How to Target the Back Body in Yoga
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Table of Contents – How to incorporate back body work (target the posterior chain) on the yoga mat!
Introduction
I received the following message from a member of my website the other day:
"I want to teach a back body strength theme in class next week, but I can't find any info on how to strengthen the back body in yoga. Help!"
I did some digging on Google, YouTube, and social media to see what was out there on this topic, and I couldn't find anything either!
Even in my own work, the topic of back-body strengthening is important to me, but I've usually just mentioned it as a passing thought.
For instance, I've included it in social media posts here or there and as a theme in classes in my online yoga class library. But I realized I don't have a single, focused piece of content meant to be an educational resource on this topic.
So that's why I decided to create this tutorial: How to Target the Back Body in Yoga! It’s like a free, mini-yoga teacher training to help support you in your yoga practice and teaching.
The full tutorial is a video that I’ll include below. (Jump to video!)
And here in this blog post, I’ll share an abbreviated version of what I present in the full video tutorial. Read on for yoga geeky brain gains!
Written Tutorial – How to Target the Posterior Chain in Yoga
What is the back body?
The "back body" is yoga speak :) for all of the muscles that line our backside, from the feet all the way up to the back of the head (a.k.a. the "posterior chain").
Major muscles of the back body include the hamstrings, glutes, erector spinae, and lats.
Targeting this area in yoga is tricky, as typical yoga practices offer limited options for effective back-body strengthening. But it *is* possible to target this area on the yoga mat if we're intentional about it.
Here is one of my favorite ways to target this area in a yoga context (and I feature my 5 favorite ways in the full video tutorial!)
Reverse table pose for the win!
One of my favorite ways to target the posterior chain on the yoga mat is the yoga pose reverse table:
In reverse table, we start in a position of hip flexion and lift our hips up into hip extension. By extending our hips against gravity, we're primarily working our glutes (our main muscles of hip extension). Our spinal extensors and shoulder extensors contribute to the movement, as well.
This is a good pose for working our back body, but because it's a bodyweight-only movement, our capacity for strength-building is limited. Once we've adapted to the loads of this pose, we plateau in terms of strength adaptations.
However, I have a few tricks up my sleeve for variations on reverse table that can increase the challenge and maximize our possibilities for building strength here! 💪🏽
3 Variations of reverse table that add more load:
1) Reverse table w/ feet on yoga blocks:
Generally, the more range of motion we move through when we're doing strength work, the better for strength gains!
When we perform reverse table with our feet on the floor, our hips are in a certain degree of hip flexion.
But if we place our feet up on blocks, this raises our thighs higher, which puts us into even more hip flexion. This way, when we initiate our lift up into reverse table, we start with our hips in more of a stretch.
This is more challenging and strengthening than the feet-on-floor variation!
2) Reverse table w/ a resistance band:
In this variation, we place a resistance band across our upper thighs and anchor it under our feet.
The band pulls down on our hips, resisting our lift up. This forces our hips to work harder to lift us up, resulting in more challenge and more potential for strengthening!
The top portion of the lift, where the band is most stretched, is especially challenging, requiring a strong glute squeeze to lock out at the top!
3) Single-leg reverse table w/ foot on yoga block
This reverse table variation combines two potent strategies for adding load into one great move!
As I mentioned earlier, increasing range of motion increases our potential for strength-building. That's exactly what we do by placing our foot on a yoga block here.
And by lifting one leg up off the floor, we double the load on our "standing" leg. That hip therefore has to work much harder to lift us up into the pose. 💪🏽
As you can see, once traditional reverse table ceases to challenge us, we have quite a few options to keep us busy!
In my video tutorial (below), I cover the full biomechanics and technique tips for reverse table. I also deep dive into 4 more potent ways to target the back body in yoga, with a special focus on other posterior chain muscles like the hamstrings and posterior shoulders.
I hope you enjoy this mini-YTT :) I made for you!
Video Tutorial
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