Treating Back Pain with Yoga

Back pain can often be a source of great discomfort, making it difficult to even do the simple things most people take for granted, such as bending over, lifting objects, or lying down on a soft mattress. Doctors are quick to recommend different diets, medications, and treatments to help you endure chronic symptoms, but in recent years many people have turned to non-western approaches to feeling better. And they work. One technique has proven particularly effective to relieving back pain: yoga.

How it works

Yoga comes in many different forms, some of which are more of a workout and others which soothe the mind and body. Through a combination of poses and breathing exercises, yoga aims to help your body get aligned, improve you posture, and make you more aware of what your body is doing.

Osteopaths and yoga experts recommend a style that is known as hatha yoga for people who are suffering from back problems, as it is one of the gentlest forms that involves careful stretches, easy breathing exercises, and practices of the basic yoga poses. They discourage yoga variations such as Bikram and Ashtanga, as they can be hard on the back. Hatha yoga can make it easier to recover quickly from back problems such as Sciatica, Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia, and can also prevent them from occurring in the first place.

What can you do?

Here are some yoga exercises you can do to strengthen your back, alleviate pain, and make your muscles more flexible:

1) Before going in to the exercises, its good to stretch first. Begin with the Mountain Pose: stand up straight with your feet together, place the weight of your body evenly over the feet, while slightly pressing your arms into the sides of your body. Keep a firm posture by tightening your stomach muscles and buttocks, and breathe in slowly through your nose, out through your mouth.

2) The Crescent Moon Pose: this pose strengthens the legs, the shoulders, and the back, giving you extra stamina. It is best carried out in 2 steps:

Kneel down onto your knees and keep a straight back. Take a step forward with your right foot until the foot is a little past your right knee. Keep the leg parallel to the floor.

Stretch your arms above your head and hook your thumbs together. Now lift your left knee off the floor, stretching the leg, and divide your weight between the front and back legs. Dont puff your chest up to avoid having a hollow back.

3) The Child Pose: this pose is great for stretching the spine, hips, and thighs. It should help relieve you of both psychical and emotional stress. This pose is best done in 3 steps:

Kneel onto your knees, keeping the knees slightly parted, sitting with your feet pointing outwards.

Now, carefully place your forehead on the floor and swing both arms forward, around the head at the height of the ears.

With your head still touching the floor, bring your arms around to your sides, palms facing upwards.

This non-western approach can therefore be a great supplement or alternative to the treatments that are commonly adopted in the UK. As long as you take great care when carrying out each pose, hatha yoga can make you feel fitter and younger.

Technorati Tags: Alternative Medicine, Back pain, back pain relief, Frozen Shoulder, health and fitness, neck pain, Neck Pain Relief, osteopath, osteopaths, osteopathy, sciatica, shoulder pain, Stiff Back