Bob was sinking in Navasana just like this boat.
Bob’s boat is sinking!
Navasana also known as boat pose is not one of Bob’s favourite poses. Whenever he attempts this pose, his back starts to round and both his legs and torso gradually sink towards the floor.
There are three things that Bob can do to keep his boat afloat.
What is Navasana
Navasana is one of the seated pose that occurs in the middle of the Primary Series of Ashtanga Yoga. The pose is repeated five times in a row with a lift of the body off of the floor in between each repetition.
There are several benefits to practising this pose including:
- Strengthening the muscles of the abdomen, hip flexors, and spine
- Stimulating the kidneys, thyroid, prostate glands, and intestines
- Helping to relieve stress
- Improving digestion
How to do Navasana
keep your back straight when you do Navasana
This is a fairly easy pose to enter. There is no binding or twisting that you need to do.
You start in Dandasana, seated on the floor with your legs together and straight out in front of you.
Next you start exhaling and you lift your arms up parallel to the floor with your palms facing each other.
Then you lean your torso back to about 45 degrees and lift your legs up between your hands.
Now you gaze towards your toes and hold here for five or more breaths.
There should be just enough space between your hands for your legs to fit between them and your feet should be about the same height as your head.
As you can see this is a fairly simple pose to enter, however a lot of people complain about pain or discomfort in their lower back when they do this pose.
Why does Bob’s lower back hurt
This pose requires a lot of support from your core and your back. If your back muscles are weak or your back and hips are poorly aligned than you could cause a great deal of pain in your lower back muscles.
Fortunately there are a few things that Bob can do to get rid of this pain in his lower back.
What can Bob do to protect his back
Both of the tips below will help Bob to better support his back and relieve the pressure on his lower back muscles.
- Straighten your hips and back
- Hold on to your knees
If the first one does not work then you move on to the second.
1 – Straighten your hips and back
There are many things that you do to support your lower back.
First you tip your hips up towards your legs. Bob needs to be balanced on his sitz bones of his hips and not on the back of his hips.
You do this by bringing the top of the hips up away from the floor. Eventually the spine will be rising straight out of the hips. The back of the hips and your spine will be in a straight line.
Next Bob needs to engage Uddiyana Bandha. This is the lower abdominal muscle lock. You engage Uddiyana Bandha by drawing your belly button in towards your spine and then up towards your ribs. This is a gentle but firm movement that brings firmness to the lower abdominal muscles and to the lower back muscles as well.
Once Uddiyana Bandha is established we move on to the next support action.
Lift the ribs up away from the hips. You want to create more space between the hips and the ribs. This will reduce compression on the abdominal organs and start to straighten the spine.
Continuing on, you drop your shoulders down your back towards your hips. This movement will engage the muscles of the upper back and they will add their strength to supporting your back in this pose.
Finally lift your chin slightly until the back of the neck and the back of the head are an extension of your spine.
All of these movements will result in your spine rising straight out of your hips and all of the muscles in your back being engaged. Usually this is enough to remove the discomfort from the muscles of your lower back.
Hold on to your knees to protect your lower back
If your lower back muscles are still complaining there is one more action that you can do in combination with the steps that you have just taken.
2 – Grab your knees
If after straightening his back, Bob discovers that his lower back muscles are still complaining he can hold on to his legs just below the knees with his hands coming from the outside.
These two separately or in combination will remove the strain from his lower back.
But my tail bone complains when I do this pose
While straightening the back will sometimes fix this problem there is another solution if that does not work.
If your tail bone continues to bother your after you have straightened your back then you can place a thin pad made from a blanket or small foam block under your hips. This padding will make the floor softer and give some comfort to your tail bone.
Summary
Navasana is simple posture to enter but you can suffer from pain in your lower back while you are in it. Bob can do two things to remove this pain.
He can straighten his lower back and engage the muscles of his core and lower back. If this action does not work then Bob can hold on to his legs just below his knees.
Next Steps
If your lower back is bothered when you do Navasana work with your teacher to implement the suggestions above. Your teacher will be able to help you to make Navasana a fun posture that you look forward to rather than one that you dread.
