History of the Bowspring
In 2012, Desi Springer took an uncharted path away from the standard alignment methods in modern postural yoga. Contrary to the alignment instructions of her yoga teachers, Desi “bucked the tuck” and started practicing a whole new postural form. In collaboration with John Friend, Desi created the radical paradigm-shifting Bowspring method in 2013, which has now expanded into a global community of over 120 teachers and thousands of students in over 17 countries.
The history of the Bowspring system began in 2012 as a rebellious choice by Desi Springer to lift her tailbone in every dynamic posture throughout her day! In her first 14 years of yoga classes, Desi was instructed to tuck, scoop, and draw her hips and tailbone downward to improve her posture by every teacher she encountered. Her unusually deep lower back curve was widely considered excessive and a misalignment that would lead to painful spinal compression and degeneration. Although Desi tried her best to follow the alignment instructions to not excessively curve her lower back, she had a deep curve in her lower back all her life. Despite her best efforts, Desi could never flatten her lower back like her yoga teachers wanted her to do. Furthermore, the downward direction of the tail always felt contrary to her natural flow. Finally, in the Summer of 2012, Desi boldly announced to the teachers of Vital Yoga in Denver, she was going to follow her heart and not tuck her tailbone any more!
This news was shocking to many people within Desi’s yoga community, since drawing the tailbone downward has been a standard postural alignment throughout modern postural yoga. Desi had studied yoga intensely for 14 years – 6 years in Bikram Yoga and 8 years in Anusara yoga. In both yoga systems, it was a commonly accepted alignment theory to lengthen the spine by rooting the tailbone and extending up through the top of the head. It was generally understood that without using the pelvic muscles to pull the tailbone downward, the spine could not be effectively lengthened and painful lower back compression could occur. Yet, Desi Springer had her own ideas of postural alignment, which she believed were right for her. Not only did Desi stop tucking her tail in her poses, she began to actively lift her glutes in every pose. Instead of pulling the glutes and tailbone downward, Desi lifted her hips back and up and bowed her belly long. As opposed to making clean, straight lines in her poses, Desi created more curves throughout her body. Although this alignment was contrary to John Friend’s “optimal blueprint”, which she had practiced and taught for 8 years in Anusara yoga, Desi began to fully explore her own curvy, bowed and springy form for dynamic posture. John and Desi termed their new alignment template — the Bowspring.
John Friend built Anusara yoga into a successful worldwide yoga system on the effectiveness of his “universal principles of alignment” over a 15-year period starting in 1997. When John realized that Desi Springer’s new alignment model contradicted his Anusara alignment system in many ways, John initially dismissed Desi’s ideas as incorrect. John repeatedly protested and argued with Desi for months as he attempted to invalidate the Bowspring as a legitimate postural template. However, after applying Desi’s alignment ideas to his chronic hip injury, John’s painful problem started to clear. John researched, investigated, and practiced Desi’s alignment ideas for 8 months before embracing her Bowspring concept in the beginning of 2013.
For the next 6 years, 2013 – 2018, Desi Springer and John Friend teamed up to teach over 160 seminars on the Bowspring method in 17 countries in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. In every city that Desi and John visited for the first time, the Bowspring method was considered utterly radical and avant-garde. Over this 6-year period, John and a team of Bowspring students helped Desi in systematizing her postural ideas into an accessible curriculum for our global Bowspring community. Now there are Bowspring classes offered throughout the world, and an in-depth teacher training and certification program.