What kind of yoga is best for pain relief?
Staying in one position for too long, a sedentary lifestyle, and ubiquitous technological advancements depriving people of physical activity, such as elevators, escalators, and cars, have become the hallmarks of our times. What’s the outcome? Spine pain! A common problem nowadays, even among teenagers. We spend a lot of time in front of our computers, both at work and in our leisure time, stuck in the same position for many hours. We ignore the fact that “the human body is designed to be in constant motion. In fact, we move even when we perceive ourselves to be motionless. Indeed, it is an extremely subtle movement, but it plays a major role in relieving chronic pain” [1].
So the key phrase for back pain is gentle yoga, because prolonged strain means that our tissues need time to adapt and recover. The common mistake of our times, which are marked by an otherwise great trend to be physically active, is that people tend to sit in an incorrect posture for hours and then work out excessively. A vast portion of advanced yoga poses go well beyond the standard biomechanical possibilities of the human body. That’s why it’s vital to approach yoga carefully, and take advantage of its benefits rather than pushing yourself beyond your limits to fulfill dreams of elaborate asanas. So if you’re wondering whether yoga is your pain relief solution, my answer is: it can be. But it all depends on whether your pain complaints are properly assessed and managed. One thing is certain, though. During therapeutic exercises, you should not feel any pain at all.
Yoga is a very methodically organized form of physical activity. It’s appreciated above all for its accuracy in communicating the changes taking place in the body. In a broad sense, it has a holistic effect on reshaping the way people function in today’s world. Regular yoga practice can support you both on physical, mental, and emotional levels. However, always bear it in mind that staying healthy doesn’t require excessive effort, but precision and a thorough understanding of what you do and why you do it this way. This is where yoga practiced under the guidance of an experienced instructor can bring tangible benefits. The reason is that yoga is very precise, and relies primarily on methodology, that is on the purpose and technique of exercising.
5 top asanas to ease back pain
Do they really exist? The human body is an extremely complicated locomotor system, so it’s hard to imagine that a handful of exercises can help improve its function and eliminate all pain. Below, I’m sharing with you my subjective selection. I chose these particular asanas because, firstly, they are easy to practice and, secondly, they can be incorporated into various daily activities.
CAT and COW POSE
Let’s start with a simple and effective exercise that everyone is familiar with, for example from physical education classes. However, before you go into the full pose, I recommend learning isolation movements. Start by engaging only the thoracic segment. To do this, bring your shoulder blades closer together and then pull them apart.
- Come on to all fours. Place your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Extend your spine between the top of your head and tailbone. Feel your body weight evenly distributed between four support points. Now isolate the movement between the shoulder blades. Draw the shoulder blades closer together, pulling the shoulders slightly down. Push yourself firmly away with your hands to make more space between the shoulder blades. Repeat the sequence five times. Be careful not to move the lumbar region. Keep your head in one position as the extension of the spine.
- Next, isolate the movement only in your lumbar spine. As you inhale, smoothly stick out your tailbone a few times, and as you exhale, tuck your tailbone and pull the navel closer to the spine. Isolate the pelvic movement five times.
- At the end, put these movements together into a sequence. On an inhale, draw the shoulder blades closer together, look up and stick out the tailbone – cow pose. On an exhale, lift yourself on your hands, tuck your tailbone, and transition into the cat pose.
By performing isolation movements in your thoracic and lumbar regions first, you give yourself more time to determine the degree of mobility in the two sections of the spine. You can check which of the regions is stiffer on a given day, and where movement is easier. Most importantly, though, you can increase the ranges of motion in thoracic spine – the least flexible and often neglected part of the spine. By performing the exercise this way, in addition to mobilizing your thoracic spine, you will strengthen the muscles around the shoulders and shoulder blades.
The next two asanas you’ll learn are examples of standing poses. They contribute to maintaining a correct body posture. In addition, they stimulate the muscles in your legs and feet. The ability to stand firmly and steadily, with your body weight evenly distributed between two legs, is essential to support healthy functioning of the entire body. It helps you to avoid both back pain and problems in the deep layers of the body. It’s crucial to understand that a healthy body posture is about more than just strong postural muscles. In addition, the body’s internal organs must be properly aligned and held together by the skeletal system, fascia, and muscles. If all the elements are in tune, your breathing and digestion improve, and your concentration becomes sharper! What we often forget is our feet are a vital part of spine health. The reason is that, after sitting, standing is our second most frequent activity during the day. Yet we make a lot of mistakes in the feet department as well!
