Many people have a dozen reasons for practicing yoga, and in my case, it was anxiety. It is proven that yoga has both physical and mental benefits.
Anxiety, though defined as a normal and healthy emotion, can be a mental disorder. When it gets serious, you can start practicing yoga as I did.
Read on to find how, and why, you can use a yoga wheel to perform a yoga backbend in particular.
What is a Yoga Backbend?
If you know what yoga is, or have practiced it, or seen people practice it, most of the poses you see are backbends. Backbends are the main category of yoga poses.
A yoga backbend is a powerful yoga pose that allows you to stretch and strengthen your spine and open the front part of your body.
When doing a backbend, you move your upper body backward, and this is when you benefit your spine and front body muscles.
Types of Backbends in Yoga
This popular yoga category is divided into three types.
It is important to know these types as they are categorized depending on how you stretch, and which muscles you exercise the most.
Leverage Backbends
They are leverage backbends because the pose stretches the front part of your body as you grasp or find support from a stable object.
The pose, therefore, uses the leverage of this object, such as the floor or wall.
There are two main types of leverage backbends.
The Cobra Pose
It is a very famous yoga pose, also known as the Bhujangasana. The leverage used in this pose is the floor.
To perform this pose, you lie on your stomach and plant your hands directly under your shoulders. You then press your upper body up as far as you can go, with your gaze in front of you.
You can bring your gaze up to the ceiling for more intensity, at an advanced level, but you ensure you don’t tighten your buttocks.
You should as well watch out for any strain or pain in your back and, or wrists. If you feel any discomfort, lower yourself slowly to avoid any injury.
This way, you can stretch muscles in your back and front body. This backbend also stretches your legs and energizes your spine.
The Bow Pose
This pose resembles that of a bow. It is also called the Danurasana.
To perform it, you lie on your stomach and stretch your arms backward. Then, slowly bend your knees to grab your ankles with your arms.
You then pull your feet against your grip to lift your body off the floor.
For a beginner, you can fold a towel or light blanket below your pelvic area to avoid pressing hard against the floor as this can hurt.
You should also ensure your feet do not spread apart wider than hip-width. In case of any neck or back pain or dizziness, lower yourself slowly.
You use the strength from your grip, and support from the floor when performing the bow.
The pose strengthens your back, opens your chest and shoulders, and improves your mobility to your hip flexors and front body.
Contraction Backbends
With this type of backbend, you generally use, or contract, muscles in your back to overcome gravity. You perform these poses lying on your stomach or front.
The Locust Pose
The locust pose is also known as the Salabhasana.
You perform the pose lying on your stomach and then contracting your back muscles to lift your chest and limbs off the ground.
To do so, gently press your pubic bone on the floor and slowly lift your legs, head, shoulders, and chest off the ground.
As a beginner, you can start by lifting just your upper body, and gradually train to lift your legs.
This pose will strengthen back, glutes, and leg muscles, the front part of your body, and stimulate abdominal organs.
The pose should not be performed by pregnant women and should be discontinued immediately if discomfort or strain occurs.
Traction Backbends
These backbends work the opposite way compared to contraction backbends. It is the muscles in the front that contract during poses to overcome gravity.
Some traction backbends include these two.
The Camel Pose
This pose is also called the Ustrasana.
While performing this pose, the front part of the body controls movement in the back part of the body as you bend.
This means that the muscles in the front part of your body contract to enhance mobility in the back.
To do it, come down to your knees and ensure your feet are hip-width apart. As you ensure your body remains straight, slowly reach, with your arms, for your lower back, heels, or floor. You can do this one arm at a time to remain stable.
As you reach backward with your arms, carefully extend your head back so that your body is arched.
This pose stretches your whole front body, improves your posture, strengthens your back and legs, and also helps with your upper back and shoulders mobility.
Note that while performing the pose, you should be careful not to strain your neck as you pull your head backward.
If your knees strain or press hard against the floor, you can fold a mat or towel beneath to bring more comfort. You should avoid the pose if you have a serious back injury.
Upward Bow/ Wheel Pose
The wheel pose is also called the Urdhva Dhanurasana, and it resembles a wheel.
This pose is probably best performed if you are advanced in yoga. It is known as the bridge pose in acrobatic and gymnastics.
As a beginner, you should lie on your back and bend your knees hip-width apart. With your arms pressed on the floor along your sides, slowly lift your hips up and forward to perform the basic bridge.
At an advanced level, you can intensify the pose by lifting your whole body. To perform, stretch your arms and place the palms on the floor on either side of your head.
This pose strengthens your arms and wrists, as well as back, thighs, and shoulders. It also opens up your chest, quadriceps, and hip flexors.
What Are The Benefits of a Yoga Backbend?
These backbends are vital when doing yoga or even when doing basic stretches. You can perform them at your house or the gym.
However, it is essential to note that these poses are only useful when performed the right way; otherwise, they can lead to bad injuries.
If you are not well prepared, I suppose you do them with a yoga instructor’s guidance.
