Protect your lower back by using your glutes in backbends

In every class we do several sun salutations. A sun salutation is a sequence of yoga poses that include down dog, plank, cobra and often lunges. In the middle of that sequence is a small backbend, called cobra pose. It’s meant to be a gentle stretch for the belly and sometimes chest, and a lengthening in your spine.

However, if you are just using your hands to peel your chest away from the floor you’ll find that your lower back might hurt. There are many muscles that should be active in this simple pose to give you a better stretch, keep your lower back safe and build strength.

This week, we’ll focus on using the glutes or the muscles in your buttocks. To understand how this works, we’re going to start with a different pose first.

Bridge pose

1. Start lying on your back. Bend your knees and bring your feet to the floor with your heels underneath your knees and feet about hip-width apart.
2. Now start to lift your hips up off the floor about halfway and notice your buttocks and thighs. Notice that the more you squeeze these muscles, the more your hips lift up.
3. When you’re ready, slowly lower your back and then hips to the ground. Give your knees a hug.

The muscle action you used to lift your hips is the same action we will use in cobra to keep your lower back from arching or bending backwards too far.

Cobra pose

1. Lie down on your belly with your palms on the floor at your chest.
2. Point your toes away behind you.
3. Allow your legs to be apart – about hip width distance.
4. Before you lift your chest – squeeze your buttocks to push your hips and pelvis down in to the floor. Your should feel LESS of an arch in your lower back now.
5. Keep squeezing these muscles as you press your hands into the floor and gently lift your chest only 1/4 of the way from the floor. Then come back down and relax your muscles.

Squeezing your buttocks to push your hips down prevents your body from bending in your lower back. This means when you try to lift your chest, the backbend moves higher up your spine to middle and upper back where many people are tight and keeps the lower back in a more neutral position.

As you go through other yoga poses, even as you sit or stand, notice how squeezing your buttocks muscles moves your hips and pelvis and changes how your lower back feels.