It seems strange, that as kids, we were once the bendiest of all beings - playing with Barbie for hours whilst sitting in Virasana, kicking up playfully into a handstand only to fall back lightly into Urdhva Dhanurasana - nay was there a complaint about sore knees, ouchy lower back or sprained rotator cuffs. So what happened along the way? Were we so carried away with lifestyle changes, lack of exercise, a 70-hour-a-week desk job, bad diet, poor posture and killer stillettos, that all that inborn flexibility just disappeared?
When I started practising yoga, I totally sucked at backbends. I could never understand why backbends were so punishingly straineous to the lumbar region. Needless to say, I hated backbends then. And staying comfortably in Ustrasana for 2 minutes today, would seem like an impossible task back then.
This morning's backbend class was both exhilarating yet exhaustingly daunting at the same time. With the help of the chair, we moved into Urdhva Dhanurasana, Viparita Dandasana and Kapotasana. My quads and mid-back are now classified under "Very Sore", and there are still some twitches of strain in my lower back.
With the help of a (patient) teacher, I am slowly learning the right techniques to deepen my backbends. The steel foldable chair has become my best friend to maintain proper alignment during practice.
And as the late Shri Pattabhi Jois once said, "Body not stiff....only mind stiff. Practice...all is coming!"
So, if you're thinking of getting a steel foldable chair for your backbends, make sure you get a solid one that doesn't slide or collapse when you arch back. None of those plasticky ones, please.
Enjoy!
(image of chairs from http://www.yogachairprop.com/)
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