this instruction is a great way to help unsquash.

It is particularly useful to apply in forward bending postures.

I keep the front of groin open (unsquashed) when I practice forward bending postures.

It is the opposite of what many people practice--either deliberately or incidentally.

It means you work on spinal forward bending then hip flexion rather than just hip flexion, which often happens.

Some Thoughts Before You Watch And Practice
For me yoga is a spinal movement practice.  In order to maintain the health of your spine you need to learn how to move it, and move it safely. Unsquashing is key.  Being able to create firmness in they tummy in a way you can still feel the movement of the breath there while mobilising the spine are also key.

In the videos I chose a modified chandra namaskar to show the differences between squashing and unsquashing.  One video shows me showing what squashing looks like versus unsquashing.  The other video just shows a smooth unsquashing practice.

I have also taken still shots so you can compare the two side by side.

Perhaps watch unsquashing versus squashing first.  Then look at the still shots.  Then watch the unsquashing so you are left with a clear impression of unsquashing.

When watching these videos please consider that I mainly post things for my own students who come to me and whom I can watch carefully.  Practicing from videos is a not the best, especially if you have pre-existing issues.

Also note that in the videos below I create firmness in my tummy in a way I can still breathe into it.  I have written about this a lot before so please refer to those posts.  Whenever I bend forward from the spine I create firmness first.  I am trying to have core stability with mobility.  Much of what I show will not work if you suck your tummy in tightly (using muscles of forced exhalation) because this will stiffen the spine.

Squashing Versus Unsquashing: The Video
This video shows me trying to highlight squashing versus unsquashing in the same poses.

Squashing Versus Unsquashing: The Still Shots
Below I show the shot of being squashed on the left and unsquashed on the right.

In the squashed shots I performed the actions of moving the top of my pelvis towards the front of thigh and pushing my sit bones up into the air.

In the unsquashed shots I performed the actions of moving my sitting bones down and top of pelvis back.

You can see I put my hand to the place that I am concentrating on.  One finger is at top of front of pelvis and the other on the thigh bone.

In most shots you can see the 'air' in the unsquashed variation.  You can also see that my lower back lengthens or is less 'archy'.

In all forward bends I try to firm my tummy in a way I can still breathe.  I also feel that I am pushing both hips forward without actually moving them.

             

 

 

  

 

Unsquashing: The Movie

Here I show the whole sequence with just the unsquashing version.

The End

That's it from me today.  

Happy and safe practicing.  This is the type of thing I teach in classes, workshops, and my retreats in Canberra, Sri Lanka, and Bali.  If you are around I would love to teach you. 

Much metta,

Samantha

www.yogacafecanberra.blogspot.com

www.yogacafelk.blogspot.com

www.artofliferetreats.com

Free Your Spine in Uttanasana

Safer Standing Forward Bends

Last week I posted a photo of a lady in uttanasana.  She seemed a bit too hunched and rounded for my liking.  That prompted me to write the yoga quiz, to see whether it was to your liking or not as well, and to see if you could think of some ways to improve your own forward bending.  And that then prompted me to make a little movie about keeping your spine long in uttanasana--standing forward bend. 

Before I start, I just want to put it out there that my tips for uttanasana (or for any poses for that matter) are not the only ways to practice the pose (I also have more tips as well but limited myself for the sake of making a short movie clip that does not gobble up all of the memory in my computer!).  What I encourage you to do is try and, in practicing, ask yourself whether your spine feels relaxed, happy, and free.  If the answer is no then we need to try something else!

Watch the movie and then read some more of my tips below.  In the interests of transparency I have to also add that I was partially motivated to make this film clip this week so that I could show my sister in Australia my new haircut and glasses since my skype camera is broken (Hi Shell!).  This is why I turn to the camera at least twice and wave.

The Hunch
Below is last week's photo.  I like the peaceful look this lady has on her face.  She does look like she is enjoying her pose and that's great.  It's my feeling that she is trying to reach her toes when perhaps she is not quite ready though.  Why do I say this?  Because you can see that her entire spine has become rounded.  In particular, see how her spine rounds up from her pelvis to form a peak at her lower back and then rounds down again as it arcs towards the floor?  This type of forward bending puts your lower back at great risk, especially if you have any lower back problems. 

