Tips To Work Your "Drop-Backs"
Many yoga students are very excited to start learning how to drop-back from a standing position into a back-bend. However, when they start trying this they discover that it is a lot more challenging that it first appears.
Here are a couple of helpful tips to get you started once you reach this point along your practice journey:
If you don’t have the support of a teacher, find a wall or sofa, or build a wall with yoga blocks to help you move the floor closer to your hands.
Before leaning back, try to make yourself get taller, every body part lengthens up to the sky before starting to move back.
Feel like you are “unzipping” your spine from the top - down, so that you are opening behind your heart first and using the back muscles to contract and pull open the chest.
Keep your feet parallel and firmly planted on the floor and put more weight into your big toe mound, try not allow your weight to fall back into your heels.
When you are using the wall or sofa, only reach back to the point where you feel you can maintain your own stability by holding yourself with the strength of your legs. The wall is there only as a necessary resource if you feel like you are about to fall or lose your balance.
Don’t just “fall” or “drop” into the wall of sofa. Maintain control of the posture for the entire time by building the strength in your legs, psoas, and abdominal muscles to hold you while they are also lengthening.
Have fun exploring new ranges of motion and new possibilities and potential within your physical and mental self!
Remember that this is a long term project!
You won’t necessarily see big changes right away. But if you keep gradually being able to breathe and hold yourself for a little bit longer and go a tiny bit lower each time, you will really start to see some results after a few months or years.
If you can land with your hands against the couch 100 times, you will grow your confidence and courage to take the next steps in dropping back towards the floor.
Now it’s your turn!
If you are working on drop-backs, attempt these steps in your next practice and keep slowly exploring them over the next week, then come back and let me know how it is going for you in the comments below!
