Forward and backwards bending will make our spine unhealthy.
If you are serious about making your spine healthy, then this article is for you.
Our spine governs all the organ systems in our body. Thus , if Spine is healthy, we are healthy.
We always say prevention is better, but we never make efforts in the right direction because we do not know exactly. .We have kept ourselves engaged in diet and physical exertion in the name of physical activities and in this process distortion of spine continues.
We are just focusing on consuming no of calories and burning calories. whereas the body needs calories to use and not to burn.
Any bending , forward, or backwards is bad for our spine.
This makes our spine more vulnerable because of compression of the vertebral column at either side.You all must have observed that people who are flexible mean they have loose joints and laxity in their ligaments and find poses to be physically easy and accessible. They stick to the typical poses, and because they do it with such an ease that it looks convincing to everyone’s eyes. On the other hand, people who are stiff in joints find such poses difficult and not interested. But that doesn’t mean people with flexible joints don’t suffer. They equally suffer with all sorts of health issues, such as the joints, spaces between two bones get decreased, which is known as osteoarthritis.
So I thought, let me try to explain to everyone the mistakes that we make, mostly in the name of yogasana and stretching or so called flexibility and exercises.
Lack of knowledge about naturalization and it’s natural enhancement, our ignorance leads us towards an unhealthy spine – central axis.
One must know the science behind –
Both forward or back bending postures, either one side is always get compressed,
Forward bending postures are anterior flexion and back bending postures are posterior flexion. In both of these flexions, two consecutive vertebral bones come nearer and continuation of this process leads towards wear and tear of interveribral joints with decreased spaces between two consecutive vertebrae which leads to inflammation I.e. arthritis. Stiffness and hardness of musculature have a major role in this process of damage.
Flexion means decreasing angle between two bones where two bones come near to each other and spaces between two consecutive vertebrae discreases. Hence, the disc between two consecutive vertebrae gets compressed, water gets dried, and bulges outside that brings pressure on spinal cord and nerves.
Extension means increasing angle between two bones where two bones get away from each other and creating natural spaces between two consecutive vertebrae. Disc in between remains hydrated, and the spinal cord remains intact.
Active expansion of both sides of the muscles with opposite directions like strings and pulleys mechanism is an ideal and essential factor for proper extension as well as to make us erect.
I especially do not like the word bending, as we bend at the level of spinal vertebrae mainly at weak spots where curvature changes. These are common areas that leads towards distortion and degenaration of spine early.
The difference between spinal bending and spinal extension –
What happens with the back-bending (posterior flexion) and forward-bending (anterior flexion) of our spine. Which are more enjoyable as a performing art but make spine unhealthy.
When we bend our back, the front edges of the vertebrae move away from each other and the back edges move towards one another which is compression, thus wedging the spongy intervertebral discs toward the front of the spine.
Back bending is easier compared to forward bending because there is a strong ligament anterior side and no nerves for the disc to push into. As the body cavities situated at the front side get open feels better till the person doesn’t have back pain.
However, the reverse effect of forward bends also affects our body. When we round our spine forward, the back edges of the vertebrae move apart, the front edges toward one another which is compression , and the disc gets wedged in the posterior direction and spinal cord at Spinal canal and nerves between intervertebral foramen get pinched.
In these forward and backwards bending processes, this can be a potential problem once intervertebral spaces start decreasing , disc getting dehydrated. If the discs begin to bulge into the spinal canal, then right behind the back of the vertebral bodies runs a very important and sensitive structure – the spinal cord. All the bundled nerves pass between our brain and the rest of our body through the spine. Such movements will affect the nerves and blood vessels and surrounding tissues.
In both the above cases, our vertebral spaces keep on decreasing and abnormal pressure between the two vertebral bodies and intervertebral joints increases, leading towards wear and tear and friction. Inflammation of soft tissues begins to lead to arthritis. Which we ignore easily even though we get hints like discomfort, uneasiness, pain, or spasms, etc.
Do you know , to stop this abnormal pressure as well as movement, it is the body defensive reaction that causes our muscles to go into spasms, and this reaction is inflammation. At this level of spondylitis we are not aware and this process continues to further distortion and disturbance.
The end result is dehydration of the disc that causes cracks in the discs and disc bulges towards the spinal cord at back. The body begins its defence mechanism and forms osteophytes to stop this abnormal movement and pressure. Thus, nerve gets pinched.
In this process, the body keeps on compensating in many ways and adjusts wrongly. Hence, deteriorating and degeneration of the vertebral axis and soft tissues goes on which we ignoring.
We have to stop this and reverse the process as early as possible to prevent further damage and improve our movements intellectually at the physical level to get physiological improvement to enhance and evolve our naturalization at a genetic level.
The truth about Spinal extension –
We, as a human species have to learn how to align our 24 spinal vertebrae with sacrum and tailbone at one side and head at another.
