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Is uddiyana bandha really a wise tool for a healthy back?

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, uddiyana bandha is an exercise in which yoga practitioners actively draw in their lower abdomens.  The practice is commonly taught in many yoga classes throughout the country.  In fact, in some styles of yoga (specifically Ashtanga), yogis are instructed to hold uddiyana bandha throughout their entire yoga practices – from the opening sun salutations to the ending backbends and inversions.  (As a side note, uninterruptedly engaging uddiyana bandha for the entire duration of a yoga class is quite a tall order, and most yogis (ourselves included!) unconsciously disconnect from this hold multiple times during each practice. But those rare yogis who manage to indefinitely hold a strong uddiyana bandha exhibit the remarkable quality of literally “floating” through their yoga practices.  It’s crazy but true, guys!)

Aside from this “floating” or “lightness” quality that our bodies experience when we engage our cores, uddiyana bandha is also taught because it’s believed to protect the back during potentially intense yoga poses.  The idea is that strengthening the abdomen helps to stabilize the back and therefore avoid back strain.

But is uddiyana bandha really the best tool for a healthy back?  A recent New York Times article begs to differ.  According to the article, which is entitled “Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?”, strong core muscles do not necessarily correlate with healthy backs:

…there’s growing dissent among sports scientists about whether all of this attention to the deep abdominal muscles actually gives you a more powerful core and a stronger back and whether it’s even safe.

Whether it’s even safe? If core strengthening and uddiyana bandha turn out to be unsafe, many a yoga studio will need to significantly re-arrange its class schedule.  (Good-bye “Yoga for Core Strength” classes; hello “Yoga for Weak Bellies”??)

If your core is stable, your spine remains upright while your body swivels around it. But, McGill says, the muscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bear large loads. If you concentrate on strengthening only one set of muscles within the core, you can destabilize your spine by pulling it out of alignment.

The key word mentioned here is “balance”.  The article seems to be telling us that core exercises are important for the health of the back, but that our definition of the word “core” is too limited.  Because we have focused solely on the deep abdomen muscles when teaching core strength, we have neglected other important areas within our cores, like the specific muscles which surround and support the spine.  This has resulted in unbalanced muscle development, and therefore potentially compromised spine safety.

To answer the question with which we titled this post, yes, yogis do need to re-think uddiyana bandha.  While the practice is a helpful one, it’s not a complete path to back health.  For a genuinely happy, supported back, we’ll need to incorporate other key poses into our practices, and the article makes a few helpful suggestions:

Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize all of the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but not concentrating on the abs. Side plank (lie on your side and raise your upper body) and the “bird dog” (in which, from all fours, you raise an alternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded along the back and sides of the core.

Both of these examples sound like wise poses to serve the back-strengthening purpose, but we’re going to have to re-name that second one, because we somehow can’t see ourselves practicing “bird dog asana” without laughing!

[New York Times]