Yoga Anatomy: Spine Safety
Awareness of the Functions and Limitations of Areas of Your Spine
Dec 3, 2007
The spinal column is the single most important skeletal system to maintain and keep healthy for a long, pain-free life.
Relative to the region of the body, the curvature of the spine, and the structure of the vertebrae themselves, there are three main sections of the spine:
- Cervical - the seven vertebrae of the neck
- Thoracic - twelve chest vertebrae supporting the ribcage
- Lumbar - five vertebrae of the lower back
- Pelvis and Sacrum – there are also five bones fused together to form the Sacrum, as well as three to five bones that form the coccyx or tailbone. While the pelvis is an important base for all postures, these portions of the spine are not in as much danger of sustaining injury or long-term damage in the course of a normal Yoga practice.
As mentioned in "Five Safety Tips for Yoga Class", the single most important of Patanjali’s commandments of yoga is the Yama Ahimsa or non-violence. To understand how to treat your spine non-violently, it is crucial to understand the structures supporting your posture.
There are five movements of the human spine:
- Flexion - the most natural kind of movement is the curling forward that our spine performs in the womb. In everyday life, people flex their spines to tie their shoes. Yoga students replicate this curve in poses such as child's pose, cat curls or forward fold.
- Extension - Upward stretching, making the spine long such as reaching high above your head for something in a cupboard. Yogis exaggerate the movement of extension to back-bends such as cobra, upward-facing dog or camel pose.
- Axial Rotation - When you turn around in the car seat to reach something behind you, your spine is doing an axial rotation. In yoga class, this is simply referred to as "twisting".
- Lateral Flexion - This is a side-to-side bend. Such as leaning to the side pick up a suitcase. Yoga students practice lateral flexion in poses such as Utthita parsvakonasana (Side Stretch) or Parivrtta Janu Sirasana (Revolved Head-To-Knee Pose)
There is a fifth spinal movement called Axial Extension, though it is not considered a "natural" movement. This distinction is due to the fact that Axial Extension does not occur in daily life, a student must undertake it consciously.
However, for students of yoga, the Axial Extension is not only familiar, it should be quite comfortable! This is the lengthening, straightening movement of the spine to bring the posture beyond the natural curvature used in Tadasana (Mountain Pose), Dandasana (Staff Pose), and many resting and meditative seated postures.
Intrinsic Equilibrium
The relationships between cartilage, ligament and bone in the spine create a self-supporting system that is independent of muscular effort.
In his 2007 book from Human Kinetics “Yoga Anatomy” experienced Yoga Therapist Leslie Kaminoff explains: “If you were to remove all the muscles that attach to the spine, it still would not collapse. … Intrinsic equilibrium is the concept that explains not only why the spine is a self-supporting structure, but also why any spinal movement produces potential energy that returns the spine to neutral.“
This deep level of built-in support for the body does not depend on muscular effort. The idea that spinal alignment and relaxation derived from a regular yoga practice makes students feel more energetic and alive can be summed up with this idea: students are releasing unnecessary muscular control over the spine.
As Kaminoff concludes “Consequently, when this support asserts itself, it is always because some extraneous muscular effort has ceased to obstruct it.”
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