06/12/2025
We love the ache of a good ab workout. That front body soreness gets filed away as proof: we did something hard, something right, something good. But when that same delayed onset burn shows up in the back body - maybe after a series of strong, targeted backbends like locust or shalabhasana - it tends to trigger a different story. One about overdoing it. About danger. About something gone slightly wrong.
Itâs strange how the very same sensation can carry such different meanings depending on where it lands. But of course, itâs not strange at all. Our perception of pain and soreness is deeply learned - shaped by culture, fitness trends, anatomy diagrams, rehab fears, and a persistent bias toward what we can see in the mirror.
Yoga, for all its nuance, still often leans into this bias. We stretch our backs obsessively - forward folds, down dogs, long hangs in passive shapes, but rarely train them to be strong. Which, ironically, is almost always what they need most.
Itâs not that soreness is always a signal of virtue. Itâs just not always a signal of danger either. Sometimes itâs just your body saying: hey, you used a part of me thatâs been waiting to be remembered.
Weâre moving through ALL the movements of the spine this month in classes: backbends, forward bends, side bends, axial extension (wut?) and twists and maybe more importantly, weâre examining our stories about sensation to find balance & freedom.
