Back pain is the disease of the century, but it is not inevitable, and many solutions exist.In this article I explain how Yoga and osteopathy can act in synergy. Then, we will see in detail the answers that Yoga can bring you in case of back pain, and I will give you some very simple postures to do at home.
Yoga and osteopathy: working in synergy
These 2 disciplines see the human as a whole and provide a holistic response, with work on the physical, but also energetic and emotional levels. Yoga, like osteopathy, acts on the different tissues of the body: the osteo-articular system, but also the muscles, fascias and viscera. They both define themselves as an art, a science and a philosophy.
These two specialties act in synergy: your osteopath intervenes for a very precise and in-depth work, at regular intervals. The practice of Yoga, it accompanies you in a daily maintenance, and allows you to keep a strong and flexible back at the same time.
Yoga answers to back pain
Here are some reasons to take up yoga to take care of your back!
Note that it is important to use experienced and certified yoga teachers.
Muscular work
Yoga, and particularly Hatha Yoga, which is also called Strength Yoga, offers deep muscular work while respecting everyone’s possibilities.
By strengthening and stretching the muscles in a harmonious way, we find a better posture on a daily basis. And good posture can prevent many back pains.
Muscle strengthening will help straighten the back if our back is bent too far forward. It will also gradually erase the asymmetries between the right and left sides.
Yoga postures strengthen the legs as much as the back, the front of the bust and the arms, in a harmonious whole, muscle strengthening being systematically associated with stretching. And as we always work on both sides of the body, we gradually gain in symmetry.
Bring back movement
Immobility is one of the main causes of back pain. Our body is designed to move! We thus find fluidity, flexibility and hydration in the muscles, joints and fascias.
For this, Yoga offers many possibilities, from the most intense, with dynamic Yoga, to the softest, with moving postures on the ground.
Release tension and stress
The practice of yoga comes to release tensions, as much by the muscular work of commitment and stretching, as by breathing and our attention.
The fact of associating the movement, the breath and our attention brings together the body, the breath and the mind, in a coherent and harmonious whole. It is a very effective anti-stress practice.
By finding calm at the emotional level, we avoid the triggering of certain back pains. This relaxation will also help us to better manage these pains and avoid adding parasitic tensions and tensions.
Yin Yoga, where stretching postures are held for a long time, acts more precisely on the level of the fascias.
A deep breath
In the philosophy of Yoga, the quality of our breathing is central to our experience.
The diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration. If we are tense, the diaphragm is also tense and can generate many back pains, but also a lack of energy, fatigue and stress.
Full yogic breathing, but also many other yoga exercises, help us regain a relaxed diaphragm and deep, calming breathing.
The importance of regular practice
The reasons that trigger back pain are numerous, and very often linked to habits that are repeated over and over again, day after day, until they become problematic.
To solve back pain through yoga, it is important to practice very regularly. And better is 15 to 30 minutes of yoga each day, than a session of an hour or an hour and muscarinic receptors a half a week. For this, the best is to be able to practice at home and online yoga classes are an excellent solution for your back pain.
On CasaYoga.tv you will find special online yoga classes for the back , to take care of it every day.
4 Yoga Postures to Relieve Your Back
Here I share 4 yoga postures that are particularly beneficial for your back.
The pose of constructive rest
This posture is very simple, but also very effective in releasing tension in the lower back, releasing stress and regaining good breathing.
Simply lie on your back, possibly with a blanket under your head to prevent your chin from rising to the sky and keep your neck long. Bend both legs, and place your feet about 50 centimeters apart. (one yoga mat width). Bring the knees towards each other, and release them against each other.
Put your hands on your stomach, and stay there for 5 to 10 minutes, breathing quietly.
To get up, start by rolling to one side, stay there for a few moments, then gently straighten up, pressing your hands into the ground.
The postures of the cat and the cow
The sequence of these two postures awakens the back at the muscular and vertebral level. The spine is rounded in one direction, then in the other. The inter-vertebral discs are mobilized and as if massaged by movement and by alternating stretching from the front then from the back of the bust.
Come on all fours, hands shoulder-width apart, slightly forward in relation to the shoulders to preserve the wrists, knees hip-width apart.
Then, on the inspiration go in the other direction. The pelvis tilts, the navel descends towards the ground, the chest opens forward and you lift your chin. In a large extension.
On the exhale you round again, and on the inhale you arch your back. So on for 10 to 15 repetitions.
The posture of the little Cobra
It is an excellent posture to strengthen the back muscularly, and to find a good posture of the upper back.
On an inspiration, you slightly take off the head and the top of the bust. The idea is not to climb as high as possible, but to engage the back well. Feel the chest opening.
Avoid raising your chin and instead keep your neck long. Also avoid squeezing your hands!
You can release everything back to the ground on the exhale, then lift off again on the inhale.
After 5 to 10 reps, roll over onto your back, and bring your knees in toward your chest.
Complete Yogic Breathing
This breathing relieves tension and strengthens, mobilizes and relaxes the diaphragm. This will also release back tension.
Lie on your back, legs bent, in the posture of constructive rest mentioned above. Place the hands and fingertips on the lower ribs, a little above the navel.
Become aware of the movement of the diaphragm under your hands. It descends on inspiration and rises on expiration.
Bringing the breath to the collarbones takes effort, but over time you will find that it gets easier and easier. Continue for 10 to 20 breaths.