The One Yoga Posture To Ease/Prevent Back Pain

This will help if you sit in a computer for long periods or if you drive a lot...



Try it once an hour, Let me know.


Back Pain costs us in the United States about 85 billion dollars per year. It is a huge industry.

When the time came to investigate it for a workshop on prevention and yoga I was surprised to see that there are a ton of alternatives, movements even, that have been healing back pain in different ways since the 1950's.

For example, there is Robin McKenzie out of Australia whom in the fifties discovered "by mistake" that extending the front of the body can help relieve back pain.

He had a patient come to see him, and this patient was sent to wait in a room that had the examination table at a 45 degree angle.

And he laid down on it, face down, with his lower back at 45 degrees, and relaxed.

When McKenzie came to see him he was in shock... he was scared! that was NOT a good thing as per his medical training.

And yet, when he asked the patient how he was doing the man said he was better, the pain had receded from the leg and was only in the lower back, and he could bend forward (which he had not been able to do before)

p.s.: that is a good sign, when the pain is radiating all the way into the legs and returns to just the low back, is progress

You can read that story in the book: 7 Steps to A Pain Free Life How to Rapidly Relieve Back and Neck Pain.

He made the remarkable connection between the posture we have most of the time, and how it has an effect on back pain, rather than the events we mentally associate them with.

So for example, if you are driving for hours in a curved position, neck sticking out, or if you are sitting at a desk for hours, or lifting things out of the trunk of the cars with a bent spine (instead of squatting to leverage the weight onto the legs) then you are likely to experience more back pain.

McKenzie came up with a series of exercises (just 7) to relieve back and neck pain.

They are all about stretching, and extending the FRONT of the body, and then doing some counterposes, which we normally do as we sit at a desk.

"Respecting the normal curvature of the spine, both at the lower (lumbar) area and at the neck (cervical) area is key to keeping a healthy back"

The exercise I propose here helps anyone who is sitting most of the time.

This particular exercise is the first sketch of a very advance posture on the primary series of Ashtanga Yoga.  In its full form we attempt to drop onto the floor.  But that is not necessary, just the slight dropping back and breathing there is helpful in OPENING THE FRONT OF THE BODY.

The exercise is at towards the end of the book for McKenzie.  He starts with laying down flat, then lifting the trunk into a cobra position, then into an upward dog (with tights on the floor), then he does some counterposes and finally the pose you will see here.

BUT THERE IS A DIFFERENCE,  the EDGE that yoga brings is the BREATH.

In yoga we pay very close attention to how we breathe, and this is not something I've seen in the methods of alternative healing like the Mayo Clinic or McKenzie.

Leveraging the breath makes the practice a lot more powerful and effective.

Make sure to pay attention to the counter-intuitive "INHALE AS YOU COME UP".

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS ARE LIKELY TO CAUSE BACK PAIN

Anything that mentions back pain must refer, of course, to John Sarno's book: Healing Back Pain: The Mind Body Connection

It is a great book.

When we are stressed about financial matters, the mind might choose to cut the oxygen supply to certain muscles rather than deal with the issue, which in turn starves muscles that are key in supporting the back.  That is roughly what the book says.

And our back "goes"

But really at the core of it is the inability to deal with financial problems.

I get it.  It's scary to have no money.

I never thought the finance-back pain connection was real until...

When my father died the issues that came up were and still are distributing.  They had to do with money, with the house he left and some other moneys  (which was not a lot, believe me).

I did learn by now that it is never about the money, for me it was about loosing my sister (which I did, because of all the trauma around it) and maybe loosing my brother as well.

Because when there is money around, even if little, people get crazy, or scared, or both.

All the emotions around money are the hardest thing to deal.

In my own training through yoga, I had to read a book by Rudolph Ballentine called Radical Healing.

What I like about the book is that he has "phrases" or "intentions" or "initial thought patterns" that can lead to disease.

For example for Alzheimers he has "I don't want to see this" as a first thought that leads towards the disease.

Guess what he has for back pain?  -  He says it relates to financial issues and to go read John Sarno

KEEP THESE IN MIND FOR A HEALTHY BACK

- Respect the low curvature of the spine (don't slouch so much)
- Respect the cervical (neck) curvature of the spine
- Invest in good sitting chairs for your office
- Use a lumbar roll (I use this) or a  cervical roll
- Watch your posture when you sleep, at least before you fall asleep
- Be careful while driving as cars are not well designed
- NEVER use a phone between your ear and neck while you do other things (neck pain will follow)
- Address financial matters as soon as you can, and the emotions around it
- Be mindful of posture when doing things like vacuuming or strenuous activities with machines
- Squat to lift heavy objects so that some of the weight is absorbed by the legs
- Try yoga... Within any decent yoga class you will find a ton of postures that use breath and that move the spine gently into flexion and extension as well as releasing the hips
- Talk to a doctor if your pain is intense, always take care of you and your back

WARNING #1

Do not do this exercise sitting down because a friend of a friend of mine did that and woke up in a pool of her own head's blood.

The mind can trick us into thinking that it's OK to do this sitting down because we "don't have time".
Beware of its foxy temptation.  If you drop back on a chair you can fall back, and that is not a good thing.

WARNING #2

I am not a doctor, visit one if you are having big troubles with this.

Other Recommended Books:

Pete Egoscue is in vogue these days and his videos are all around as well as his clinics.  These are his books:
Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method For Stopping Chronic Pain
Pain Free for Women
The Egoscue Method Through Motion

Also by John Sarno:
Mind Over Back Pain
The Mind Body Prescription: Healing the Body Healing the Pain

And more by John McKenzie:
Treat Your Own Back
Treat Your Own Neck
Treat Your Own Shoulder

May you have a healthy back and neck!

P.S.:
I answer questions at AskClaudiaYoga.com


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