MOUNTAIN POSE (TADASANA)
What might help is the mountain pose. It may look like ‘just standing’, but it brings a lot of benefits. Tadasana has two variations: with your feet together or hip-width apart. The latter option is particularly recommended if you suffer from low back pain and during menstruation. This is the variant described in detail below.
- Stand hip-width apart, keeping your feet parallel. Shift your weight slightly to your heels and scoop the tailbone and buttocks down. Gently tighten and pull your thighs inwards.
- Lift your toes up and fan them out, then plant them firmly back on the floor. Feel that your feet are broad and supportive, firmly rooted in the floor.
- Position the pelvis neutrally, in the center, bringing the iliac spines closer to the lower ribs and ‘dropping your tailbone between your heels’.
- Retract your chin, and lift the top of your head and the edges of your ears toward the ceiling. Unwind and rotate your shoulders outwards. Stretch your arms along your body. Turn your palms towards your hips.
You can practice tadasana regularly and there’s absolutely no need to set aside a separate time for it. You can easily incorporate it into your daily activities, for example when waiting for a friend or a bus, or standing in line… These are good moments to go over the tips on how to perform tadasana and work towards improving your posture!
TREE POSE (VRKSASANA)
Once you’re standing confidently on two legs, you can try to move to the tree pose. Similarly, to tadasana, it has a positive effect on strengthening the legs, but vrksasana additionally stabilizes the ankles, improves balance, and opens up the hips, chest and shoulders, lengthening your body from the feet to the tips of your fingers.
- Stand hip-width apart, gently tighten your thighs, and lift the kneecaps up (your kneecaps are the moving parts in front of your knees). Look at your knees and see if they point forward. You don’t want them to turn inwards or be rotated outwards too much.
- Now, in an exaggerated motion, roll your shoulders back and out. Bring your arms down, lowering your shoulders. You want your legs and arms to be strong, so that your spine can elongate.
- Bend your right leg at the knee and grab your ankle. Position your right foot as high as possible against the inner thigh of your left leg. Press the foot to the thigh, and the thigh into the foot. This mutual pressing helps to keep your foot on your thigh and builds strength in your standing leg.
- Place your hands on your hips. Move your knee slightly outward to the back, but be mindful not to twist your hips.
- Ground your standing foot in the floor and extend the top of your head upwards. Spread your arms out to your sides, turn the insides of your palms upwards and, as you inhale, raise your hands above your head. Keep your gaze at eye level and focus on a single point: this will help you stay balanced. Pull your arms up, but keep your shoulders away from your ears: ‘long neck’.
- Stand in tadasana again, take a deep breath, and do the same for the other side.
SUPTA PADANGUSTHASANA WITH A STRAP (option I)
Great! You’ve already strengthened your legs, so it’s time for supta padangusthasana, or learning how lengthening the legs can help improve your back pain or even relieve headaches.
It is also one of the abdominal asanas. You can read more about them HERE.
Supta padangusthasana has many variations. If you suffer from sacroiliac pain due to overstretching, a lateral variant of the same pose can provide relief. All variations of supta padangusthasana aim to lengthen the legs in different planes and open the hips. By regularly practicing the pose, you can fully extend the legs, tone up your internal organs, and relieve back pain and sciatica. It’s also important to note that the asana is completely safe because you do it with your back lying on an even surface.
- Grab your mat and a strap. Lie down comfortably on your back. Keep your strap close at hand. Relax your legs, pelvis, chest, and head. Feel the weight of your body.
- Draw both legs to your chest, not too hard, so that both buttocks stay in contact with the floor. Press your loins firmly into the floor.
- Put your left foot on the floor. Place the strap on your right foot close to the heel. Press your foot against the strap and the strap against your foot. Then slowly extend your leg at the knee. Try to form a right angle between your leg and torso. If you cannot fully straighten your knee in this position, take your leg slightly away from your head, so that it’s in a place where you can fully extend the knee.
