Sphinx

How to do it

1. Lie on your belly and prop yourself onto your forearms, elbows just ahead of your shoulders. This is Sphinx.
2. Notice your lower back. If the sensation is too strong, slide the elbows further forward to lower the chest; if you want more, draw them back under you.
3. Let the legs be heavy. Keeping them apart deepens the low-back sensation; together spreads it more evenly along the spine.
4. Relax the buttocks and shoulders, and breathe down into the belly.
5. For the deeper Seal, straighten the arms with the hands slightly forward of the shoulders and turned out a little, and let the spine hang into the arch.
6. Hold Sphinx up to 5 minutes. For Seal, work in shorter one-minute rounds with rests between.

Why practise it

• A gentle-to-deep backbend that compresses and stimulates the sacral-lumbar arch — the lower-back curve that long hours of sitting tend to flatten.
• Tones the spine; often therapeutic for bulging or herniated discs, since it's a spinal extension rather than a flexion.
• Stimulates the kidneys and adrenal glands through gentle compression.
• Works the Urinary Bladder and Kidney lines along with the Stomach and Spleen meridians.

Coming in & out

At a glance

Hold

Sphinx: up to 5 minutes. Seal (straight arms): start with 1-minute rounds, rest, and repeat.

Level

Beginner

Target areas

lower backspinesacrum

Meridians

urinary bladderkidneystomachspleen

Props

bolsterblanket

Counterpose

Child's Pose, moved into slowly · A few gentle, breath-paced Cat/Cow rounds (not your deepest)