Safety on the mat

In this article, Judy Trinh, who teaches our New to Yoga classes, shares her own personal story on how her yoga practice became "a pain in the back" and how you can protect your spine on the yoga mat. Here is her story and her tips on how to backbend safely.

Upward Facing Dog. Photo credit: Pixabay

​Full disclosure: before I took my yoga teacher training, I injured my lumbar spine - from doing yoga. It all started with some workshops on practicing Upward Facing Dog, an advanced backbend. Although my teachers described this back-bending pose in depth, I was doing it wrong and I kept pushing for "more", to "feel more" and to "backbend more" (whatever that means!) I started experiencing some low back sensations but misinterpreted it as "going deeper into my pose", so I kept at it.  ​

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