Don't make me do it!

If you’ve had low back pain, you know how incapacitating it can be. One wrong step, and some mysterious stranger stabs a knife between your vertebrae. If you haven’t, and you’re practicing yoga, please read this article on the threats of twisting.

The one thing I would add is an insight from Leslie Kaminoff (again): the lower back does not twist. Really. There’s only 5º of rotation possible in the lumbar spine. It just follows the direction of the sacrum. We can get a feeling of twist there, by engaging the abdominal muscles and feeling them wrap around the spine, but most of our twisting happens in the thoracic and cervical spine. So T11-T12 is a common place for injury, since it’s the first really rotating spinal joint. Make sure you’re spreading your twist throughout the spine.

The Pilates Body by Brooke Siler

Today I did Pilates at home. I count it as yoga; a lot of the Pilates moves are lesser-known yoga moves you can find in the older texts. And, as much as yoga insists you should engage uddhiyana bandha (navel lock) throughout vinyasa practice, you can go for years without doing it right or at all. It’s supposed to keep your energy turned inward, and it definitely protects the lower back as you’re swinging your legs and torso in all directions. Beth Biegler, my anatomy teacher, said that injury results when the limbs are not supported all the way to the center of the body; we tend to use just the most immediate muscles.

Anyways. I’ve finally started to figure out my lifelong bad posture and my recent (year or two of) back pain. I’m tall, so I tend to slouch, which rests all the weight of my torso onto my lower back. And, because I used to wear saggy pants, I tend to push my belly outwards (to keep my pants up! I hate belts), leaving the spine unsupported in the front. Then, an Iyengar teacher finally told me I was doing all my backbending at just one vertebrae. L4, I believe. My lower back had started to hurt, but Vinyasa teachers told me “You have such a beautiful backbend!” and I ate it up like a sucker. So I went to the Iyengar camp-of-perfect-alignment for a while, and they scared me straight.

Pilates is like an obstacle course where you get points for each exercise you complete — with your core muscles fixed firm. It doesn’t matter if you kick your leg highest, or fastest, or beautifulest — just keep your navel touching your spine. (Like the Operation game, in opposite.) Slowly you build that habit while you’re walking the legs, or bicycling them, or bending over, or twisting. Obviously, that soon transfers into your normal life. After a week of Pilates (when it was too hard to do “real” yoga in the morning), I noticed I was even picking up my toothbrush differently. Joseph Pilates says, “After 10 sessions you will feel a difference. After 20 sessions you will see a difference. After 30 sessions you will have a new body.”

I can’t speak for the machine classes, I’ve never tried them. Supposedly they are very helpful.

This book is a really nice sequence. I did 3/4 of it this morning, and it took 30 minutes. My butt aches from the leg circles. But it’s not really supposed to hurt, one of the big principles here is to detach from “no pain, no gain” and its masochistic tendencies. When you learn correct postural habits, your daily activities are full of gentle exercise. So it’s often much easier to convince yourself towards this book than a sweaty vinyasa class, at least if you’re an expired Type A personality like myself. The illustrations are also cute and helpful: manhole covers resting on your stomach to press it down, or springs stretching the leg up and away.

If you are suffering from acute back pain, I dare to say this book not only assuages symptoms through gentle stretching, but prevents future injury by building core strength.

In addition, I actually prefer this book to studio classes, as it has ALL the directions for each pose, versus the piecemeal delivery forced by any group class. (It is hard to read and move sometimes… podcasts are the future.)

One more practice to add to the infinite list!

This morning my back was tweaking out, so I did 3 spinal exercises, 6 sun salutations, 1 side bend, 2 inversions, 1 back bend, 1 forward bend, 1 spinal twist, relaxation and meditation. Perfect.

Since I got back from the retreat, I’ve actually kept up a morning practice. I always do pranayama:

• 3 rounds Breath of Fire (60, 75, 90 reps, and 60, 75, 90 second retentions)
• 5–10 rounds Alternate Nostril Breathing (inhale 4, hold 16, exhale 8 )

Sometimes I add my favorite sequence ever: the Kundalini Spinal Warmup. It is great for days when you can’t bring yourself to practice vinyasa, or you’re really stiff, or you’re tired and can’t think, or your back hurts, or you have shoulder problems. Sitting in easy pose:

• Hands on knees: Flex spine forward and back, with Breath of Fire (20 seconds – 2 minutes)
• Hands on shoulders, elbows out: Rotate spine side to side, with Breath of Fire (20 seconds – 2 minutes)
• Hands clasped in front of heart (Bear Grip), pulling on each other: Rock alternate elbows up and down, with Deep Breathing (20 seconds – 2 minutes)
• Hands still clasped in front of heart: Inhale deeply. Exhale deeply. Raise clasped hands above the head. Inhale deeply. Exhale deeply. (3 times)
• Hands on knees. Inhale and hunch shoulders up to ears; exhale and drop them, with Breath of Fire (20 seconds – 2 minutes)
• Hands on knees. Tip chin to chest; inhale and roll head around in a circle, lifting from the jaw as it reaches the back. (5 times clockwise, 5 times counterclockwise)
• Sit on your heels (Rock Pose) and interlace your fingers above your head, index fingers extended to the sky. Close the eyes and focus between the eyebrows. Inhale and think Sat (truth); exhale and think Nam (named), using Breath of Fire. (2 minutes)

I always skip the last one for some reason.

Another great wakeup exercise is Spinal Jump Rope. Sitting in Easy Pose, with the hands on the knees:

• Focus on the navel. Gently start to spiral the lower back clockwise, making each loop a bit larger than the last. Inhale circle it forward and exhale circle it back. Visualize the navel like a sparkler tracing a circle in space. Continue for a couple minutes, then gently slow back to center and do the other direction.
• Focus on the heart. Same as before, but making gentle circles with the upper back.
• Focus on the throat. Same as before, but making gentle circles with the neck.

I did this a few weeks ago and couldn’t stop. My spine got really warmed up and the movement became completely unconscious. I was like a circling Sufi or something. Really weird.

Today I added 5 Sun Salutes; we’ll see if that sticks.

Here is my practice sequence from last week. I’ve been trying to rest a hip strain (the massage therapist and acupuncturist said it needs 4-12 WEEKS of rest), so this gentle sequence from Dr. Amrit Raj was much appreciated. (He was in town for a “Yoga & Ayurveda” workshop at Exhale.)

This is a light sequence, safe for anyone. We did about 10-20 reps each one. The numbers in front are just my mnemonic device. Start off sitting, with legs extended.

10 – Flex toes about 10x (inhale point, exhale flex)
9 – Flex feet about 10x
8 – Circle ankles about 5x each way
7 – Flex knee about 10x each side (clasp foot, bend knee to chest, then straighten leg)
6 – Flex hips about 10x (butterfly position — inhale up, exhale forward)
5 – Round spine and roll forward and back about 10x
4 – On stomach, hold bow pose about 30 seconds
- Rock forward and back about 10x
- Rock side to side about 10x
3 – Clench fingers about 10x (sitting, with arms extended up)
2 – Flex hands about 10x
1 – Circle wrists about 5x each way
0 – Circle shoulders about 5x each way (with arms bent, hands on shoulders)
1 – Turn neck left, right, up, down about 5x
2 – Turn eyes left, right, up, down about 5x

Then 5 minutes of alternate nostril breathing
Then 5 minutes of meditation

I did this every morning last week, and by the middle of the week a chronic charley horse in my foot was completely gone.