There are two kinds of people who should not hold Halasana (plough pose); the beginner and the student who says they’ve had a bad back day. Plough pose is a deep stretch for the long muscles of the spine and when they’ve been locked up for a long time putting them in this deep long stretch will have them reacting and over tighten. It’s usually when students spend too long in plough that they experience a sharp pain in the low back upon returning the feet to the floor. Some say their back seized up.
In order to prevent that, I’ve come up with a way to ease into plough that I call “rocking plough”. Here is what you do.
1. Lie on your back with your legs in the air straight to the ceiling if you can. Hands are under your buttocks to support the low back.
2. Slowly lower your feet to the floor as long as it does not bother your lower back and on an exhale raise them back up lifting your hips off the floor and over your head to attempt to touch your toes to the floor behind you.
3. Bring your hips down slowly and repeat. Rocking your plough at least 5 times to open the deep muscles of the back and coax them into stretching.
From there you can take a supine twist or go into full plough or shoulder stand and be quite comfortable as the back has now had some preparation for the full posture. They say necessity is the mother of invention but sometime pain is too.
Try it. Does it work?
How did it feel?