These facet joints protect against
excessive rotation and flexion by limiting
the motion of the spine; if you twist your
spine without stabilising first, you not
only risk irritating the discs but also the
facet joints, leading to further pain.
Smart cues
To begin a twist, I like to cue my
students to turn ‘on’ their TA—also
known as activating Uddiyana Bandha
(Upward Abdominal Lock)—because
this action should happen before any
kind of twist. To do this, imagine
drawing the point two inches above your
navel in toward your lumbar spine.
This should tighten the TA, which in
turn tightens the all-important
thoracolumbar fascia to keep your
back safe.
Next, let’s look at how to use the
psoas, QL, glutes, and hamstrings to
create stability in the seated twist
Marichyasana III. To begin, sit on your
mat with your right knee bent and your
left leg extended in front of you; start to
twist the left side of your torso toward
your right thigh, with your left elbow
moving toward the outside of your right
knee and your right hand on the floor
behind you. Rather than coming fully
into the posture, gently wrap your left
forearm around your right knee and
squeeze your torso against your thigh,
and your thigh against your torso. Do
this from the hip and trunk (not just
squeezing with the arm). This action
turns ‘on’ the psoas, a trunk flexor,
which stabilises the spine. Next,
squeeze your right calf against your right
thigh to activate the hamstrings. At the
same time, activate Uddiyana Bandha to
stabilise your core. Contract the gluteus
maximus on the left (straight) leg
by pressing your heel into the mat.
Feel how these various actions stabilise
your pelvis.
It’s only after doing this muscular
stabilisation that you’re ready to go
deeper into Marichyasana III. To do so,press the ball of your right foot firmly
into the mat, fixing it in place, as you
attempt to rotate the foot away from
the midline, encouraging an isometric
contraction of your outer hamstrings.
Then, activate your abdominal
external obliques by tightening them,
and twist, allowing your spine to follow.
What you’ll find is that now you’re
turning your spine from your core; in
essence, you’re both stabilising and
twisting at the same time.
It’s only when this stabilisation work
is combined with effort in yoga that
you’ll be able to maintain your practice
and enable it to serve you for many years
to come.OUR PROS Teacher Ray Long, MD, is an
orthopedic surgeon in Detroit and the founder
of Bandha Yoga, a website and book series
dedicated to the anatomy and biomechanics
of yoga. Model Stephanie Schwartz is a yoga
teacher based in Boulder, Colorado.