Therapeutic Yoga for Lower Back Pain
Are you suffering from lower back pain?
You're not alone, many people come to yoga seeking relief from lower back pain.
One of the most common complaints I hear from students is low back pain. This is not surprising as the Mayo Clinic states that back pain is one of the most common reasons people miss work or visit the doctor. The good news is that yoga can help relieve and prevent back pain. As always, consult a doctor for any chronic or serious back pain.
Here's our list of therapeutic yoga tips that may help alleviate a cranky-low back:
Stress – it is proven that stress has toxic and adverse reactions in the body. Sometimes your stress may show up as lower back pain. Study after study shows that yoga and meditation decrease stress in your life. Start with a beginner yoga class, meditation, or healing yoga! Check out our upcoming class schedule!
Awareness
Try including more gently movements into your day – we recommend apanasana, cat-cow, or a moving bridge to test out how the back is feeling. Try closing your eyes and just becoming aware of the back.
Prevention
Back and core strengthening postures can help prevent any future back pain from occurring. To increase awareness of your core and spine - Inhale, feel the breath move the spine to create a lengthening effect, then exhale, gently draw the navel in starting to become aware of your abdomen and the muscles that support the spine. We love cobra pose for this!
Why does back pain occur?
Back pain can occur for any number of reasons. While not every cause or source of back pain is the same, many times it simply occurs from a weak core and for sitting too long. Try to stretch as often as possible and drink plenty of water throughout the day to keep the vertebra nice and plump. Most importantly, you always need to remember to breathe – your body cannot do without water and oxygen! Our beginner yoga, meditation, and healing yoga classes are all fantastic classes to take to help addressing breathing and stress.