Hmmm, I have a hunch that something is not quite right here...





What you want to try and avoid in uttanasana is this upward peak that forms around your lower back, or what I call "the hunch".  The hunch is very sneaky and likes to creep up on people in forward bends.  Hunch awareness is an important thing to cultivate in your yoga practice.

So why is this hunch appearing on this lady's back?  Why might it appear on your own back? 

The hunch does not appear by magic, landing on your unsuspecting spine.  In forward bends such as uttanasana it generally appears when our hamstrings (the muscles on the back of your thighs) are not long enough (they are too tight), which means our pelvis cannot tilt forward properly.  When your pelvis does not tilt sufficiently any forward bending movement then comes from rounding the spine.  This is usually accompanied by some hunching of the shoulders as the arms stretch out to reach the feet or the floor, which you can also see in the photo above.  

The hamstrings are really important in forward bending poses such as uttanasana.  Let's take a closer look at how they can limit forward bending. 

Hamstrings and Pelvis
Your hamstrings are muscles that start on your sitting bones (part of the pelvis).  They go down the back of your legs and across the back of your knees where they attach to the bones of your lower leg.  The fact that the hamstring muscles are attached to your pelvis and cross your knee joints is an important thing to consider in cultivating hunch awareness and minimising its impact.  A picture might help here.  Below are some images of your hamstring muscles.  You can see how they start at your pelvis and go across the back of your knees. 

The picture on the left shows the 'normal' tilt of the pelvis, which is just slightly forward. The picture on the right shows what happens as the top of the pelvis starts to tip forward.  This lifts the sitting bones higher into the air.  As the sitting bones lift, the hamstring muscles start to get stretched as one end of the muscle (attached to the sitting bones) is getting pulled away from the other end (attached below the knee). 

Some people have hamstrings so tight that they cannot tilt their pelvis forward in any forward bends.  Some people even have hamstrings to tight that the their sitting bones are actually pulled down in normal day to day life so that their pelvis tilts backwards (as though you are a dog with its tail tucked between its legs).  When your pelvis starts to tilt backwards you lose the natural curve in your lower back (lumbar curve) and the hunch starts to form.

You can probably tell by now that being able to move your pelvis freely is key to safe forward bending.  In fact, safe forward bending movements should be initiated from the forward tilt of the pelvis.  Being able to tilt the pelvis forward will enable your spine to feel free and agile.  You can see this clearly see in the film clip I made.  At the end of the clip I demonstrate exactly what happens to your spine and lower back when you tilt your pelvis the wrong way in a forward bend and I encourage you to watch this part a few times and feel it in your own body.  A good tip would be to imagine the Bat Signal (you know, that light that shone into the night skies of Gotham City to alert Batman that some dastardly plot was unfolding) was shining from your backside as you practice uttanasana.  Now, if you really wanted to alert Batman to the perilous ground situation you would need to shine that light as high into the sky as possible.  If you sense your light is shining only slightly above the horizon or even down into the ground then you are most likely to be in danger of hunching your spine in your forward bends. 

Now this is all well and good if your hamstrings are long.  You will indeed be able to shine the Bat Signal high,your pelvis will move freely and your spine will be long.  But many people find themselves in the situation that their hamstrings are stretched to maximum capacity, their pelvis is stuck, and their Bat Signal is still nowhere in the night sky to be seen.  Fortunately there are some strategies you can adopt to ensure your uttanasana is safe. 

Bend Your Knees
First, you could bend your knees.  This is a smart option, especially for anyone with lower back issues, and works because once you bend your knees, the distance between the two points where your hamstrings attach (your sitting bones and below your knees) is shortened again and tension is relieved.  You will be able to keep bending forward but your knees will be bent and you will be in more of a squatting position.  See the image below.

