Yoga for back pain, carefully

A desk, a commute up the GST Road and years of no stretching is the most common back in our hall. Here is what a practice can do about it, and where it stops.

Read this part first

Back pain has many causes and some of them need a doctor rather than a yoga mat. If your pain came on suddenly, is severe, follows an injury, runs down a leg, or comes with numbness, weakness or any change in bladder or bowel control, see a doctor before you do anything else. None of that is something a class should be working around unassessed.

What follows is about the ordinary, grumbling, long-standing back — the kind that has been there for months and gets worse after a long day sitting.

What the evidence actually says

Reviews of yoga for chronic low-back pain are cautiously positive: modest improvements in pain and function, with the honest caveat that the quality of the studies varies and the effect is not dramatic. That is a real result, and it is also a smaller claim than most pages selling this will make. NCCIH on yoga for pain

The Chennai back

The most common back we see is not injured. It is a desk, an hour on a two-wheeler or standing in a suburban train carriage, and years of no stretching. That combination shortens the hip flexors, locks the lower back and rounds the upper back until the head carries forward.

That pattern responds well to practice, because the practice works on the cause rather than the ache: hip openers to release what the commute tightens, spinal movement in every direction, and standing postures that rebuild the support the chair removed.

How we adapt it

• Forward folds are done with bent knees and a long spine, never rounded and forced.
• Twists are led from the upper back, kept gentle, and never pushed to a maximum.
• Back-bending shapes such as cobra are kept low and short at first, and built up over weeks.
• Props and wall support are used wherever they help, which is more often than people expect.

Tell the teacher before your first class. It changes what you will be asked to do, and it is the whole reason a small batch can adapt at all.

What it will not do

It will not fix a structural problem, replace physiotherapy, or work in a fortnight. Yoga supports treatment; it does not replace it. If you are under medical care for your back, stay under it and keep your doctor in the loop.

What a regular practice can realistically offer is a back that is stiff less often, hips that give more, and a stronger set of muscles holding the whole thing up.

Common questions

Should I practise while my back hurts?

Mild, familiar stiffness, usually yes, with the practice adapted. New, sharp or radiating pain, no — get it looked at first.

Is a slipped disc a reason not to come?

It is a reason to talk to your doctor first and to tell the teacher exactly what you have been told. Some movements will be left out.

How long before it helps?

Most of our students report feeling less stiff within a few weeks of practising regularly. Pain that has been there for years does not resolve on that timescale.

Which batch should I join?

Any of them. Every batch is mixed ability and the practice is adjusted person by person — a bad back is one of the most common things we adapt around.

All of Yogi’s Upadesha