Twist
Twists get a bad rap. Rightfully so in many instances. We often put too much unintentional emphasis on twisting the low back (lumbar spine) because we have this self-imposed goal to go further and faster. That no pain no gain mentality. That idea of what we see out there in the social media stratosphere is correct and that we must be perfect.
I have learned two things in my practice as a student and as a teacher.
Meet your body where it is at the moment
Always is always wrong, and never is never right
So, what does this mean when it comes to twists in yoga? Everything.
For goal-oriented practitioners, I am not going to say, “never have a goal”. Switch the intent of the goal. Instead of “going into the deepest twist possible” have the goal of “I am going to focus my twist to a certain area of my body and explore how that feels.”
In my opinion, most of the time you should strive to keep the lumbar spine stable during twists and emphasize the rotation of the thoracic spine (mid to upper back). Twists in the thoracic spine are wonderfully adept at relieving the congestion found in that area from prolonged sitting, computer use and smart phone craning. The key to this is to not crank with your arms to go further into the twist. If you overly crank, you will lose the engagement in the thoracic and start to rotate from the lumbar. Is that wrong? Not necessarily, but if you have low back issues, SI joint instability – those areas will become more aggravated over time (or right away) due to the hips starting to rotate creating tension through the hip, pelvis, low back.
Let’s approach a seated twist:
Elevate your hips on the edge of a blanket with both sitting bones bearing weight equally.
Keep natural lordosis in your low back (normal sway-back curve), by lifting your tail toward the back of the heart.
Your low belly – the space between your pelvic points at the front of your pelvis – engage those muscles by drawing that area in towards the belly button and back towards the spine. Try to keep that engagement localized.
Long spine through the crown of the head
Solar plexus draws in
For a right-side twist, draw your right shoulder blade down your back in in towards the spine. This is the start of your rotation to the right. Left hand rests on right knee. Right hand moves back behind you and outside of the right hip. Resist the urge to have the right hand go straight behind you which typically causes that “cranking” action. It is really serving to the right of the hip as a balancer. A kick stand.
Keep that shoulder blade engagement, take an inhale and with your exhale deepen the twist from behind the heart. If you lose the engagement of your low abs, you are going too far.
If you lose the engagement of your low abs with each inhale and exhale as you maintain the twist or lose the engagement of your right shoulder blade (down and in), you are going too far in your twist. It is not the depth of the twist that is the goal. It is the quality of the twist. Low ab and solar plexus engagement keep the twist OUT OF THE LUMBAR SPINE.
How does this apply to standing twists such as chair twist? Same concept found in a seated twist applies to a chair twist with a few additions:
Come into chair pose with palms touching at the chest.
Ground into your feet to activate your legs and glutes
Gather up your low abs to keep integrity in your low back
Engage your solar plexus
Draw your right shoulder blade down and in towards spine as you rotate the heart to the right
Keep your hands in prayer and bring the left elbow to meet your legs wherever it lands without cranking. This means it may land on your left quad, inner left knee, inner right knee or outer right knee. Here is what you should remember: resist the urge to reach it further than your spine is able to twist without having the rotation move to the hips.
Keep your belly lifted to keep the low back stable, twist from behind the heart and keep your pelvic points (the bony protrusions at the front of your pelvis) pointing forward
How do you know if you are twisting from the hips? Look at the right knee in this Chair Twist to the Right position. If the right knee is drawing back, meaning it is not in equal alignment to the left knee, you have rotated your right hip.
This is all relatively easy to follow in a slower paced class such as Yoga for a Heatlhy Spine or Hatha. For Vinyasa which is more rhythmic with flowing transitions (meaning your body is often moving more than it is still), you can find the engagement points listed above in a chair twist if you find the core engagement, shoulder blade engagement and resist twisting too far, as you move in and out of the twist from or to another pose.
Supine Twists (Reclined Twists)
Here is where I struggle with never say never and always is not always always.
It feels good to lie down and twist. And more likely than not, you are twisting from your lumbar region. This puts an increased load on an already mobile area of the back. Bringing some flexion, which is rounding, to your low back can protect that area from over rotating.
My personal approach is to lie on my side, knees bent and stacked on each other, with ankles stacked. If I am on my left side, my left arm is out to the side, palm up. I place my right palm on top of the left palm. Reaching my right hand past the left, I lift my arm up like a rising sun bringing it towards the right behind me. Right shoulder blade draws down. I keep an eye on my top stacked knee. If it is drawing back, I am moving into my lumbar. This means that perhaps my arm does not need to rest on the ground yet or needs to lower more towards my hip. Take an inhale and draw your belly button deeply toward your spine.
If you want to go into a more restorative version, start on your left side as stated above, but the stacked knees will draw up towards your chest. Right arm opens towards the ceiling. Inhale drawing your belly button towards the spine. Exhale and allow the right arm to reach back as you open across the heart. Keep drawing the right shoulder blade towards the spine. Create space along the collar bones. Use a rolled-up blanket or block to support the right arm if needed to allow you to breathe into the pose, soften and let gravity do its thing.
All of the above too much to remember? Let me leave you with 3 things:
Engage your core. The core is EVERYTHING. Tension in the low abs keep your low back happy
Shoulder blade engagement – down and in for the side you are twisting towards
The twisting motion sources from your thoracic spine behind the heart, not your arms cranking you into a twist
Pelvic points face forward. (ok – I had to add a 4th!)
And while I have you, one more thing. No matter how many times you hear it, twisting does NOT wring out your organs (detoxify). Your organs are not dirty dishrags!
Our internal organs do an excellent job of detoxing the body, without needing pressure or “wringing out” to perform better. Twists strengthen the internal and external obliques and spinal rotator muscles, which we need for our functional day-to-day movements. Twisting postures also improve the hydration of the discs between the bones of our spine.
Whether twisting, folding, bending, or straightening, yoga allows us an opportunity to move mindfully, breathe deeply, and calm our overstimulated minds. While all that may not count as a detox in the biological sense of the word, it certainly counts for something!