Backbends in Yoga: Cobra, Camel, Bridge, Wheel and Spine Cautions

What this family is

A backbend is a pose in which the spine bends backward, called extension. Familiar examples are cobra (Bhujangasana), camel, bridge and wheel; Dhanurasana (bow) is the example one source gives for the family. [1] The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a 15th-century hatha yoga text, is the earliest document that source lists for a backbend. [1] Backbends also appear inside Sun Salutation sequences, where schools choose either upward dog or cobra for one step. [1] See Sun Salutations and What Are Asanas?.

This page does not teach backbends. Deep backbends are among the poses where sources describe injury, and we give only what sources say.

What backbends ask of the body

In a study of 22 healthy, yoga-trained people, electrodes measured muscle activity during 16 poses. Back-muscle activity was higher in reverse boat than in bow, snake, backward-sway and warrior poses. [2] Gentle kneeling and swaying poses activated the tested muscles at a low level. [2] That tells us how hard certain muscles work in healthy people, not whether the pose helps anyone's back. For what back-pain trials used, see Yoga Poses Used in Back-Pain Trials and Yoga for Low Back Pain.

Proper evidence not found: we looked for studies of bridge, wheel, camel and cobra poses by name (including Setu Bandhasana, Urdhva Dhanurasana, Ustrasana and Bhujangasana) in PubMed and found no usable pose-specific trial or safety study. The sources below are about spinal movement in yoga generally.

What injury reports describe

A Mayo Clinic retrospective review of 89 patients seen for injuries attributed to yoga found that the poses most often blamed involved hyperflexion and hyperextension of the spine, which includes forward bends and backbends. [3] Among them, 46 had worsening of degenerative joint disease pain and 34 facet joint arthropathy, and 13 had compression fractures. [3] These people were already patients, so the figures do not tell us how often yoga causes these problems in the general public. The authors concluded that care is needed with positions of extreme spinal flexion and extension. [3]

A US national injury database estimated 29,590 yoga-related emergency-department injuries from 2001 to 2014; the trunk was the most frequent region injured, and sprain or strain the most common diagnosis. [4] NCCIH says the knee or lower leg is the most commonly injured, so published sources differ on which body part leads. [5]

Bone health and backbends

A review of the literature on osteoporosis and spinal movement found that moderate, weight-bearing activity is of greatest benefit, and that a combination of mild flexion and extension may prove beneficial, though high-risk and low-risk people need different advice. [6] A Canadian systematic review of yoga in people at fracture risk found the evidence very low certainty, with two case series of vertebral fractures. [7] The fracture reports we read mostly involve spinal flexion, but the sources do not clear backbends for people with low bone density. Ask your clinician. See Yoga for Osteoporosis and Osteoporosis and Bone Health.

Traditional meaning

In hatha texts, backbends were presented with spiritual and bodily claims (for example, Matsyendrasana awakening Kundalini, which is a twist, not a backbend). Such claims are traditional use only and not established biology. [1] See Chakras, Nadis and the Subtle Body.