How a Simple Leg Stretch Can Help Your Back Pain Part 3
Posture, balance and body alignment through yoga. The yoga poses are meant to train the body to be healthy and supple. Consistent practice and application will result in improved posture, and an increased sense of balance, with head, shoulders and pelvis in proper alignment. Additionally, unlike many other forms of exercise, yoga helps stretch and strengthens both sides of the body equally.
Of utmost importance when using yoga to treat back pain is finding suitable instruction. First you need to find a school that teaches the right kind of yoga. Many yoga schools in the west teach a dynamic or flowing form of yoga known as Vinyasa.
The constant movement of this type of yoga means that you enter and exit poses very quickly which is not really suitable for the lower back pain sufferer. Ashtanga, Power yoga, Viniyoga and Bikram yoga are all types of flowing Vinyasa yoga and may not be suitable for the effective treatment of back pain.
Yoga practice provides time and mental space for you to develop intuition and understanding about your body. While in this deep stretch to the legs, hips and lower spinal muscles, notice where your body holds pain as well as excess tension, which can amplify pain and discomfort. As you remain in the pose, see if your body can let go of tension and holding.
Christensen says yoga also can be tremendously helpful to people with back pain, as long as they follow the yoga principles of stretching slowly and only as far as the body wants to go. And she says it may help people with arthritis as well. Though there are few studies linking yoga and arthritis, Christensen says many of her students with common age-related arthritis report feeling more flexible and in less pain after starting a yoga class. Christensen warns, though, that people with bone-crippling rheumatoid arthritis should not attempt yoga exercise when their joints are swollen and painful.
Repetitive forward bending may also occur in exercise routines, including yoga. These routines can be particularly risky for people with tight hamstrings, the muscles extending from hip to knee on the back of the thigh that receive much of the stretch in forward bends. Being back pain free will come listen to your body.
The hamstrings attach to the sitting bones – the two large bones at the base of the buttocks (called the ischial tuberosities). In a sitting forward bend, the pull of tight hamstrings keeps the pelvis from rotating forward over the legs. In fact, tight hamstrings encourage the pelvis to rotate backward, in a position called "posterior tilt." If your pelvis is held in a posterior tilt and you reach toward your toes, all the forward movement occurs by hinging through the lower back.
