1 (unusual) way to improve your backbend

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of brain-based tips to help you move and feel great!

🧠

What:

Trying to knock yourself off balance can help with your backbends! (Spinal extension and hip extension, in particular.)

Why:

An area of your brain called the cerebellum is responsible for TONS of different things, but two of those are:

• Global extensor tone (i.e. toning the muscles that allow your joints to go into extension -- think camel pose)

• Correcting mistakes in your balance to keep you upright better 

And so stimulating the cerebellum by knocking yourself off balance (called perturbation) may therefore lead to greater extension! 

How:

You can do it like I demonstrate in this 40-second video, or....

1️⃣ Get warmed up and then test your extension -- something like a camel pose or wheel pose.

2️⃣ Then stand up in a position you feel nice and stable (feet hip width perhaps, or for more challenge have your feet together, or even stand on one foot) 

3️⃣ Make a fist with both hands, and with your elbows straight, write your name in the air as BIG as you can, and as fast as you can. Basically -- flailing your arms around to knock yourself off balance. 

The harder you have to work to stay balanced, the more effective it will be (but please, stay safe! Don't go doing this at the edge of a cliff 😜 )

4️⃣ Then re-test your backbend. Try that camel or wheel pose again and see if your spine is able to extend either deeper, or perhaps just more comfortably!

Just as we can learn to stay balanced while we perturb ourselves, we can also learn to stay balanced in life when we get knocked around by the world. 

Thank you for reading! Get in touch if you have any questions! 

And please share with a friend or colleague who might find this valuable.

To being perturbed and making the most of it, 

Adell xoxo

Want to go way deeper on all of this geeky brain stuff?

• Join the waiting list for my next NeuroYoga TTC here!​
• Check out the courses from Z-health, where I learned all of this. Click here for my discount codes on their first 3 courses!