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Exercises For Knee Arthritis

Yoga for Back Pain

General Concepts for Creating a Safe Practice

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How Can Yoga Help?

Yoga is an ancient system of physical poses that will educate you about and challenge your body's alignment. Through our western ways, for example, sitting most of our hours away, and facing front for nearly all of our activities, we lose muscle integrity at certain places in our joints. Doing yoga will help you to work toward a good fit - of the two bones that comprise a joint - while developing strong, pliable muscles around them. To support yourself in the poses, you will work your muscles where they are very close to their joints. This will help your posture and increase your ability to move your body. It also creates a balanced degree of strength and flexibility throughout all your muscles, which can, to a great extent, make back pain go away. Lots of people are surprised to find that something so simple as the quality and condition of their muscles is a the root of their back pain! Yoga also has an emphasis on the spiritual. For people who struggle with pain ongoingly, doing yoga and meditation can help them make peace with the situation.

Yoga for the Problem Back

If you struggle with back pain, I don't have to tell you that even though an activity is thought to be good for you, you still have to stop and think about the best way to engage in it (or if you should engage at all). Back pain sufferers have to be extra careful when trying out any kind of exercise, including yoga. While yoga may be the best thing you've done for your back in a long time, it also has the potential for injury. So it's up to you to understand your particular condition or injury, and also your limits. And sometimes it's in your best interest to not do a pose at all. Basically, it's important to keep your teacher, doctor, physical therapist and any other practitioner in the loop. Each has expertise, yet they all have a particular direction or perspective that could limit the others. So cross checking between all of them is a way to learn enough about your condition and the biomechanics of yoga to stay safe, and reap the benefits of your practice. There are a number of different types of back problems, and often the diagnosis is based on where in the spine the problem occurs. Yoga poses will bend and stretch your body in different directions, so in some cases can irritate your problem, while in others actually help it. The next two sections provide examples. The cobra pose bends your body back; the child's pose bends it forward. See how the direction of movement affects some of the more common back injuries.

Going Back into Cobra Pose

When you hear the words "cobra pose" do you automatically think of yoga? If you do, you are certainly not alone. But if you have spinal arthritis or facet joint problems, you may need to scale back on the cobra. Let your pain (and your doctor or physical therapist) be your guide(s). The cobra puts your back in extension, which can irritate those structures in the back part of the vertebrae that are involved in the injury. But if you have a disk problem, the cobra may be your friend. It has been shown to reduce the symptoms that come with herniated and bulging disks. Again, let pain be your guide and respect your limits when doing the cobra.

Going Forward into Child's Pose

Child's pose is a basic yoga posture that just great for releasing tense low back muscles. It's also really good for deepening and softening the hip joints. Because most of us are still learning about how to use our hips and not our backs, it's easy to do child's pose with tension and pain. When this occurs, you will (unfortunately) probably be bending from your low back rather than folding in the hip joint. Combine that with a disk problem, and you have a recipie for a potential injury. If this is something you think may affect you, don't hesitate to pillow up - support your bottom by putting blankets, pillows etc on top of your heels and lower legs. Make yourself comfortable - you don't need to be a hero! It's important that the bend forward happen at your hips and not your back, so be on the lookout for that, and adjust your position as necessary. Again, let pain be your guide, and respect the limits it puts on your yoga practice.

Back and Yoga Basics: Is it Safe to Exercise with a Sore Back?

Let's take a step backwards and examine what you should do when you want to do something physical - ie yoga or even your regular routine at the gym. Should you even try? Or should you wait until it feels better? I know I've been saying this all throughout this Knol, but letting pain be your guide is the best rule of thumb. You are the expert on you, so except when you have serious damage going on in your spine, or you still are learning basic things about your diagnosis, you will probably be the one who best knows how far to push yourself.

Getting Started

Okay, so are you game? Are you prepared and willing to be responsible for your body? Great! The trick is to find a class and teacher you feel will listen to you and has the skill and care to tailor any of the poses that cause pain so that you are working at your own level, comfortably. Another very important thing is to do your yoga non-competitively. You may look around at others who are behaving like pretzels, and wish you didn't have a back problem, but going gonzo is not going to heal it any faster, and is not going to make a snack food out of you, either. By the way, in my practice, both on myself and with my clients, I regard people coming back from injury as beginners. Oh, not so much their level of knowledge, but, rather in terms of the degree of physical challenge that's appropriate to take. Humbling, to be sure, but with some patience, persistence and good karma, things will be on the upswing again soon.

Warm Up with a Pelvic Tilt

The pelvic tilt is a therapeutic movment that is given in yoga classes, Pilates classes, physical therapy sessions and other healing environnments. It would make a great warm-up for a yoga practice that's geared toward healing back pain. The pelvic tilt helps you with spinal alignment and body awareness and developing muscular support in the pelvis and low back areas. Just lay on your back with your knees bent and alternatively arch and lengthen your spine. There are some really helpful tips that go with this movement - they are subtle, but will make the tilt more beneficial in the long run. For example, do the movement gently and coordinate it with your inhale and exhale - inhale and press your pelvis into the floor. This will automatically start to arch your back. Exhale and let it go and relax - this will begin the lengthening. Never push this movement into place. It is not important to go to the max - the movement is the healer, not the end point.

Hand Picked Links for Getting Specific

Here are some more detailed analyses of yoga poses as they relate to back pain, along with other resources I recommend:

Before You Do Yoga For Your Back - info, resources and selected poses for beginners and the injured
Is it Safe to Exercise When Your Back is Sore? This article goes into using yoga and other systems for dealing with a back flare up, and also features words of wisdom from a physiatrist.
Overview of Yoga for Back Pain - A consice and sensitive guide to getting started.
How to Do a Pelvic Tilt - This description gives those subtle tips to help you get the most benefit from the move.
What Makes the Pelvic Tilt So Wonderful? - This article presents some of the main reasons why pelvic tilts are so useful.
Cobra Pose Analysis
Child's Pose Analysis
Knol on Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Disclaimer

The content of this Knol is in no way intented to present medical advice. It is a compilation of information to be used as part of the quest for a painfree back and a productive yoga practice. No one can diagnose or advise you over the internet, anyway. If you have doubts, questions, pains you don't understand, or you want more information, please speak with your health care provider. As this information is general in nature, I guarantee nothing, but I do thank you for reading my words, and I hope they help you.

Exercises for Arthritis Pain Relief : Hip & Knee Stretches for Arthritis Pain

17 Sep 2007 at 9:18am

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