Yoga For Back Pain Relief

By Author: Shreyas Retreat
Total Articles: 14
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Back pain is remarkably common. At any one time 30-40% of the population has back pain and between 80-90% experiences it sometime in their lives. The commonest type of back pain is caused by some kind of mechanical stress or damage within the back which gets better fairly quickly. Poor posture, excessive stresses (physical and psychological), aging problems and mechanical damage may all contribute to back pain.

Although organic causes of back pain like infections or injuries require medications or surgical interventions, most people experience only functional-non specific back pain. This is mainly caused due to our bad lifestyle leading to weak muscles, over working of wrong muscles and repeated injuries due to unused exercise and psychological stress.

Stress is an established cause of disability in chronic low back pain. Increased muscle spasm is the nature’s protective response to the demanding situation along with many other changes such as increased heart rate, increased breathing rate etc that help us to cope up with demanding situations. This will not be a problem if the period ...
... of stress is short and the person gets enough resting time after the demanding period. But today’s lifestyle is full of such demanding situations without any time for relaxation. Therefore, these long standing stresses of any type demand the muscles all over the body to be in a state of increased contraction (spasm). This long standing spasm in the already weak postural muscles causes persistent back pain.
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Yoga For Low Back Pain Relief:

Yoga is a science of Self Realization. Yoga offers a gamut of spiritual processes which encourage us in our journey to self discovery. Hatha Yoga describes the therapeutic benefits of Yogic practices and encourages everyone irrespective of health conditions to practice Yoga, first for physical benefits and good health and later for something more deep and meaningful.

Yoga has proven to be effective as well as cost effective in both prevention and cure of back pain. The various processes of Yoga like Asanas (Physical postures), Pranayama (Breath regulation), and Meditative techniques – all have a very positive effect on our health and wellbeing. Few benefits of these practices have been described below, which may serve as an encouragement to start Yoga for management of low back pain. But it is important to remember that with dedicated practice one can not only correct the imbalances at the level of the body, but also at the levels of emotions, intelligence and energy. The aim of your Yoga practice should not be to relieve back ache, but to realize your own self.

Asanas Yoga For Low Back Pain Relief:

Asanas are the physical postures practiced in Yoga. Ardha kati chakrasana, Ardha chakrasana, Trikonasana, Parivrtta trikonasana, Vakrasana, Ustrasana, Bhujangasana, Shalabhasana, Dhanurasana, Jathara Parivartanasana, Uttitta padasana, Setu bandhasana, Pawanamuktasana etc are some of the more useful practices for relief from back pain. Relaxative posture is Makarasana.

Uses: Reduces stiffness in muscles, strengthens the spinal muscles and abdominal muscles, massages and rejuvenates the spine and spinal nerves.

Precautions: Avoid all the postures that hurt you in the first few classes until the art of relaxing during the practice is learnt.

Avoid jerky movements.


Co ordinate the movements with breathing

Pranayama:

These are the breathing practices of Yoga. Prana being the life force is the driving force behind whatever is happening with us. This is also the force that causes healing to occur. Stress, anxiety, frustration and other negative emotions lead to the draining of this life force and hence we do breathing exercises to conserve this life force.

Nadi Shodhana, Sadanta, Bhramari etc are few examples for Pranayama to be practiced for back pain. Again, it is very important to avoid jerky movements during breathing and to support the back during the initial stages of the practice.

Yoga Meditative Techniques:


All these techniques use the powerful weapon of ‘awareness’ to pierce through our mind and emotions in order to make us realize what we are. This can be done in many ways. Chanting mantras, body awareness, breath awareness, gazing at a spiritual symbol etc., are some of the many ways to develop awareness. This will initially distract our mind away from anxiety producing thoughts and pain.

All the techniques of Yoga act synergistically to tame the stress response, to make the body and mind supple and energetic, and to reduce perception of pain. Hence Yogic way is definitely an effective way to prevent and manage back pain.