According to a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, yoga may be more effective for the treatment of low back pain than traditional exercise. The study, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, followed participants who suffered from chronic but not serious back pain. Participants either took yoga classes, attended therapeutic exercise classes, or practiced therapeutic back exercises from a book. At the end of 26 weeks, those who tried the yoga classes experienced the most improvement in back function and were most likely to have reduced their pain medication, and these benefits persisted for at least several months.
Why is Yoga an Effective Way to Treat Back Pain?
There are a number of reasons that yoga is an effective way to relieve back pain and improve the overall health of your back.
1) Yoga helps increase strength in very specific muscle groups and works to strengthen all major muscle groups that support the spine.
2) The stretching postures in yoga increase blood flow to the tissues that support the spine, improving the health of the intervertebral discs and muscles along the spine.
3) Yoga increases flexibility in your shoulders and hips, which decreases demands on your back, and yoga increases flexibility of the muscles in your back and along your spine, allowing your spine to rotate properly.
4) Yoga's focus on breathing and connecting breath with movement improves body awareness, making you more conscious of movements that may contribute to back pain.
5) The "spine lengthening" poses in yoga promote good posture and proper alignment of the vertebrae. When the spine lengthens, it naturally moves towards correct alignment. Having proper posture ensures that you are not placing undue stress upon your back.
Healing Your Back with Yoga
Maintaining an injury-resistant and resilient back with good posture depends on three interrelated components of muscle health: flexibility, strength and endurance. All of these three factors are involved in every move we make. Flexibility forms the foundation for strength and endurance, and a lack of flexibility carries an increased risk of injury during training for strength and endurance.
The arms, legs, chest all attach to the spine via the shoulder girdle, pelvis and ribs. The weight of the head is perched on the end of the spine. Therefore, the spine affects and is affected by every movement the body makes. For example, if your head is not properly balanced, the natural curve of the neck becomes distorted. If the arms and legs don't have full range of motion, the spine must compensate by extra twisting and bending. Many people with back or neck pain suffer from imbalances of the flexors, extensors and rotators of the spine, arms and legs. An intelligent yoga program can bring these muscle groups back into balance.
However, not all yoga programs will help with back pain. If you try a very vigorous yoga practice while having back pain and fail to listen to the signals from your body, back pain could actually get worse. It's important to take it slow, listen to signals from your body and practice yoga exercises that are appropriate for helping back pain.
To try simple yoga exercises for your low back, visit: yogaforbackhealth.com yogaforbackhealth.com. You find lots of free yoga exercises for your low back that are explained and illustrated, as well as free yoga video downloads of simple exercises you can do now to alleviate back pain.
Reference:
Sherman, KJ (et al). Comparing yoga, exercise and a self-care book for chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2005, Dec. 20: 143 (12): I18.
Nancy Wile, Ed.D. is the founder of Yoga To Go ? a yoga organization that provides simple and effective yoga programs for busy people around the world. To learn more about healing your back with yoga, visit: yogaforbackhealth.com yogaforbackhealth.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment