There definitely tends to be favouritism in the yoga community towards back bending as opposed to all the other wonderful and equally important movements that the spine can make. Spinal extension gets its own cool name while flexion, lateral flexion and rotation are all left feeling like the Ugly Ducklings.

I imagine a lot of this stems from misconceptions around the posture that most people adopt when sitting for a lot of the day. We have created the narrative that because so many of us are in a position of passive spinal flexion for hours on end that we simply need to do the reverse in yoga, and all will be fine in the world!

There is also the common misconception that prolonged sitting shortens our anterior chest muscles and over stretches and weakens our posterior back muscles. Therefore “chest openers” are the perfect remedy because they will stretch the front body and strengthen the back body. If only things were that simple. A growing body of research refutes mechanical theories such as this and suggests that our tissues do not shorten (or lengthen) over time (Weppler and Magnusson 2010).

A better solution for prolonged sitting would be to both stretch AND strengthen ALL areas of the chest. And move the spine regularly in its full range in ALL directions.

I’m obsessed with shoulder girdle and spinal mobility and I spend time everyday moving my shoulder girdles and spine through their full range, slowly adding load to the movements.

Reference:

Weppler, C. and Magnusson, P. (2010) ‘Increasing Muscle Extensibility: A Matter of Increasing Length or Modifying Sensation?’ Physical Therapy 90(3): 438–449.

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