Exercises on Yoga And Back Pain

There are special exercises for relieving your back pain through yoga as follows

Wind Releasing Pose

Lying flat on back as in shavasana, bend your left knee as if to touch the left hip, your hands should be just below the knee now. Now get up exhaling and touch your knee with your forehead. Exhale as you get up and inhale as you return to original position. Repeat this for the other leg too.

Sage Twist

This is also known as ardha matsyendrasana. Start with paschimothanasana as base. Rest right foot on left knee clamping it there, lock it by your left armpit and support yourself by resting right palm on the floor on the right side. Bend the left knee so much as to touch your hips by left heel. Twist torso as much as is possible to right and breathe 4-5 times. Go back to original position and do it for the next leg.

Palm Tree

Stand up with weight distributed evenly on your feet. Raise arms fully and interlock fingers, and turn your palms upward. Then rest palms on head and look upward. Take a few relaxed breaths in this stretched put position. You can do this standing on your toes also.

Yoga Fish Pose

Laying on your back with bent knees, arch your back as far as is comfortable by pushing the floor with support from elbows. Here your entire weight is supported on two feet and your shoulder. Breathe a couple of times from the diaphragm and hold pose as long as is comfortable. You can graduate to resting on the crown of your head, instead of shoulder, as you gain confidence.

Locust Yoga Pose

Lie on stomach, arms at the side, palms down and fingers facing the feet. Raise your legs together as high off the ground as comfortable without bending the knees. Hold it there for a second before returning.

Bending Forward Pose

Stand upright. Inhale and raise arms above your head. Bend forward fully as if to touch toes. Holding of your ankles or calves should be okay till you get practiced. Then touch knees by forehead.

Karen Sherman Study Proved Yoga Is Beneficial for Backaches

Reports published in Dec. 20 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine brief us Karen J Sherman study results on benefits of yoga for back pain on 101 patients in 3 groups under different therapies. Karen J Sherman, along with her team of researchers randomly assigned patients to three different treatment groups from June-December 2003. The yoga groups attended 12 weekly sessions of 75-minute each. The self-help care followed The Back Pain Helpbook by Jim Moore. Patients were free for medications, as needed for example acetaminophen.

The 12 weeks' study confirmed that back functioned better in the yoga group in comparison to other therapies like self-help book (mean difference, -3.4 [95% confidence interval, -5.1 to -1.6]; P <0.001) and aerobics exercise group (mean difference, -1.8 [95% CI, -3.5 to -0.1];P=0.034). Fourteen weeks later, the yoga participants still felt better than the self-help book group (mean difference, -3.6 [95% CI, -5.4 to -1.8]; P<0.001). Finally, Roland Disability Scale, a disability measurement scale showed 78% patients felt a 2 point reduction on the scale while it was 63% and 47% respectively for the other two groups. Herniated disc recovery and yoga was one of the points in the study.

Karen J. Sherman, PhD, places emphasis on yoga's virtues like flexibility, toning the muscles, relieving muscle tension and importantly the psycho-physiological connection. The Karen Sherman study in a way recommends best exercises on yoga and back pain. However, it is important to practice yoga exercises for low back pain under guidance if you do not want to aggravate the existing problem further.