Yoga for Back Care
A Healthy Spine is a Happy Spine
By Felicia M. Tomasco
The health of our back significantly impacts our well-being; this becomes all too clear if we ever experience aches and pains. Unfortunately, back problems have become nearly epidemic as millions of people complain about “My aching back.” Adding a few simple yoga poses to a daily routine can have a profound effect on the flexibility and strength of our spine. According to Rita Trieger, author of Yoga Heals Your Back: 10-Minute Routines That End Back and Neck Pain, yoga is a useful tool for dealing with back problems. Trieger says that yoga “brings balance back to the body as it teaches us to breathe more deeply, and to consciously connect the body, the mind and the breath.”
Focusing attention on the breath to connecting breath and body helps release accumulated tension. Combining expansion of the breath with yoga poses increases mobility and articulation of the spine, maintains suppleness, promotes strength and develops a healthy back. For these effects, it is important to build strength of the body’s core muscles. These are the muscles of the spine and the abdominal area, often mentioned in yoga, Pilates and other forms of movement.
To build a strong and healthy back, it may not be enough merely to practice some poses on the mat. “What do you do with the other hours of the day?” asks physical therapist and yoga teacher Judith Hanson Lasater, author of 30 Essential Yoga Poses. Throughout your day, think about how you are using your back. For instance, are you slouching with sagging abdominal muscles, or are you lifting and lengthening the spine and using the abdominal muscles to support the back? The seemingly small habits we repeat during the day can have a profound cumulative effect.
If you already have back problems, consult with your primary health care provider before beginning any exercise program. When attending classes, Lasater cautions people to choose a yoga teacher carefully—find someone with experience.
While practicing for back care, focus on linking breath and movement and maintaining stability in the core and low back. Extend the spine, relax the shoulders and curl the tailbone under to lengthen the low back. Consistency is important in promoting a healthy spine and a balanced back. Be mindful of your strengths and limitations and avoid overdoing any practice. After completing some poses, settle in savasana, a lying-down relaxation pose, to breathe, integrate the experience and allow the muscles to unwind and let go.
1. Cobra
Backbends are particularly beneficial for building strength in the muscles along the spine. Cobra is a backbend suitable for beginners through advanced yoga practitioners.
Lie face down on the mat and actively stretch the legs behind you. Tilt your tailbone down so the low back becomes long and the front of the pelvis, or the pubic bone, becomes glued to the floor. Place the hands just in front of the shoulders, and as you inhale, extend the spine forward and peel it off of the mat so the upper body extends up. Keep the elbows tucked in and the shoulders down . The neck remains long and the face relaxed. Only come up to the height that you can comfortably maintain without tension in the low back. Stay in the pose for a few breaths, and release on an exhalation, extending the spine forward as you return to the mat.
2. Locust
Beginning as in cobra, lying face-down, the arms can either be stretched out down the sides of the body, or tucked underneath the body with the hands beneath the thighs. Again, lengthen the low back by tucking the tailbone under, and then moving on an inhalation, extend and lift the legs behind you. Protect the low back by only lifting the legs as high as it is comfortable for you. You may find that your strength in this pose increases over time. Release the pose by exhaling and lowering the legs.
Other variations of locust include lifting one leg at a time and repeating lifting and lowering the legs, and lifting both the arms and the legs, either simultaneously or lifting alternating arms and legs.
3. Child’s pose is a gentle forward fold that stretches the muscles along either side of the spine. It is also an ideal pose in which you can focus attention on the breath.
Start on your hands and knees with the knees wider than the hips and the feet either touching or coming together. Slide the hips back toward the heels and extend the arms forward. As you breathe in the pose, feel the breath slide down the back of the body and use the breath to release tension held in the muscles alongside the spine.
Variations of this pose include letting the arms relax along either side of the body or keeping the knees closer together. You can also reach into a side stretch in the pose extending both arms first to one side of the body, and then to the other. To come out of the pose, walk the hands back to the body and return onto your hands and knees.
4. Reclining Twist
Twists stretch muscles along both sides of the spine to maintain suppleness and flexibility.
Lie on your back with your knees bent and draw the knees into the chest. Extend the arms out from the shoulders. Drop both knees down to the right side of the body, and turn the gaze to follow the legs so the neck remains soft and the spine extending. Breathe deeply and feel the spine extend and stretch. Inhale and roll onto your back, exhale and twist to the other side. Reclining twists can also be done with one leg crossed over the other, with both legs straight, or with one leg bent and one leg straight.
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