Forward Bend With Bent Knees

Practicing the pose in this way will allow your spine to relax downward, allowing gravity to lengthen it, without the hunch appearing.  You might have to bend your knees more, or less, depending on whether the hunch starts to appear or not.  Because you cannot see yourself you have to use body awareness to detect if the hunch is creeping up and one way to do this is to feel if your lower ribs start to move away from your thigh bones.  If that happens, you can be pretty certain that your lower back is rounding.

To practice uttanasana in this way start in a low squat, connecting your lower ribs to your thighs (as though somebody has tied your body to your legs).  Hug the back of your calves or thighs and from there start to slowly press the heels down and tilt the sitting bones higher into the sky, allowing the legs to slowly straighten.  Keep straightening your legs until your lower ribs start to move away from your thighs and then hold in place.  You can try to deepen your hamstring stretch by actively trying to tilt your sitting bones higher and higher into the sky from this position.

One problem in doing the pose in this way is that if your hamstrings are really tight you will find you have to bend your knees so much that you are practically squatting on the ground.  This is really tough on your thigh muscles and they will get tired so you cannot hold the position for very long.  Another option, then, would be to use a prop such as a table or chair or block. 

Use A Prop
Your next option might be to keep straight legs (or slightly bent knees) and use a prop to rest your arms on, which supports your spine.  See the image below where I have used a block.   

Doing the pose in this way will probably be a more satisfying hamstring stretch since your legs are straight.  Remember that you want to try and tilt your sitting bones into the sky to shine that Bat Signal as high as you can.  If you don't have a block you could use a chair or even a table.  The main point is that my spine does not start to dome up around my lower back area and that my pelvis is the highest point. 

In Summary

1. Safer forward bending in uttanasana means cultivating hunch awareness and making sure you do not dome up around your lower back.
2. Be mindful of the position of your pelvis.  If it starts to tilt backwards (as though you are a dog tucking its tail between its legs) you are entering into hunchville. 
3. In uttanasana you need to shine the Bat Signal high into the sky--tilt your sitting bones up!
4. Don't be afraid to bend your knees.  This will ensure your pelvis is the highest point and your spine can dangle down freely from there.
5. Don't be afraid to use a prop like a block or a chair or a table.  This will enable you to keep your legs straight but also to keep your spine long without it starting to hunch. 
6. Although I did not mention this above (so it should not really be a summary point) the ego or our desire to touch the floor is at the heart of a lot of unsafe forward bending in uttanasana.  You do not need to reach the floor in forward bends.  You need to lenghten your hamstrings and free up your spine.  If your hands reach the floor then fine, so be it.  If your hands do not reach the floor it does not matter.  Don't leave them just dangling in mid-air though.  Instead, place them on the back of your thighs or the back of your calves and start to gently draw your shoulder blades down the back of your torso so that your neck remains free (remembering it is also part of your spine).
7. Finally, I really encourage anyone with back issues to seek advice from an experienced therapist or teacher as they start to practice uttasnasana.  If practiced incorrectly it can create pain, however, when practiced mindfully and with proper alignment, you will be able to find a variation to suit you (also watch for my upcoming post on Super Stretches for People with Low Back Pain!). 

Happy and safe practicing!

Yoga Gems #3: You don’t do yoga to be a hunchback

The toughest thing about straightening your legs when you are bending forward is not actually getting your legs straight.  It is dealing with the little voice inside of you that says you have to touch your toes or reach the floor while your legs are straight. 

That little voice is a bit like the archetypal devil sitting on your shoulder who encourages you to do something that most of us probably know we probably shouldn’t—at least you should know if you have been coming to yoga class for some time. 

The thing about forward bending is that sometimes we look too far ahead of ourselves and try to get somewhere our body is not quite ready for.  If you have had a back injury you will know this on an intimate level.  But even for those of us without back injuries we need to be mindful that we don’t develop awkward habits that could lead to injury down the track. 

The angel, if you listened to her as she whispered from your other shoulder, would be telling you lots of nice things as you practiced forward bends.  Here’s a potential though not exhaustive list:

·         Relax and breathe

·         Let go of ideas about where you ‘should be’ and just be where you are

·         Please don’t come to yoga to turn yourself into a hunchback

It is the third of these that I really want to focus on. 

