Facing my fear of back-bending (June blog)

Backbends, eh. Either you love ‘em or you hate ‘em and, whilst I try to avoid using the word hate as much as possible, I’d say I lean more towards the latter. For me the backbend sequence is the yogic equivalent of hanging out the washing, or offloading the dishwasher: It’s a chore and I try my best to avoid it. Like a rebellious teenager, as soon as we’re asked to go up into three ‘beautiful’ (pah!) backbends my thoughts take a sudden, mischievous turn: maybe I can sneak out for a quick trip to the ladies... If I keep hugging my knees into my chest can I get away with just two this time? Backbends just feel wrong, yet you see people in class floating up into this effortless arc; meanwhile I’m struggling, red faced, knees and elbows akimbo. Give me a yummy forward bend like pascimattonasana any day; but backbends, no thanks. Now hold on a minute… One of the things we’re told about yoga is that it’s a bit of a laboratory for real life. So I figured that if backbends are the equivalent of household chores, (and let’s face it, however much you kick and scream and hurl creative excuses about the house, you do have to do them) then I need to embrace aspects of my yoga practice which I don’t really enjoy as well… …Which is why I decided to tackle my fears head on, like a scared rabbit in the headlights, and take part in a full two-hour backbend workshop. On a Friday night no less. The teacher was a lovely lady named Kimberley who has been teaching for over 10 years, so she knows a thing or two about back-bending. There were around six of us at the Qi Freshy centre so we had a lot of space and personal attention. As Kim’s an Iyengar teacher, there were a lot more props than I’m used to (being an Ashtanga girl)… but, fear not the strap or the block, I told myself. Well, after placing the back of my rib cage on every side of a block for about 15 minutes, I learnt to love my little blocky as it started to open the upper back in a way I’d never experienced. Next we did some handstands and a peacock pose (pincha mayurasana) to energise us and practice extending from the hips, lifting up and out of the arms and externally rotating the shoulders. All good preparation for backbends. Then a few sun salutes and I felt like I was ready to fly; which is kind of what we did, because once we were all nice and open, we were supported by partners as they lifted and strapped us in all the right places into a glorious archy urdhva danurasana (or wheel pose). I can honestly say I ‘enjoyed’ that backbend. I also enjoyed some of the other back bendy techniques she had up her sleeve, like grabbing a strap shoulder width apart, lying on our fronts (with a partner standing gently on the soles of our feet) as we lifted our chest right off the floor. And we all went far higher than you’d imagine; which was intended to demonstrate how important the legs are in creating that much-needed lift in backbends. Legs! I mean I know I should be using my legs, but somehow I’ve always felt it into my lower back. So, some valuable lessons learnt. I’ve not completely overcome my fear of backbends yet but I survived it, I’d go as far as to say I liked it, and I felt amazing afterwards. Maybe back-bending is the new Friday night event eh! Next Qi blog update Claire will be interviewing Yoga-for-Surfers and Ashtanga dude, Maurice.

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