Yoga can prevent the spine from aging prematurely. In fact, yoga practiced safely through correct alignment can reverse the signs of age. We are all familiar with that look of a person as they walk with their head tipping forward. The momentum of walking should come from pushing off the back foot to step forward. It is extremely important for the spine to be able to stand up straight and look ahead when we walk as walking is the most universal form of exercise and we must be able to do this into old age. Yoga poses offer an excellent way of keeping the spine erect and in a spinal extension or more often referred to in yoga as a backbend. Alignment based yoga where we are conscious of symmetry can bring balance back to the body in places where we have developed pathologies..areas in the body  that throw us out of balance and these areas in the body are often associated with pain!
Our typical introduction to yoga is  A FLOW…flowing gloriously, often mindlessly forward into a forward bend closing down through the front of the body…therefore closing the chest  and  closing and compressing the pelvis. As North Americans we spend the majority of our lives in a forward bend where the spinal position is in flexion. If you think about how we sleep typically we are  curled in a position closing down the two main disease centers in the body, the chest and pelvic floor. If you sit for a living you are spending that time in a forward bend and the studies indicate  that sitting is, for our generation, the new disease that smoking was for our parents. Furthermore the research suggests that if you sit in your occupation your lifespan will be considerably shorter than your blue collar-mate!
To combat this disorder of the chronic forward fold we need just the opposite, more backbends in our yoga practice. The backbend or the spinal extension is extremely rejuvenating for the spine and liberates the central nervous system. Simply, as we sit for long periods the shoulders roll forward and eventually this new position is found in the body where the tissue through the upper chest shrinks. On the back of the body the shoulder blades start to wing or lift permanently to the point where the muscles used to hold the shoulder blades in place can no longer sit flat and we can no longer stand up straight! Similarly, closing down the pelvic floor is aging to the body as this area must breathe. The outcome is that little circulation and movement comes to these two areas and this tissue ends up becoming a disease center. Internal movement is necessary to support these surrounding organs otherwise they loose elasticity and function. Yoga is that internal exercise to the body!
Backbends…to bring the spine into extension can be done easily with support and more importantly can feel incredible!!! Props such as bolsters, blankets, blocks and straps can be used to provide support in a pose. Supporting a pose with these valuable tools can bring a healing benefit! This comes by lingering  longer in position  to work through the seven different layers of connective tissue and make the pose organic, to penetrate deeply inside the body and bring  long term change. We are, in fac,t re-educating the tissue as every cell in the body has intelligence, has DNA and we can recreate new memories in the body to resolve and reverse aging in the spine.
This place of stillness, staying completely present in the body as we hold the pose allows the body to accommodate the weaker places by sharing the load in balance. In order for this to happen, stronger muscles fatigue and new muscles step up to the plate and extend the life of the pose. We start by working our way inwards and then as the pose matures working from our center outward. This energy works form the bone, that inner most place in the body, where effort meets  energy to bring about this sense of moving in stillness.  This place of stillness is where the healing takes place working from the inside out, realigning tissue, layer by layer to bring long term therapeutic change! We bring something new  to the body as we let go of the OLD …old pathologies full of old memories that  we no longer need to carry through life!
Alignment based yoga with long holds may just be the new face of health care as we look for new ways to manage the aging process and take control of our health in a world that practices unawareness!

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://www.theyogalounge.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/susan-emery1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Susan Emery The Yoga Lounge theyogalounge.net[/author_info] [/author]