The health of our back impacts our well-being in numerous ways. Anyone suffering from back pain has experienced just how debilitating back pain can be. As recurring discomfort turns everyday tasks into painful chores, a person’s mood, energy, and well-being often gets affected as well.
Yoga for back pain has emerged as one of the most promising-and long-lasting-back pain therapies. Many back problems emerge from problems in the soft tissues, which means that some of the most effective treatment options often are non-surgical and non-prescriptive. Yoga therapy targeting back pain helps smooth out heal chronic tension and tightness in the soft tissues thereby often eliminating the root cause of the back pain.
In 2005, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported that study participants who regularly practiced yoga stretches for back pain experienced more effective pain relief than did study participants who received instructions in proper back care. Recently, the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society have recommended yoga therapy as a promising alternative modality for treating chronic back pain.
Yoga can help relieve low back pain, shoulder, or neck pain in four major ways:
1. Yoga tones and strengthens weak muscles. Yoga is particularly effective for toning and strengthening the body’s core muscles, which are critical for creating proper support for the spine and giving the back greater strength and stability. By increasing core stability and improving posture, yoga exercises for back pain decrease the pressure on the spine, a key element in creating lasting back-pain relief.
2. Yoga improves flexibility. Yoga stretches for back pain increase flexibility in a balanced manner, in turn removing the strain caused by muscle groups tugging the spine out of alignment. Many back pain problems arise from too-tight muscles pulling on vertebrae at unnatural angles. Yoga offers natural back pain relief by stretching out these muscles, relieving the pressure.
3. Yoga increases circulation. Yoga also improves back pain by enhancing oxygenation to body tissues, thereby increasing the flow of nutrients and removal of toxins in the spine itself. Many yoga poses for back pain alternate compression and release of pressure, coupled with an emphasis on deep breathing to systematically flood the body with uniquely oxygen-rich blood. This fresh influx of blood clears out toxins in the body and delivers vital nutrients to all areas, including the soft tissues. This is particularly helpful to people who sit at computers all day, which can lead to a compressed spine and restricted blood flow. Yoga stretches for the back lengthen and decompress the spine, thereby improving circulation to the vertebrae and vertebral discs.
4. Yoga calms mind and body and releases stress. Chronic stress can cause our nervous system to be trapped in “fight or flight” mode, in which the muscles and soft tissues become chronically tense. Chronic tightness, particularly in the back, shoulders, and neck often underlines chronic bank pain, neck tension, or even migraine headaches. Yoga shifts the body out of the “fight or flight” mode into a parasympathetic response, a rejuvenating “rest and digest” state in which the body lets go of tension patterns and naturally begins to heal itself.
The beauty of any holistic approach to health, such as yoga, is that it offers therapeutic side benefits, not side effects. Yoga frees the flow of vital energy in the body, increasing the overall health of the body. For this reason, even if you start practicing yoga to get relief from back pain , you may also find that you experience benefits in terms of improved organ health, better mood, greater emotional balance and overall greater happiness and well-being.
Want to learn more about how to use Yoga for Back Pain?. Download yoga for back pain exercises and get general information about using yoga as therapy at YogaTherapyWeb.com.