The lower back is usually a very sensitive spot for many of us, and if you have lower back pain, you are definitely not alone. It is one of the most common issues people across all age groups are going through. To relieve the back pain, you can definitely try out yoga as it is a holistic way to treat the back pain and identify the stress that accompanies it. Practicing yoga every day will help you gain awareness over your body which will definitely help you in the long run. So here is a list of yoga postures that you can practice consistently to relieve your back pain and keep it at bay.
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Most of us have dealt with lower back issues at some point in our lives our current lifestyle of remaining seated for long hours poor posture and lack of physical exercise has turned it a chronic issue for many if this is something you're dealing with and you've tried other solutions and they haven't worked for you, you must definitely try this video
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Hi, I'm Swati, and welcome to shvasa.com, in today's video I'll be sharing some poses that can help relieve lower back pain, and if you haven't already do go right ahead and subscribe to our youtube channel and join me on the mat.Usually, when we have pain in the lower back we think the problem lies only in the lower back region but actually, it could be anywhere above or below the lower back it could be because of a tight upper back, tight chest muscles of course muscles of the lower back could be because of a weak midsection or weak abdominal muscles tight hips or even tight hamstrings.
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So in today's video i am going to show you some postures that will work two-fold of course they'll address the lower back as well as the abdominal muscles but they'll also work on stretching and strengthening the other muscles of the upper back and the legs. Alright so let's get started drop onto all fours in a cat-cow make sure your wrists are underneath your shoulders your knees underneath the hips and their hip-distance apart you can spread your fingers out, spread the weight evenly and now as you inhale start opening the chest, look up if you can, arch the back, okay this is a great way to mobilize the spine, to get it warmed up and ready for the rest of the practice. As you exhale draw the navel up and in around the spine and you can gaze towards your knees or towards your toes, feel the shoulder blades stretching out keep drawing the abdomen in, this also works on strengthening the abdominal muscles.
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Let's repeat this about four more times continue to synchronize your breath inhale open up open the chest as much as you can as you exhale round the spine. let's do this three more times by ourselves. last two, last one, we'll be holding the last one so as you inhale start lifting the chest up arching the middle back and stay here and breathe, don't forget to breathe for three, two, and one. As you exhale start rounding the spine start pulling the middle back up drawing the navel in so you're really tightening the abdominal muscles pressing away from the mat and continue breathing don't hold your breath at any point for three two and one, let's come back to a neutral spine.
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Take your palm slightly forward and we're going to be moving into a downward-facing dog, you can tuck your toes lift the knees up and lift the hips all the way up. okay for the first round let's keep the knees bent let's just work on lengthening the spine out this posture really works on opening the shoulders increasing the length of the spine as you lift your hips all the way up, move your head down towards the floor and just stay here with knees bent for a few deep breaths.
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Your neck is relaxed and you're gazing towards the toes, okay maybe your legs are opening out now you can gently pedal your feet out if you need to and you can try to drop your heels towards the floor, okay if the heels don't touch don't worry about it just keep the intent going to have them reach the floor and stay here in this way you're now stretching the backs of your legs, the hamstrings, you're stretching the glutes, which often can pull on your lower back and can cause lower back issues so just stay here keep reaching the hips all the way up, keep lengthening the spine.
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And now if you're really comfortable in this we can take this a little deeper you can press your palms, roll the shoulder slightly outwards and try to bring the chest a little closer to the thighs without moving your hands or feet you'll feel a little arch in your upper back as your upper back opens out keep drawing the navel in so there's a little work going on in your midsection an hold it for a few more breaths, long and deep nice and steady breathing, and you can slowly lift your head up, come forward, drop your knees down, drop your forearms down and come into a sphinx pose okay let's use this as a position of relaxation.
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The next posture we'll be going for is an upward facing dog okay it's a nice posture to stretch your chest out to strengthen your legs and your lower back all right so you can do it along with me or just watch I'm going to pull my palms back in line with my chest my thighs are rolled in, feet are active as you inhale lift the head up chest up maybe you're somewhere here or you can straighten the elbows come on to the tops of your feet lift the thighs off the mat once you're here you can scoop the chest forward roll the shoulders back and down, draw the navel slightly in so your core is active legs are active and you're feeling it in your back, stay here if this is too much keep the thighs down that's fine too and long deep breaths again and slowly drop the knees down and you can sit back in a child's pose.
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You can do most of these postures maybe you can repeat them three to four times or hold them as long as you'd like. okay relax your breath once your breathing is normal come back onto all fours and we're gonna go into a pigeon pose which is a lovely hip opener so tight hips can also cause a pull on the lower back so we are working on our hips now, how do you get into it from all fours you can step your left knee forward between your palms drop your hips down as much as you can and roll the back leg straight make sure your knee is not facing the front but it's down towards the floor if there's any pressure in the knee you can reduce the fold of the leg if you're comfortable you can open the leg out this will give you a deeper stretch.
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Stay where you're comfortable try to ground the hips keep the hips levelled and then you can come forward come on to your forearms kind of get comfortable here take a deep breath in and as you exhale you can fold forward, stay in this posture feel the hips relaxing, slow down the breath, with the next inhalation slowly come up walk your hands back tuck the back toes in, lift you can come back into a mountain if you want to release your legs let's do that, just release your legs out and let's bring the other knee the right knee in between the palms, come on down really stretch try to lengthen the leg out, roll the thigh in take a deep breath in to lengthen your spine come into a half-forward fold getting comfortable relaxing the hips you can come all the way down.
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Taking your awareness here to your lower back feeling that sacrum stretching out feeling that space being created in that lower back region stay and breathe, with the next inhalation slowly rising up and swing the back leg forward and come into a seated pose.
10:35
Now we'll be going into a twist a simple twist simple seated spinal twist called Vakrasana, it helps to release any tension around the lower back it also opens out the shoulders, don't go too deep if you're not comfortable stay where you can breathe easily, okay so let's bend the right knee bring the foot close to the thigh it's not touching it you can hug the right knee with the opposite hand take the other fingertips back make sure this leg is active, toes are pointing up as you inhale lengthen through the spine really lift up and with an exhalation twist over to the right the twist starts from the lower back so you're starting from here moving it up to the middle up to the shoulders and finally the neck, if you can gaze over your right shoulder, once you're in the position just breathe deeply let the belly be relaxed breathe all the way down to the abdomen long deep breaths.
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As you inhale release the head, release the shoulders, release the rest of the body and stretch the leg out okay we're going to repeat this on the other side you make sure the weight is nicely centred on both your sit bones the hips don't lift up when you twist remember to lengthen the spine before you go into a twist, and with an inhalation let's come back to the centre you can stretch your legs out give them a shake if you need to and return back into a seated.
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So these were some postures to help alleviate lower back pain which targets not only the lower back but also the adjacent muscles and joints I did show you a few options of our modifications for particular postures do take them if you feel any discomfort or pain especially applicable to downward facing dog if you're unable to straighten the knees out please stay in a knee bent version of it. I hope you found this video helpful on our online live classes at Shvasa.com we have small group sizes so teachers are able to personalize the sessions to accommodate such issues such as lower back pain if you're looking for safe and convenient ways to practice yoga from home do try out a class. I hope to see you there.
I am a Yoga teacher. For me yoga is not just on the mat, it has transformed my life from what I do, to what I eat, how I think and how I interact with people. I truly hope that it can impact you the same way.
