How to Build Functional Strength and Mobility with Camel Pose.

Bill Thwaites
Apr 6, 2023
6 min read

Updated: Jun 6, 2023

All my students experience significant improvements when they modify their approach to Camel pose.

By using a different method, they develop better functional strength and mobility while easing body tension.

In fact, this modified approach is far more engaging and provides numerous benefits over the traditional method.

Main Differences

Inner spinal muscles activation, NOT the surface back muscles activation
Full spinal extension without compression
Breath Out, NOT In
Zero body Tension

Benefits

Better spine health
Increase spine strength
Enhanced spine mobility
Easing back pain
Increase proprioception (awareness)
Zero neck stiffness

The Spine

The spine is a critical structure that provides support and stability to the body while walking, running, kicking a ball, dancing and all the myriad of dynamic movements we do in daily life.

In the cutting-edge science world of human performance, we now know that it is NOT advantageous to have a super flexible spine.

The spine's primary function is to facilitate movement by transmitting the power from the hips up through to the shoulders, maintaining stability and control of your upper body.

Initially, this was a hard pill for me to swallow because it flew in the face of everything I had been told during my yoga teacher training.

But the science is crystal clear on this; an overly flexible spine is undesirable. An overly flexible spine is prone to injury, leading to chronic pain and discomfort.

This is because excessive flexibility can cause the spinal joints and ligaments to become lax, reducing their ability to support the spine effectively, particularly when picking up a heavy load, such as a child, suitcase, shopping bag or moving furniture.

Furthermore, hypermobility or excessive flexibility can stress the muscles more, leading to muscle strains and spasms. This can result in chronic pain, particularly in the lower back, hips, and neck.

Of course, you don’t want to have a ridge spine without any flexibility, but in truth, most people have sufficient spine flexibility. That’s not to say they don’t have issues with spine stiffness. That’s a completely different story.

Being supple and being flexible are often used interchangeably, but the two terms have a subtle difference.

In short, flexibility is about a range of motion, while suppleness is about control of movement. A person can be flexible but not necessarily supple.

A healthy spine is supple, agile and strong, providing stability to the whole body during movement.

The power comes from the hips. Notice the alignment of the hips and shoulders. The spine only twists a small amount.

For example, a golfer only needs a relatively small amount of spine flexibility but a lot of inner spine strength, control, and zero body tension.

The same attributes are needed in brick layers, childcare workers, nurses, tennis players … the list goes on.

The quickest way to damage and weaken the spine is to do a series of wall backbends, which in the past, I have done under a misguided belief I was developing a healthy spine.

Today I have a totally different view on how to forge a healthy spine, and my spine feels so much better without any nagging back pain, which would flare up every now and then.

All my students experience the same benefits.

Question

So given that backbends can potentially weaken the spine, should we rule out backbends altogether?

Answer

The answer is No!

To forge a strong, supple, healthy spine, you must strengthen the inner spinal muscles in various positions, including backbends such as Camel pose.

The typical way Camel is done does not truly engage the inner spinal muscles.

Plus, the intervertebral spine disks are so easily over-compressed, delaminating the disks.

There are several reasons why.

Mechanical framework

Grabbing the feet creates a mechanically locked-in structure that uses the limbs as a crowbar/lever that forces the spine into a backbend. When doing Camel pose this way, you use the surface back muscles to pull the spine back. In no way are you positively engaging the inner spinal muscles.

Developing a supple, strong, agile healthy spine is purely about communication with the inner spine muscles, NOT the surface back muscles.

Don’t forget that it's the surface back muscles that hold onto all our tension, our stress.

Tension is the killer of good movement.

The goal of yoga is to release tension, not actively engage the muscles that hold it!

On top of that, you create a massive amount of spinal compression when the spine is pulled back, which, as all the research has proved, delaminates the spinal disks L4-L5.

The alternative beginner's way of placing the hands on the lower spine for support also does not change anything because the inner spinal muscles are still not engaged, and the outer muscles are still used to pull the spine back.

Either way, you don’t truly engage the inner spinal muscles and it’s so easy to over-compressing the spine, which most students do, despite being mindful.

Our goal in yoga is to develop our stabilisation strength, mobility, coordination, balance and breath control to unlock our body's true capacity and, in the process, establish a harmonious mind-body connection.

Asking the body to go back as far as you can comfortably go is not the same as asking the body to expand the spine open using purely inner spinal muscles. This means using purely the muscles that connect directly to the spine's vertebra, keeping all the surface muscles, including the bum, relaxed.

It’s a wholly different experience when you ask the body to actively relax the outer surface muscles and engage just the inner spinal muscles to expand the spine open. It's a conversation the body loves engaging in, because you're not unknowingly asking to move into a position at the cost of creating tension.

Not only do you truly develop the spine core strength, but body awareness is electrifying. This is because all the proprioceptive body sensors light up, a sensation which you never get if you simply pull your spine backwards.

Awareness, paying attention to your body throughout the day, is a great skill to acquire.

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Instructions

Caution: Don't fool yourself that the instructions appear easy.

It’s all about inner spinal muscles activation, NOT the surface back muscles activation.

That takes a lot of neuromuscular rewiring. So to start off with, don’t expect to go back as far as you did before.

Your goal is purely about stability and control, with zero tension. NOT depth.

Even if you think about depth, your body will take that thought as an instruction to pull the spine back.

Also, if you look back, the body will read that as a command to pull the spine back: Keep your eye looking forward.

As you look forward, you may like to close your eyes as this helps your awareness of body tension.

Your mantra is RELAX and OPEN.

Relax meaning relax all surface muscles, particularly the bum and back muscles.

Open meaning to engage just your inner strength to expand out your entire body like a puffer fish.

As with all postures, there is the setup phase and execution phase.

Pay attention to the breath cycles:

Inhale: hold/movement

Exhale: relax and engage your core strength.

Camel Version 1

Camel Version 2

Setup Phase

1) Stand on your knees, roughly hip/shoulder width apart.

2) Take a deep inhale.

3) Version 1: Exhale, feel all your surface muscles relax, then bring your arms out to the side and fully lengthen your spine by driving the chest up to the ceiling. (all in one exhale).

Version 2: Exhale, feel all your surface muscles relax, then bring your arms up overhead and interlace fingers (just like in Half Moon Pose) and fully lengthen your spine by driving the chest up to the ceiling. (all in one exhale).

4) Take a deep breath in and hold that position.

Execution Phase

5) Exhale, feel all your surface back muscles and bum relax, then drive the chest up to the ceiling to fully lengthen the spine and then gently push the hips forward as you slowly extend the spine back. (all on one exhale). Note don’t expect to go back far.

6) Inhale, hold that position

7) Keep repeating steps 5 & 6. Slowly after each breath cycle, the spine will extend back without any body tension. You must focus equal effort on releasing all body tension and engaging your inner core strength.

Camel Version 2

Key Points

Target all your effort on inner spinal muscles activation, NOT the surface back muscles activation.
During every exhale, imagine there is a cable connected to your chest, lifting you up to the ceiling.
Keep the bum and surface back muscles 100% relaxed!
The more relaxed you are, the less your inner core strength has to overcome the resistance of body tension.
Tune into your inner core strength.
Do not look back! Always look forward.
During the exhale phase, you must first feel the handbrake to body tension release before you engage your inner core strength.
You will learn the more you relax you are; the more core strength is able to come out and join the party.
Getting this right takes practice…. A lot of practice. The benefits will blow you away.