Try these super easy Yoga Poses for lower back pain relief. Keep reading further to understand what causes backache and how yoga can help you with your backache woos.
Back pain and back problems are turning into a global epidemic, which is inevitable given the amount of time we spend sitting. Inactivity, lack of exercise, incorrect posture, tight hamstrings, and stress on the back muscles are causes behind this. Yoga postures and specifically yoga for back pain also works to open the abdomen area and improve the flexibility of the hips. If you are taking any sort of physical therapy for lower back pain relief, probably your doctor has given you recommendations to do yoga as a part of your exercise program.
Yoga asanas are excellent to release tension from the back and stiffness from the waist area. In fact, the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends yoga for back pain as a non-invasive treatment.
Along with a few lifestyle changes, you can do specified yoga poses for back pain to reap long-term relief from lower back pain. The majority of yoga poses aim at correcting your posture and releasing tension from the back. If you are dealing with a backache or back stiffness, look no further - try these simple yoga poses for back pain to get relief!
You can also go through the instructional video below so you can try the yoga poses for back pain with my guidance.
Yoga Poses For Back Pain:
Let us look at some of the effective yoga poses for back pain that is suitable for beginner level and help in relieving backache. You can also learn this yoga sequence in the video above for healing your backache.
Yoga for Back Pain Pose 1: Cat-Cow Pose
Place your palms shoulder-width apart in a tabletop position on your mat. As you inhale, look up and arch your lower back. As you exhale, round your back and pull your stomach in. Do this about 15 times and move slowly.
Yoga For Back Pain Pose 2: Child’s Pose
Relax in this pose, take your hips and your tailbone towards your heels and relax your whole body. Place your forehead on the ground, breathe deeply and stay in this forward fold as long as it feels good.
Yoga For Back Pain Pose 3: Bridge Pose
Lie down on your back, bend your legs and let your knees be hip-width apart, and raise your hips in a bridge pose. Squeeze your butt in a bridge pose as you exhale. Inhale, lower your hips to the groups. Repeat slowly 10 times.
Yoga For Back Pain Pose 4: Half Lord Of The Fishes Pose
Come to sit, stretch both your legs and now, bend your right leg and place your right foot beside the left leg. Stretch your left arm in the front and wrap your arm around the right knee or you can also lock your left elbow to the right knee. Turn your whole torso and hold this asana for at least 30 secs and repeat on the other side.
Yoga For Back Pain Pose 5: Sitting Forward Bend
Modify forward bend with your knees bent. This will make sure that you do not put a strain on your back if you are inflexible. Stretch both your legs in front of you, knees soft and now reach with both arms towards your feet. Grab your feet and relax your spine. Stay in this position for a few deep breaths. Avoid this asana if you have slipped disk or modify this by placing cushion below your knees.
Why do we get back pain?
There are many reasons for backache such as severe muscle sprains, spasms, ligament injury, aging, bad posture, and general inactivity. If you have a chronic or severe backache, we suggest visiting a specialist doctor to identify the underlying causes unique to your condition.
1. Muscle Sprains and Spasms: Disproportionate pressure on soft tissues, muscles, and spine due to sudden inapt movements, weight lifting causes sprains. This can trigger severe back pain. Yoga stretches for back pain may help you alleviate such sprains which will give you relief from backache.
2. Arthritis: Inflammation of joints in the body is called Arthritis. This condition affects spine health. It constricts the width around the spinal cord, developing a condition called Stenosis. Apart from this, Rheumatoid Arthritis is one of the leading causes of severe lower back pain in older adults.
3. Incorrect Postures: Incorrect postures are another great cause of backaches. There is a wide range of yoga poses for back pain that specifically deals with incorrect posture which will give you relief from lower back pain.
4. Sedentary Lifestyle: Lack of exercise and movements can call forth backaches. Your hips start to feel heavy, stiff and sore. Soon, this stiffness and want of movement start to turn into severe pain problems if it is untreated. Yoga for stiff back and hamstrings proves to be an efficient way to regain flexibility.
5. Ageing: As we grow older, we tend to lose the elasticity of our body. Other than this, fluids inside the bones or soft tissues dry up, increasing the risk of bone erosion. This can elicit shooting pain in the joints and the back. No, I can’t say that yoga can prevent ageing. It’s an invincible process of life after all. But Yoga promotes healthy ageing. It keeps your body flexible, healthy and your mind at peace. Yoga also relieves backaches which come as an unwanted guest with ageing.
Does yoga for back pain work?
Back pain relief is one of the amazing benefits of yoga. Yoga eases worries, tension and helps to calm our mind and nervous system. This alone smoothes down many triggers for any pain in our body. Weak abdominal muscles are another initiator of lower back pain. Doing strength-building yoga poses such as Shalabhasana, helps to build strong core muscles such as erector spinae, rectus abdominis etc. This generates resilience in the waist area developing a healthy core and relieves lower back pain.
A multitude of yoga asanas such as twists, forward, and backward bending asanas helps to keep our spine supple. A good functional spine alleviates most of the sore back problems. Apart from this, emotional distress such as anxiety, depression, and financial distress can add to your back’s sharp pain. Yoga and meditation do not only promote a healthy body but also help you to cope up with emotional distress.
Though we can not say that yoga alone is the ultimate cure for the sore, stiff back but it has some proven effect on backache. Like a randomized study conducted on 743 patients to learn the effectiveness of yoga for back pain, showed significant pain reduction. The study concluded that yoga may be beneficial to relieve or manage chronic lower back pain.
Another experiment was carried out on 320 people from different socio-economic backgrounds, also concluded that yoga for back pain is an effective measure.
Precaution To Practise Lower Back Yoga
Make sure that you take these precautions before you begin to perform yoga for back pain relief, especially if you have had extreme spinal pain for some time. The first and foremost requirement is to seek a doctor’s advice before you begin doing yoga for back or lower back yoga. It's fitting, to begin with, basic stretches before you proceed onward to intense postures. Always, try to figure out what your body’s requirements are before setting a workout routine or selecting yoga poses for your back.
If you have not exercised in a long time or have no prior experience with yoga, you must keep your inflexible body in mind and choose the poses accordingly. Opening the tight muscles, strengthening the indolent muscles first will be beneficial for you to avoid injuries that can be caused by practicing these yoga poses for back pain.
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