YOGA FOR LOW BACK PAIN
My wife and I practice yoga together every day. Actually, she gets so much benefit from doing yoga that she usually does two yoga sessions a day, once in the early morning and once in the afternoon. I am a black belt in kenpo karate and for the ten years I regularly practiced karate, I stretched every day of the week. I always told my patients that flexibility was an important aspect of health that was often overlooked. I would teach specific stretches to many of my patients who had short muscles that were contributing to pain in their back and other areas. When I stopped practicing karate regularly, I started to lose flexibility in my back, legs, and generally all over. When I realized I was starting to have the same flexibility limitations I warned my patients about, I knew I needed to do something about it. My wife had always said how much yoga helped her stay flexible and helped her get over various aches and pains in different parts of her body. She had first started yoga for low back pain relief. It had worked so well that she made it part of her daily routine. The link below brings you to the Gaiam website. This is a wonderful company that has everything you could ever need for yoga supplies. This is where my wife gets most of her yoga dvd's and other yoga accessories. My wife and I both use two yoga blocks and a yoga strap when we practice yoga.
When I started practicing yoga I liked doing the yoga stretching while watching a DVD. It is more fun than just doing stretches in a karate dojo or on your own at home. This is a good way to do yoga because you can get DVDs for all ability levels. She has 5 or 6 yoga DVDs of difficulty levels from beginner to fairly advanced. She and I both like Suzanne Deason’s “A.M. & P.M. Yoga conditioning for Weight Loss.” She also likes Suzanne Deason’s “Yoga conditioning for Women,” “Lower Body Yoga for Beginners,” and “Yoga conditioning for Weight Loss.” As she got more flexible and was ready for a harder yoga for low back pain workout, she started using Baron Baptist’s “Core Power” and Rodney Yee’s “Power Yoga Total Body.” You can follow along a beginner yoga DVD until it gets easy for you to do and you get a little bored with it, and then get one that is a little more challenging. Even if you are doing an “easy yoga lesson,” if a particular yoga pose is too hard or causes you discomfort, modify the pose to a point that is easier for you. A number of Yoga Videos including Rodney Yee that my wife loves Yoga is fun and sometimes difficult, but it should not cause pain or aggravate the back pain you already have. I have had episodes of low back pain and find yoga for low back pain a very helpful treatment. It is easy to follow along a Yoga DVD for a couple of weeks and if your back pain is due to tight muscles and joints you will start feeling improvement within a week or two. It is a good idea to tell your doctor of your plans to start yoga for low back pain program before you get started. You may have a condition that would be better going to a yoga instructor that could design a program that would help your back pain without accidentally putting any additional stress on your back. Yoga for low back pain works well because yoga gives you a balance of improved flexibility and strength in the muscles of your body which support your spine and are often the cause of your back pain. Yoga also usually works on improving your abdominal core strength. Weak abdominal and core muscles are involved in the majority of low back pain cases. In addition, yoga helps you improve your posture and alignment which is a huge help in relieving low back pain. If you are anything like me you tend to have tightness in your hips, shoulders, upper chest, and legs. Yoga for low back pain will release tightness in all of these areas and should relieve your back pain as your flexibility and muscle strength improves. When you do yoga, you may want to use high density foam yoga blocks which make it easier to reach a lot of the yoga poses if you are stiff. You will also benefit by using a yoga strap or belt if you have tight shoulders and for poses where you need to hold your feet but can’t reach them. To your best health, Dr. Cliff
Lower Back Pain Best Treatment for Back Pain Return from Yoga for Low Back Pain to Back Pain Treatment and Relief.com
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