Elongation of musculature makes our spinal column extended, and extension doesn’t happen automatically. Elongation of musculature is a very active and conscious process.
Where flexion happens automatically. In our bodies, defensive mechanism flexion is generated automatically, which is a very strong contraction force.
But extension needs to be done consciously and forcefully with more strength and willpower.
In extension, there is decompression of the vertebral column, while in Flexion, there is compression as two bones in the joints come nearer.
We can say that extension leads us towards regeneration and flexion towards degeneration.
Therefore, contraction of muscles has to be smooth, not hard, so in flexion,frictionless movement of bones in the joints through smooth movement of voluntary musculature is the key factor.
Extension creates natural space between two consecutive vertebral bodies. The disc remains hydrated and intact, and so is the spinal cord.
Therefore, it is necessary for us to make conscious and strong efforts to elongate voluntary muscular architecture with their own natural sequential order for synchronised movement in the consecutive joints in the right direction of flow of movement.
Therefore we should always make efforts for proper forward extension and vertical extension and hyperextension , backwards extension to keep vertibral space intact.
In poses both static or dynamic both movements of our body, the extension of the spinal column , our vertical axis is most vital that is important. For this to happen we can train those muscles only in forward extensions to improve our sitting, standing and walking poses .
In forward extension, learning elongation of the spine is easier. As in these positions, our spine is horizontal to the ground – gravity, and sliding movement of the spinal column gets easier and safer.
In this forward extension, with the help of both extremities the elongation of the torso from both sides of Muscular architecture should move in opposite directions. That is the back side towards gravity to create antigravitational force from the front to lift us upward. Equilibrium of forces to avoid sinking and shrinking of matter towards our center.
Therefore, the front body Cavities like chest, abdomen, and pelvis get expanded for natural and harmonious movement of organs, glands, and vessels situated within.
Once in our regular , sincere and devoted practice, forward extension starts getting mature, then this will bring more ease in prolonged periods of sitting and standing and walking.
We get a lot of physical, physiological, and psychological benefits in these poses.
So, to conclude, extension is safer than forward and backwards bending. One must know the technique with understanding basic physical laws of nature.
If we want to make our spine healthy, we have to learn how to extend the spinal column which helps to create natural spaces that are close and open spaces both.
To conclude:
Instead of forward and backward flexion of the spine, extend the spine from head to tail with the right direction flow of movement of muscles in any pose and movement of our body..
Pull the paraspinal muscles down using the force of Muscles from the tail and hip, and from the front side , lift our entire column upward towards head using the force of muscles of neck to head and rotation of both shoulder and hip girdle. Then, we will be creating as much potential space between the individual vertebrae as possible and help in the expansion of ribcage.
Our body needs to create an anti gravitational force from the front in order to balance the force of gravity from back. While musculer architecture of the back side of the body holds the gravity and the front side creates anti gravitational force. Opposite of this direction leads us towards arthritis and myositis.
Though we look erect, which we are not. We have to evolve to make ourselves erect and physically stable.
We must train our own physical body to prevent the body’s ideal posture from collapsing, shrinking.
So ,there is a technique one must learn using probs, and that is the relationship between upper and lower extremities with the central axis, i.e., head, spine and ribcage.
With the help of the upper extremity, learn to lift front body muscles and from lower extremity pull back muscles with rotation of girdle with our rotator muscles, and that should be in any variation of form /posture.
This must become our lifestyle and secondary nature, which is all yoga teaches us. These lifestyle changes are essential in today’s modern world if we want to become healthy.
To make this happen, we need to work mainly on both shoulder and hip girdle. It’s a chain creation with the front muscles moving upwards and the back muscles moving downwards. It’s a head to tail movement of mainly Paraspinal musculature in any position of the body.
This whole process extends the spine, and we all know how the spine governs the body. If the spine is healthy, it will improve the functioning of our organ systems which will firstly prevent us from illness and diseases, and further improvement will lead us to evolve and enlightenment.
Therefore , in our day to day activities ,be aware of what exact efforts we make for the extension of our vertebral column. So one day we won’t need to make conscious efforts so it becomes our nature and no need to do asanas, as Health is achieved – Lord Patanjali describe this as ” Prayatna Shaithilya”
It is said that once prayatna shaithilya is achieved, the body is held without any effort with ease by the yogi’s innate intelligence and connection with the Divine. That is ” anaata Samapatti Byam”
Perfection in asana means “to be” is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless, ease, and the infinite is reached.”
Health includes physical , physiological, psychological,intellectual, social and spiritual, and Genetic well being imbibes in this process. We can’t skip these stages to achieve higher state of consciousness and directly achieve genetic healthy changes.
Swati Joshi
Yoga Therapist by Swati Yoga Shalaa