To help you get better at performing backbends, you can get a yoga wheel and have it support you. It is a round piece of yoga equipment designed to support and massage your back as you do yoga.
There are many benefits to performing these backbends. Some are similar to basic workout benefits, while others are similar to those of other categories of yoga. Let me discuss them below.
Anxiety And Stress Relief
As I discussed before, the main reasons I started yoga backbend poses were to remedy my anxiety.
I found that every time I did a few backbends, my mood would improve, and as such, my anxiety or worry levels would decrease.
So, how do they relieve anxiety and stress? It is quite simple. Any doctor will advise you to take deep breaths to beat anxiety, and this is the same case with backbends.
You stretch muscles in your front body, in itself, a way of relieving stress.
Again, once in a pose, the most important thing is to watch your breathing; this makes you calm and takes your mind off whatever worries you.
Note that it takes discipline and determination to reach this level, including practicing the poses and breathing techniques.
Once you know how to, you can then expect stress relief from performing backbends.
Backbends are a great way to train yourself better breathing habits. Improved breathing alleviates stress and anxiety, and improves focus and concentration.
Spine Realignment
One thing about backbends; you perform them while ensuring your upper body and spine, is flexible.
Ideally, your spine should be flexible to eliminate conditions like neck pain, back pain, and back tightness.
When you stretch backward and forward, you train the muscles in and around your spine to be flexible, which guarantees a happier life.
Strengthens Muscles And Internal Organs
You stretch your muscles to relieve pain, injuries, and strains, and you also stretch internal organs and your stomach.
Think of when you are doing a backbend, how you compress your kidneys. You might think this is a bad thing, but it is not.
When you compress your kidneys in a pose, what follows, once you release the posture, is an inflow of fresh blood and oxygen.
This is how you flush toxins out of your kidneys, meaning you detox just by doing yoga.
In other cases, a backbend increases your energy levels and improves your mood when you stretch abdominal muscles and internal organs.
Boosts Confidence
Performing backbends improves your posture. Sometimes when we sit all day working or studying, we tend to slouch, thereby damaging spine alignment and body posture.
When you perform a backbend, you realign the spine, and this not only improves your sitting posture, it amends your walking posture as well.
Backbends also improve your yoga and workout confidence. When you successfully perform a tough pose, like a wheel pose, you get the motivation to perform more advanced poses, which improves your fitness and quality of life.
How Yoga Wheels Work
Yoga wheels, as described above, support you as you perform yoga poses. You can incorporate the wheel into your basic workout routine or use it to massage your back.
You should note that the wheel requires some level of expertise to use, without which it can cause severe back, neck, foot, or head injury. You should, therefore, seek guidance when you attempt to use it for the fort time.
For a yoga backbend, it is fairly easy to use a yoga wheel. All you use the wheel for is support, and the rest relies on your balance, strength, flexibility, and stability to complete a backbend.
- A yoga wheel massages the full length of your spine, and using it for a backbend pose adds a lot of value. You stretch the front part of your body as the wheel massages your back.
- As a beginner, the yoga wheel will help you get deeper into a pose, something you wouldn’t be able to do on your own.
- With the support factor, a yoga wheel will improve your stability and flexibility. Yogis around the world incorporate the wheel into very advanced poses, and it gives them the confidence to keep improving.
Wondering how to use the yoga wheel? Simply place your back over it, and perform the deepest backbends you possibly can. It is a great asset for poses that require you to lay facing the ceiling like the camel pose and the wheel pose.
For poses where you lie on your stomach as the locust, bow, and cobra pose, among others, you can place the wheel beneath your legs to improve your flexibility, and aid in deeper stretching.
How to Find The Right Yoga Wheel
To get the best yoga wheel for your backbends, consider factors like your height, weight, and the exercises you want to perform.
Most yoga wheels have a diameter of around 12 inches, a width of approximately 6 inches, and each wheel has a specified maximum weight it can carry.
You want to have the right wheel, one wide enough to massage your spine, strong enough to carry your weight, and high enough to support your height.
I recommend the Chirp Wheel as it is the one I use. This wheel is a 510(k) medical device approved by the FDA and is the only wheel with a patented spinal canal for deep spine massage and realignment.
It is the perfect wheel for a yoga backbend because of its massage technique, length-wise, and width-wise.
You will feel relaxed, and tension along your spine and shoulder blades will be relieved.
Better health in your back means better health in the front part of your body, and the back massage is great for internal organs like kidneys.
> > Read Our Full Chirp Wheel Review < <
Final Thoughts
My life and health changed the day I started doing backbends.
With my improved flexibility and breathing, I quickly calmed down and performed a deep backbend to take my mind off stress.
Backbends are great exercise routines, not only for your muscles but also for your mental health and physical appearance.
If you are new to yoga backbends, investing in the right yoga wheel can significantly improve your routine.
They will offer you extra support to help you enjoy the stretching, and this will increase your quality of life.
It is, however, wise to perform these exercises with a personal instructor.
They will teach you how to relax in a backbend, which backbend is best for you, and when, how to use a yoga wheel to your advantage safely.
