How yoga can help with back injuries

Back pain can often be a source of great discomfort, making it difficult to even do the simple things most people take for granted, such as bending over,  lifting objects, or lying down on a soft mattress. Doctors are quick to recommend different diets, medications, and treatments to help you endure chronic symptoms, but in recent years many people have turned to non-western approaches to feeling better. And they work. One technique has proven particularly effective to relieving back pain: yoga. 

How it works

Yoga comes in many different forms, some of which are more of a workout and others which soothe the mind and body. Through a combination of poses and breathing exercises, yoga aims to help your body get aligned, improve you posture, and make you more aware of what your body is doing. 

Osteopaths and yoga experts recommend a gentle yoga style called hatha for back patients, as opposed to the more challenging types such as Bikram and Ashtanga. Hatha involves careful stretches, basic yoga poses, and slow breathing exercises that not only makes a stiff back more flexible, but stronger as well. Hatha yoga also tends to speed up the recovery of back problems such as Sciatica, Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia, and can help prevent these from developing in the first place. 

What you can do

Here are some yoga exercises you can do to strengthen your back, alleviate pain, and make your muscles more flexible: 

1) Begin with a stretch before moving into to the exercise poses. Start in the Mountain Pose position : stand up straight with your feet together, balance the weight of your body evenly over the feet, and slightly press your arms into the sides of your body. Stay in a firm posture while tightening your buttocks and stomach muscles, and breathe in slowly through the nose, out through the mouth.

2) The Crescent Moon Pose: this pose strengthens the legs, the shoulders, and the back, giving you extra stamina. It is best carried out in 2 steps:

Keep your back straight and kneel to your knees. Step forward with your right foot so that your foot is a little past your right knee, and keep your leg parallel to the floor.

Stretch your arms above your head and hook your thumbs together. Now lift your left knee off the floor, stretching the leg, and divide your weight between the front and back legs. Dont puff your chest up to avoid having a hollow back.

3) The Child Pose: this pose is great for stretching the spine, hips, and thighs. It should help relieve you of both psychical and emotional stress. This pose is best done in 3 steps:

Kneel down to your knees, with the legs slightly parted, and your feet pointing outwards in opposite directions.

Now, carefully place your forehead on the floor and swing both arms forward, around the head at the height of the ears.

With your head still touching the floor, bring your arms around to your sides, palms facing upwards.

This non-western approach can therefore be a great supplement or alternative to the treatments that are commonly adopted in the UK. As long as you take great care when carrying out each pose, hatha yoga can make you feel fitter and younger.

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The content of this page is informed by feedback from osteopathic practitioners in Scotland and also clinics in Leeds. Further input was received from practices in Croydon and a practitioner in Bromley. Finally a contribution was made by osteopaths in the Brighton area