Hi Warriors! After a month of Mental Wellness check ins, I thought it might be nice to get back to talking about Physical Health. And specifically some yoga. Bridge Pose is a fairly straightforward pose that has so many benefits. Many stay away from this one because it does involve pressure on the upper back, shoulders, and neck, but this pose is easy to modify, so let’s dive in!
Bridge Pose is both a gentle backbend and inversion posture. As this posture is well supported via the feet, upper back, arms, and head, it is one of the easiest backbends to learn. Additionally, this backbend can be taken to your individual point of comfort. In fact, I often don’t recommend that students take this to a true backbend place, but rather I cue to lift the hips so the body makes a straight line from the shoulders out through the knees. Regardless, it still provides a great stretch for the abdomen and chest and allows the lower back to reset.
An inversion posture refers to any asana where the head ends up on the same level or lower than the heart. These postures serve to return blood to the heart with a gravity aid and get it flowing up into the head. This is especially useful for powerful meditation practices, but it has physical benefits too. As our pituitary and hypothalmus glands in our brain control much of the endocrine (hormone) function in the body, getting those areas more blood flow is never a bad thing. And if meditation isn’t your thing, how about better concentration and clearer focus? All benefits of inversion postures.
Performing Bridge Pose
To perform this asana, lie comfortably flat on your back. Exhale and bring your feet in towards your butt and place them flat on the mat. Inhale and extend your hips towards the ceiling while reaching your hands towards your ankles. Exhale and extend your head, pulling your ears away from your shoulders. Hold the pose, maintaining an engaged core and keeping your thighs parallel for 30 seconds. Oh yeah, this pose is a great strengthener for the legs and core, too. Exhale and drop your hips to the mat. Extend the legs and allow any tension to leave your spine.
The biggest issue that usually comes up with Bridge Pose is shoulder and/or neck discomfort. And while that is certainly a big deal, these are actually easy to modify. If you are experiencing shoulder pain or pinching, instead of reaching towards your ankles, extend your arms out to the sides. Most of the time the pain sensation comes from the shoulder blades squeezing together while also trying to support weight. Extending the arms solves the problem by unlocking the shoulder blades and allowing your body weight to rest on a more even surface.
If neck pain is the issue, start with the extended arm modification. Many times that will solve a good bit of the problem. The brachial nerve plexus is so intertwined in our neck and shoulders, that it can be challenging to determine exactly what is causing pain sometimes. If extending your arms doesn’t alleviate all the pain, then you can also place a small prop under the neck. In the picture I have used a narrow pillow, but a rolled up towel (or yoga block) works even better. Whatever you use, you want to keep it solely under your neck. The idea is to use the prop to help your cervical vertebrae keep their natural curve. In Bridge Pose, the tendency is to tuck the chin and compress the front side of the cervical vertebrae, which pulls the spine out of its natural curve. Using a prop just under the neck helps.
This modification is for you if you have tried the previous modifications and are still experiencing neck discomfort or if you are struggling to keep your hips from dropping. Place a pillow, rolled up towel, or yoga block under the rear hip bones. Take care that the prop isn’t in the hollow of the lower back. This will put a pressure point on fragile vertebrae and potentially exacerbate low back pain, which if you’ll recall, is the opposite of what Bridge Pose should be doing. The prop will enable you to keep your hips from dropping. It also provides an additional support to carry weight, thereby taking it off of the neck.
Posture Advancement Ideas
If you want to add challenge, you also have options with Bridge Pose. You can take the asana closer to the intended backbend by reaching further towards your ankles. Only attempt this in the absence of neck and shoulder pain/injury and only after you have properly warmed up and practiced a more modified version. You can add to the lower body strength challenge by balancing on one foot. The other foot can remain extended in line with the torso or you can extend this foot towards the ceiling.
Bridge Pose can be an amazing strengthening, stretching, revitalizing and refreshing asana. Pick the modification that suits your body and your practice.
Until next time, be well friends!
