What are the Therapeutic Benefits of Yoga
Pain relief is one of the main therapeutic benefits of yoga. You can treat many different types of body pain with specific yoga poses, and I want to share with you the best yoga poses for lower back pain.
It’s important that you do these with the correct form, as poor form could lead to injury or increased pain. As you do your yoga stretches, pay attention what your body is telling you.
Is there pain or tightness somewhere in your body that needs to be relieved or released? With the right yoga pose, you can alleviate these issues.
If you are trying to improve flexibility or struggle with lower back pain, the sit and reach exercise is a great way to get started and a good way to monitor the changes in your flexibility.
Yoga Poses to Relieve Lower Back Pain
What is the Downward Facing Dog and How do you do It?
You may be familiar with this and other yoga poses that I’m going to cover in this article, but I still want to go step by step through how to do them. The form you use is very important, as it will help you to relieve back pain and avoid injury.
This pose can be very relaxing and can be a great boost to your energy levels. It can also be helpful for relieving sciatica and back pain, as it balances out your body and builds strength in your back, arms and other areas.
It will work the muscles of the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, quadriceps, deltoids, and triceps.
Start by getting on all fours, and make sure that your knees are lined up with your hips and that your hands are directly under your wrists.
From this starting position, press down on your hands and bring your knees up. Tuck your toes under as you lift your hipbones upward.
While doing this movement, you can keep your knees slightly bent and fully extend your tailbone and spine. Your heels should be kept off the ground just slightly, and you want to press down on your hands firmly.
Keep weight balanced evenly between the two sides of your body, especially noting how your shoulders and hips are positioned. Your chin should be slightly tucked in, and your upper arms and head should be in line with each other.
Try to hold the pose for up to a minute before letting it go.
This is one of the best standing yoga poses for lower back pain, and if you can’t hold it for a full minute at first, you may be able to work up to that duration.
How to do the Sphinx Pose
What I like about this pose is that it creates a curve in your lower back that’s completely natural. That can help to straighten out some misalignment and reduce a little tension just by getting into the pose, before you even try to hold it for a couple of minutes.
It works your abs too, and that’s going to provide support for your lower back. So, the more you do this pose, the more you’ll provide the strength necessary to help carry some of the load of your lower back and alleviate back problems over time.
Start by lying down on your stomach with your legs extended behind you and kept together.
Your elbows need to be directly under your shoulders, and your forearms should be on the floor. From this position, raise your chest off the floor and push your thighs and hips down to the floor.
While doing all of that, try to lengthen your spine out and keep your shoulders relaxed.
Next, sit up a little bit, to the point where you can feel a stretch occurring in your lower back area. Don’t extend too far, though, and if you’re feeling any pain at all, then you need to stop.
Once you’re in this position and not feeling any pain or real discomfort, you can hold the position for as long as three minutes.
Additionally, you may want to try to tuck your tailbone under you and pull in your navel to keep from hyperextending your back.
How to do the Extended Triangle
With this pose, you can treat and alleviate neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. It allows your groin, hips, and spine to stretch out, and it provides strengthening for your chest, shoulders, and legs. If you’re feeling tension and stress, doing the extended triangle can help to relieve these issues and improve your mood and emotional balance.
You’ll be working a number of muscles, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, gluteus medias, and internal oblique. So, it’s a good pose for all around strength building, muscle stretching, and warming up.
Start in a standing position and place your feet about four feet from each other- a bit more than a shoulder width apart. You want your right toes to face forward and your left ones to be turned at an angle.
From this pose, lift your arms to where they are parallel to the floor and ensure that your palms are facing downward. Hinge from the right hip and tilt forward, tilting with your torso and your right arm.
Bring your right hand down to your leg or as far down as to the floor, if possible. You can also place your hand on a yoga block. Your left arm can then be extended upward, stretched out fully. As you doing the pose, you can face down, up, or ahead of you.
Try to hold the pose for a full minute and then repeat for the other side of your body. Because this exercise works so much of the body, it’s one of the best yoga poses for lower back pain relief. It provides support for your back by working and stretching a number of muscles, straightening your spine, and building strength without stressing your back.
How to Perform the Rocking Knees to Chest
With this pose, we’re taking a basic stretching motion and adding a slow rock to it to create a massage-like experience. This is a really simple pose, but it is also very effective for working your back muscles, relieving pain, and reducing strain on your back.
Lying flat on the floor is one of the most comfortable poses for someone with back pain, as it naturally uses gravity to release tension and straighten out the spine.
So, you can start by lying on your back and bringing your knees up to your chest and then hugging them with your arms. You can lock your hands together or just hold your knees up to your chest without your hands touching each other.
While in this pose, rock back and forth from the torso as you keep your legs held close to you. You can do this for anywhere from one to three minutes.
You could also simply hold the hugging pose without rolling from side to side, but you get more benefit from the rolling motion.
These are some of the best yoga poses for lower right back pain left pain, working parts of your back and stretching out the muscles so that you feel less pain.
Whether you’re experiencing back pain right now or you’re prone to back pain, these poses can make a difference for you. They can treat different kinds of back pain and back problems, relieving tension, and working the back muscles and supporting muscles so that you’re less likely to feel back pain in the future.
You may want to try some of these poses before you do an activity that may strain and damage your back. You can help to release tension you didn’t even realize was there and then avoid back pain entirely.
