Is your back pain intensified after spending the day rock climbing? Follow these instructions for a yoga pose to both help relieve and prevent back pain while climbing!
Start stretching consistently, say climbers Olivia Hsu, a yoga instructor, and Heidi Wirtz, a long-time yoga practitioner. And the smartest way to stretch? Yoga. “Yoga balances out climbing,” Hsu explains. S “Yoga promotes balance, increases core strength, calms your mind, and teaches you how to be in your body,” she says. Wirtz initially practiced yoga to manage painful sciatica, but now incorporates it into her daily fitness routine.
Seated Twist
- Sit evenly on your sit bones, and straighten your back. If your lower back is sagging, prop yourself up on a folded blanket.
- Extend your legs in front of you without locking your knees.
- Bend your right knee, and place your right foot flat on the ground outside of your left knee.
- Bend your left leg, with ankle close to the right hip.
- Lift your right arm and stretch the side of your body, while twisting your torso to the right. Place your right hand or fingers on the ground behind you.
- Lift your left arm up and place the outside of your left elbow on the outside of your right knee to help maintain the twist. However, be sure to move from the base of your spine as you twist. Do not force the twist with the strength of your arms.
- Look over your right shoulder.
- Repeat on other side.
Body benefits:
- — Strengthens and stretches back.
- — Strengthens shoulder muscles.
- — Opens shoulders by stretching pectoral muscles.
Climbing applications:
- — Facilitates fluid twisting movements while climbing.
- — Relieves lower back pain caused by muscular tension.
Source: www.climbing.com; Lizzy Scully, Photos by Andy Mann; 2012.