- Roll your shoulders back towards the floor. As you open up your chest, feel the elongation of the back of your right leg. Slowly pressing down on the heel, begin to straighten your left leg so that it is actively pressed to the floor. The leg extended on the floor is tadasana’s strong leg.
- Stretch out both legs on an inhale. With your left leg stretched out on the floor and pressing on the heel (flex foot), pull the right leg towards the ceiling, trying to ‘pierce’ through the strap by pressing your foot firmly against it. On an exhale, try to straighten your knee, and if it’s straight, pull your foot a little closer to your head.
- Relax and stretch out both legs on the floor. Feel the difference in length between your right and your left leg. Repeat the sequence for the other leg.
DOWNWARD-FACING DOG POSE
It’s time for the final asana in this selection. In my (subjective) opinion, it’s the queen of all yoga poses. It’s adho mukha shanasana, or the downward-facing dog pose. This asana delivers a myriad of benefits. It removes fatigue, regenerates the body, eases pain and stiffness in the back of the legs, tones the abdominal organs, nourishes the brain, and builds the habit of straightening the legs and back. As you practice the asana, you elongate the spine axially one segment after another, and align different curves of your spine, as needed. That’s why you can practice it in most situations, as long as it does not cause back pain. My tip is to perform a simplified variant of the asana, with bent knees and lifted heels, so that it is easier to achieve spinal elongation, which is our primary goal.
- Come on to all fours. Place your hands (with spread fingers) under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Feel your body weight evenly distributed between four support points.
- Tuck your toes in, press your palms down, and actively push yourself off the floor. Lift your hips upward toward the ceiling, keeping your heels up and knees bent.
- Lengthen both sides of your torso by pressing your palms into the floor. Look at them to make sure that the bases of your index fingers and thumbs are also pressed down firmly. Push yourself off even harder from these two support points! Keep the head as the natural extension of the spine.
- Inhale deeply and exhale calmly. Come back to all fours and rest.
With bent knees and lifted heels, you can first focus on lengthening the spine, which is the first and most important step! As you keep practicing and improving the flexibility at the backs of your legs (for example, by regularly performing supta padangusthasana described above), you can work towards extending the legs and dropping the heels to the mat. If you do this pose correctly, you create more space for your internal organs, which tones them up. The asana also calms your breathing. Even though initially it can tire you out, it’s actually a restorative pose. With longer practice, it can be used for resting.
So what does it actually mean to ‘do the poses correctly’? It’s all about adapting the variant to your physical capabilities! Shift your focus from what you do to why and how you do it. Yoga can help you with back pain, but even though all the poses described above can potentially provide relief, in some cases they can exacerbate pain. If any of the asanas feels painful, take it out of your routine and look for another option (preferably with your physiotherapist or rehabilitation therapist).
To effectively prevent back pain, you need to consider three key aspects at the same time: mobility, strengthening, and stretching. Training for a healthy spine should thoroughly nourish the tissues. However, remember that tightening and relaxing your muscles is a symptomatic rather than causative approach. You need strength training so that everyday activities – such as carrying a shopping bag, lifting your child, playing with your dog in the park, moving heavy objects or running to the bus stop – do not cause you excessive physical strain. In addition to spinal mobilization exercises, your routine should also include activities that strengthen and stabilize the spine. Aim for diversity, so that you can take care of your body and spine comprehensively. Mix and match different physical activities to make sure that your practice is varied. A perfect exercise sequence should be diversified and tailored to your specific needs. It should give you a noticeable sense of relief in your body and improve your range of motion. Also, it’s great if it turns into pleasure.
Prevention of back pain is a story about how important DIVERSITY is to keep your entire musculoskeletal system healthy. I hope these five asanas will add variety to your training! To conclude, let me add that as I was writing this guide, I took a few breaks myself to do these asanas in order to keep my spine healthy and happy.
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References:
[1] K. M. Gabler, Ciało konstrukcja doskonała. Sieć nerwowo- mięśniowo- powięziowa w skutecznej terapii przewlekłego bólu, Wydawnictwo Galaktyka, Łódź 2018.
P. Holtz, E. Godlewska, Po Pierwsze Joga, Wydawnictwo Publicat, Poznań 2015.
L. Steinberg, Praktyka Jogi dla Kobiet, Wydawnictwo Galaktyka, Łódź 2011.