Ask a Yoga Teacher: Fearless Forward Bending without Breaking
If you have osteoporosis, this information will free up your yoga practice.
Welcome to Ask a Yoga Teacher, my monthly post about a particular pose that you are struggling with. This month, since I didn’t get any specific requests, I decided to talk about forward bending poses as a category. If you have a question about a specific pose, please ask in the comments below!
What is forward bending?
When you practice yoga (on the mat), you’ll move the body though all planes of motion throughout your practice: forward bending, backward bending, side bending, and twisting, and combinations of these movements.
There are two ways to bend forward, one with a straight spine, and one with a bent spine. Spinal flexion means rounding the spine forward, which we do in poses like Cat pose/Marjaryasana.
This is not what I mean by “forward bending.” Forward bending poses in yoga are poses where you are stretching muscles usually in the back of the legs and hips. This does not require spinal flexion. This instead requires hip flexion, where you tip the pelvis forward, like in Bound Angle pose/Baddha Konasana.
When you flex the spine (round) instead of the hips (tip the pelvis), you bypass all the muscles you are attempting to stretch. Instead, you mostly stretch the spinal muscles. While there is nothing wrong with stretching the spinal muscles per se, usually the hips and hamstrings need stretching more than the spinal muscles do.
Poor posture leading to back pain
As I wrote about here and here, poor posture is a huge culprit when it comes to having lower back pain. However the lower back muscles aren’t the only problem. In those previous essays I discuss how poor posture can lead to (among other things) tight hamstrings, which then leads to more poor posture and lower back pain (it’s a vicious cycle).
If tight hamstrings are your problem (and under using the glutes when walking and moving can also cause tight hamstrings), then when you do a forward bend, you need to make sure your spine is straight and that you tip the pelvis forward.
Try this for yourself and feel the difference. First, start in a seated position with your legs extended in front of you. Forward bend by reaching your head toward you knees, rounding the spine. Most likely you’ll feel the stretch in the back and little or nothing in the hamstrings. Now if you tip the pelvis forward, keeping a flat back, aka straight spine, your hamstrings will sing (possibly off key, but they will sing). If you find that you can’t tip forward because your hamstrings are so tight, sit on a block or a chair and try it again. Having the hips higher than the feet allows you to tip the pelvis with a little more freedom.
It’s the tipping of the pelvis that matters most with all forward bending poses.
Straight spine vs rounded spine
Most of the benefits of forward bending come from tipping the pelvis forward. You’ll feel a stretch in the hamstrings, glutes, etc, depending on the pose. However, after you tip the pelvis, there can be benefit from allowing the spine to round afterwards. If you have osteoporosis, please see the section below.
Tipping the pelvis forward creates the majority of the stretch, but once you’ve gone as far as you can go, allowing the torso to melt forward over your legs creates the added benefit of letting go. You need a certain amount of muscular effort to tip the pelvis forward. Once you’ve gotten there, softening and relaxing into the pose will increase the stretch you feel, and make it easier to improve your mobility in the pose.
I often think of the body like a rebellious teenager. If you push or force yourself into a stretch, the body will fight back. If you give it a bit of space and some breath, it will often do what you want it to do. The body needs to get there in its own time, when it’s ready, not when you are ready. The mind and body don’t always have the same timeline.
Relaxing into the stretch usually involves letting the spine round and soften. You need to create hip flexion first to target the appropriate muscles, then you can do spinal flexion to relax more deeply. When you do that, you’ll get much more out of the pose.
Osteoporosis
When you have osteoporosis, you are probably told numerous times that you should avoid forward bending due to the possibility of vertebral fracture. While this is definitely a concern, you don’t need to avoid practicing yoga, or doing forward bending poses. You just need to modify how you do them.
Getting rid of an entire range of motion is actually to your detriment and can lead to more pain and dysfunction down the road. However, when you have osteoporosis, all forward bending poses should be exclusively from the pelvis with no spinal rounding.
Cat pose is fine because there is muscular support from the abdominals, especially when you focus on the core strengthening aspects of the pose. Also, you aren’t hanging into the pose causing spinal compression. With all other forward bending poses, focus on the pelvic tilt as the majority of your pose.
This applies to the following poses (though not an exhaustive list):
- Standing forward bend/Uttanasana
- Bound Angle pose/Baddha Konasana
- Ankle to Knee pose/Agnistambhasana
- Cow Face pose/Gomukhasana
- Half Split pose/Ardha Hanumanasana
- Wide Legged Forward Fold/Prasarita Parsvakonasana
Notice in all of the poses above, the spine is straight and I am tipping from the pelvis. With Standing Forward Bend (upper left photo), I demonstrate with bent knees, but you can also have the legs straight to get a more significant hamstring stretch. If your hamstrings are so tight that straightening the legs causes the spine to round, keep the knees bent. The hands or elbows can come to the thighs for support.
Please click the links throughout this essay to get more details about forward bending, lower back pain, and related topics.