If you come into a forward bend, either from standing or sitting, with the idea that you have to straighten your legs and touch the floor or your toes you are potentially setting yourself up for trouble if you don’t have enough length in your hamstrings or lower back.  What will likely end up happening is that you round your spine and then shrug your shoulders in order to reach wherever it is you want to be.  You will end up looking a bit like a hunchback. 

This is not a pretty sight.  Imagine if I kept my shoulders and spine in exactly the same configuration and stood up.  In case you cannot imagine, I demonstrate in the video. 

Ok, can you honestly say to yourself that you have come to yoga so that you can re-enforce a hunch in your spine?!  Do you want to go home after class and say to yourself, “Gee, I am so glad I spent so much time cultivating that hunch.  Feels so gooooood.”  My guess is no.  But the devil, you see, will encourage you to do exactly that.

So what can you do? 

First of all, bring absolute mindfulness to your spine as you practice any forward bend. 

Second, remind yourself you are trying to open the whole back side of your body—from your heels to the crown of your head—rather than just focus on that short distance between your bottom and your knees.  It might help to think of yourself as trying to fold your body in half like you might fold a towel—you don’t want the bottom half to be smooth and straight and the top half to look like a camel’s hump. 

Third, even though you are doing a forward bend, see if you can think a little bit about a backward bend as you come forward.  You will not be able to maintain the natural curve in your lumbar spine as you bend deeply forward but it helps to feel as though you are trying to do so.  To do this it can help to imagine pushing your sitting bones behind you or above you—increasing the distance between your sitting bones and your knees.  In the midst of a forward bend this is much easier said than done though, since this action creates a lot of tension in your hamstrings.

Fourth, draw your shoulder blades down your back so that the shoulders are free and move away from your ears.  This will free up tension around the neck and the upper back. 

Fifth, if you are in sitting, make sure you feel your centre of gravity in front of your sitting bones so you do not feel like you are falling backwards.  You might need to use a block to sit on if this proves really difficult, or take option six, below. 

Sixth, you can also opt to bend your knees as much as you need so the torso lies on the thighs. I like this one a lot, especially if your hamstrings are pretty tight.   This action is very effective as it will release a bit of that tension on the back of your legs and allow your spine to relax forward more so you still get a satisfying feeling of being able to fold forward.  You can still stretch your hamstrings by pushing your sitting bones further behind you.  This calls for a tilting action of the pelvis so the top of the pelvis comes forward and your sitting bones move backwards.  Once you have laid your chest on your thighs you can really hug your chest along your thigh bones and then start to straighten your legs from there, but only so much that your spine still feels relaxed and long and you can keep your chest and thighs roughly parallel (like that folded towel). 

In practice this means you might not reach your toes or the floor at all.  It does not matter.  Reach the back of your calves or thighs instead.  Just remember to move those shoulders away from your ears (you can try to press your hands into the back of the calves with your elbows in and then ‘pull’ the calves up under your knees to also free up some tension in the neck/upper back in a forward bend).  

A word for the more experienced.  Your spine is ultimately going to round a little bit when you come into a deep forward bend so you do not need to keep it stiffly upright (unless you are practicing some particular technique that calls for this).  If you maintain this stiff upper back for too long what you will find is that the muscles in your back start to get tired.  You need to allow for slight rounding so that your spine can relax.  The trick is being able to feel the difference between a nice relaxed and long spine and a hunched and constricted one. In the video you can see my spine is not ramrod straight, but it is long and I can still move it and find little wavelets rippling through it no matter how deep I bend.  As soon as I cannot ripple anymore, I know I have come too far.

As always, it pays to listen to what is going on inside your body.  “Length” and “Freedom” should be a little mantra that you repeat to yourself when you practice forward bending. 

If you feel in your body that you are slumping then this is a good sign that you need to do something to lengthen your spine.  If your back muscles are getting tired then you are probably ‘too straight’ and you need to relax them a little.  If you cannot move your neck in freedom you shoulders are probably shrugged as you try to reach too far.  If you feel any pain at all in your lower back, bend your knees a lot to keep the lower back long or come out of the pose. 

Happy practicing!