Yoga Offers Natural Relief for Back Pain
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 therapy targeting back pain is showing promise as a new, alternative treatment for back pain. Back problems often originate in the soft tissues, and as a consequence, the most effective back pain treatments are typically non-surgical and non-prescriptive, targeting the soft tissues instead. Yoga offers therapy for back pain, because it helps relieve chronic tension and tightness in the soft tissues, addressing back pain at its root.
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 helps people suffering from 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 enhances flexibility. Back problems often arise when chronically tight muscles and soft tissue pull on the spine at unnatural angles. Yoga stretches increase the suppleness and flexibility of the soft tissues, and this in turn releases the strain caused by chronically tight muscles pulling the spine out of its natural alignment. By stretching out and releasing tension naturally, yoga relieves the pressure on the spine, in turn reducing back pain.
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 relieves stress. Stress leads to chronic tightness in the soft tissues, which is often a factor in back pain. Yoga helps relieve back pain by creating greater relaxation and inner calmness. The stresses of modern life can trap our body in a constant "fight or flight" mode, in which muscles and soft tissues tighten up. Chronic tightness in the soft tissues of the neck and back can cause back pain, neck tension, and even tension headaches. By inducing greater relaxation in body and mind, yoga shifts the body from a "fight or flight" mode into the rejuvenating "rest and digest" state, in which the body can begin to heal itself.
Like any holistic healing modality, yoga isn't just useful for relieving chronic back pain, it offers numerous other therapeutic benefits. Yoga enhances the flow of vital energy in the body, and this in turn improves our overall health. For this reason, someone who starts practicing yoga to get natural relief for back pain may also find that they have more energy, greater emotional balance and overall greater well-being.
Yoga therapy targeting back pain is showing promise as a new, alternative treatment for back pain. Back problems often originate in the soft tissues, and as a consequence, the most effective back pain treatments are typically non-surgical and non-prescriptive, targeting the soft tissues instead. Yoga offers therapy for back pain, because it helps relieve chronic tension and tightness in the soft tissues, addressing back pain at its root.
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 helps people suffering from 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 enhances flexibility. Back problems often arise when chronically tight muscles and soft tissue pull on the spine at unnatural angles. Yoga stretches increase the suppleness and flexibility of the soft tissues, and this in turn releases the strain caused by chronically tight muscles pulling the spine out of its natural alignment. By stretching out and releasing tension naturally, yoga relieves the pressure on the spine, in turn reducing back pain.
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 relieves stress. Stress leads to chronic tightness in the soft tissues, which is often a factor in back pain. Yoga helps relieve back pain by creating greater relaxation and inner calmness. The stresses of modern life can trap our body in a constant "fight or flight" mode, in which muscles and soft tissues tighten up. Chronic tightness in the soft tissues of the neck and back can cause back pain, neck tension, and even tension headaches. By inducing greater relaxation in body and mind, yoga shifts the body from a "fight or flight" mode into the rejuvenating "rest and digest" state, in which the body can begin to heal itself.
Like any holistic healing modality, yoga isn't just useful for relieving chronic back pain, it offers numerous other therapeutic benefits. Yoga enhances the flow of vital energy in the body, and this in turn improves our overall health. For this reason, someone who starts practicing yoga to get natural relief for back pain may also find that they have more energy, greater emotional balance and overall greater well-being.
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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.
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