Yoga for Back Pain? – well, it depends.
What are you supposed to do when back hurts? Heat or Ice? Move or rest? Maybe drugs?
There are times when the pain is so unbearable that someone can barely move, so in that case relaxation and rest is the best idea. But how yoga and specially Hatha yoga can help you? Yoga increases muscle strength and flexibility, reduces psychological stress, muscle tension. It sounds too good to be true but it really is simple to relieve lower back pain with yoga techniques. Exercising your back with carefully balanced stretches and strengthening poses is a rule of healing back pain. In a culture where we spend most of the day without moving and seated, it is no wonder back pain is endemic but let’s see some solutions.
Breathe slowly and deeply through the nose for the duration of the practice. On your inhales, flare the ribs wide, and as you exhale, contract around your navel while maintaining a long, natural spine. Breathing exercise – pranayama is also gives you a chance to build the muscles that support the lumbar spine. Take this opportunity to engage your abdominal muscles as much as possible.
Remember that a strong belly means a strong back. But don’t overdo ab work. A common misconception about healing back pain is that the back is weak and that you just need to work the core more. Actually, when you only work the core muscles — as in a hundred crunches a day — you may just be shortening your front body to match the back one. This can further pull on the spine and cause more disc compression and too little or too much curvature. Optimally, you want greater core length and strengths in your abdominals, waist, mid and low back. To do this, your back muscles will have to release, and both your back and core will have to stretch as well as flex! We’ll do both simultaneously in each of these yoga for back pain poses.
For most people, when their low back hurts, they lean forward and touch their toes. This will exacerbate the back pain. You just spent all day forward-bending.
More of the same will get you more of the same. Instead: Back bend like crazy, activate your core-stabilizing muscles and abdominals and drink plenty of water during the day, which sound so obvious but many of us are lacking water in their body. A person with back pain should try a supported standing back bend throughout the day as needed. It will be hard and sometimes painful in the beginning but let me tell you, you can not approach your healing from a place of fear.
So contact me and let me help you. 00 36 70 632 5346 or julia@feelgoodyoga.hu
