Backbending Yoga Asanas: Open Your Heart, Build Strength, and Create Space

Backbends are often seen as graceful shapes that open the front body, expand the chest, and energize the spine. But behind their beauty lies something deeper: emotional release, nervous system awakening, and a powerful invitation to breathe more freely. Backbending yoga asanas teach us to trust, to soften, and to step into vulnerability with awareness.

In this article we explore the foundations of backbending, how to safely practice them, which muscles and anatomical structures are involved, and how they connect to the chakra system. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced practitioner, this guide offers tools to deepen your understanding and practice.

Why Backbending Matters

In daily life, we spend long hours sitting, rounding the shoulders, collapsing the chest. Backbends counterbalance this posture by:

• Opening the chest, lungs, and heart space

• Strengthening the back muscles and spine

• Improving posture and breathing capacity

• Stimulating the nervous system

• Increasing energy and emotional release

Backbending is not about pushing deeper. It is about creating length, strength, and spaciousness along the spine. With time, softness follows naturally.

Anatomy of Backbending

To bend backward safely, two key actions happen at once:

1. Extension of the spine

2. Opening of the front body (chest, abdomen, hip flexors)

Main muscles involved:

• Erector spinae (back extensors)

• Gluteus muscles

• Hip flexors (mainly psoas and quadriceps)

• Chest muscles (pectoralis major and minor)

• Abdominals (eccentric lengthening)

• Shoulders and upper back (rhomboids, trapezius)

Think of a backbend not as compressing the lower back, but as lengthening through the whole spine. You want to create space between each vertebra. Imagine a river of energy flowing from your tailbone to the crown of your head.

Preparing the Body for Safe Backbends

Warm-up is essential. Before moving deeper, include movements like:

• Cat-Cow

• Low lunges with psoas stretching

• Shoulder and chest openers

• Gentle cobra variations

• Bridge pose to activate the glutes and back body

Breath is your guide. If you are holding your breath, you have gone too far.

Step-by-Step: Five Foundational Backbends

1. Bhujangasana – Cobra Pose

How to do it:

• Lie on your belly, legs long, tops of the feet grounded

• Hands under shoulders, elbows hugging ribs

• Press pelvis into the mat, inhale to lift your chest gently

• Keep the back of the neck long, shoulders soft

Benefits: Strengthens the spine, opens the chest, stimulates digestion

Chakra: Solar Plexus (Manipura) – confidence, self-esteem, inner fire

2. Ustrasana – Camel Pose

How to do it:

• Come to kneeling, knees hip-width

• Hands to hips first, lengthen spine on inhale

• Press hips forward, lift heart up and back

• Option to bring hands to heels if comfortable

Benefits: Deep heart opener, stretches hip flexors and abdomen

Chakra: Heart (Anahata) – love, compassion, emotional release

3. Setu Bandhasana – Bridge Pose

How to do it:

• Lie on your back, feet hip-distance, knees bent

• Press into feet to lift hips

• Interlace fingers under the body or keep arms parallel

• Engage the glutes gently to protect the lower spine

Benefits: Strengthens legs, glutes, and back, improves posture

Chakra: Heart & Throat (Anahata + Vishuddha) – expression, openness

4. Dhanurasana – Bow Pose

How to do it:

• Lie on belly, bend knees, hold ankles

• Kick feet back while lifting chest forward and up

• Keep the breath steady, gaze forward

Benefits: Full front body stretch, strengthens back extensors

Chakra: Sacral & Heart – creativity, emotional flow, joy

5. Urdhva Dhanurasana – Wheel Pose (Advanced)

How to do it:

• From bridge pose, place hands by ears, elbows up

• Lift onto crown of head first, then press into hands to rise

• Lengthen through arms, chest expanding like sunrise

Benefits: Big heart opener, invigorating, builds full-body strength

Chakra: Heart – courage, connection, release of stored emotion

Practice slowly, mindfully, and never force your body into depth. Progress comes from consistent practice and awareness.

Backbending and the Chakras

Backbends awaken the energetic body. They especially activate:

• Anahata (Heart Chakra) – love, connection, forgiveness

• Manipura (Solar Plexus) – strength, willpower, confidence

• Vishuddha (Throat) – truth, expression, authenticity

When the chest expands, we meet emotions we often store there: sadness, grief, joy, longing. Backbending becomes therapy – a way to soften, feel, and release.

Backbends are not about flexibility. They are about opening yourself to possibility. With patience, breathing, and aligned awareness, the spine becomes spacious, energy flows freely, and the heart learns to trust again.

With love,

Your Shambhala Family

Yoga Alliance 50h • 200h • 300h TTC's

A school guided with heart, presence and connection.