It’s Thursday, wherein I normally tell a story about how posture correction led to some unanticipated side benefit.
Well, today I got an email from William at Fitness4BackPain.com. I’ve written about him in the past, and recommended you sign up for his newsletter. Full disclosure, I don’t know William, I have no affiliation with him or his website, I just like his stuff.
Anyway, today he linked to a video he made about cobra pose, and why you shouldn’t do it. Why shouldn’t you do it? Because not only will it not offer relief, it will make things worse. Then he gave some alternative stretches to achieve the same benefits. In doing so he touched on two things I want to highlight.
First, he started lying face down, (prone as in the setup to Baby Cobra), and ended up working into Sphinx pose. He didn’t call it that, he’s not a yoga guy, but that was the end result. So, what’s the takeaway?
Well, William is not a yoga guy (have I mentioned that?) he’s a back pain guy. But there he is, showing a series stretches he recommends for back pain relief. And here I am recommending very similar exercises (done as yoga poses) for posture improvement. Is it any wonder that my posture correction journey also led to a much stronger, healthier, pain free back?
Second, at the end of his video he touched on one of my favourite topics. Since doing a full Cobra pose offers you no tangible benefits, he asked, “What is the purpose of doing it?” This circles back to my thoughts on the purpose of yoga.
Are you doing yoga in the service of your health, wellbeing and all the other benefits I’ve written about? Or are you doing yoga in order to be able to do yoga? What is the object of your practice? As with any exercise program, make sure that in your yoga, the subject is not the object.
Anyway, if you have low back pain, go on over to William’s places and take a look around, you’ll find a ton of great stuff.
