Yoga for Back Pain is a 43 minute yoga routine by Jessica Smith. The purpose of this routine is to relieve and prevent back pain. I don’t have chronic back pain, but my back does go out sometimes and I am in a lot of pain for a few days (sometimes as long as week), so this routine interested me immediately. Preventive back care is always a good thing to do and something I should do more frequently. My problem is consistency–I don’t do preventive routines like this and Kelly Coffey-Meyer‘s Your Healthy Back frequently enough. I chose to do this routine today because I also did Barlates Back Strength. It’s Sunday, so I have the time to do a longer workout, plus I like to do yoga on Sundays, so I decided to finish it off with this. And it worked very nicely in conjunction w/ Back Strength. I am not sure how much I would have “felt” some of the exercises in this routine if I hadn’t worked my back so hard before doing it. That does not mean the exercises would not have been benefiting me, but it reinforces how beneficial these routines are when you actually feel the muscles that are being stretched and worked. Since my back had just been well worked for 40 minutes, I felt the yoga exercises in my back in a ways I don’t think I would have otherwise. Most of the poses in this routine I do frequently and, some of them, I didn’t realize how much they stretched and/or worked the back until I did them with my back muscles still burning from the Barlates workout I just did. Poses like chair pose and down dog–I don’t usually feel them in my back, but I did this morning!
Anyway, all of that to say, this is an effective yoga routine for preventing back pain. And possibly relieving back pain if you are hurting. This is not a difficult or strenuous routine though there is some body weight strength work to strengthen your back and core muscles. Jessica shows modifications for even the most beginner (or maybe, more accurately, if you are in pain and need to modify for that reason) fitness level.
Yoga for Back Pain is 43 minutes long. The only thing you need is a fitness mat. The workout starts in mountain pose. Deep breaths while reaching arms overhead and extending through the spine. Spine extensions w/ hands on small of back. Tree pose. Chair pose. Standing cat and cow (hinged forward w/ hands on thighs). Different levels of forward fold. Down dog. You do a cat/cow–but instead of cow, you come up into down dog (a flowing cat/down dog). Pointer pose. Child’s pose. On all 4s, reach one hand up to ceiling then thread the needle. Sphinx pose. Cobra pose. Elbow plank hold. Bridge pose. Happy baby pose. Reclining pigeon. Still on back w/ one foot on floor and other foot crossed over opposite knee, raise hips into one leg bridge and hold. Then raise foot off floor (other foot still crossed over knee), place hands behind head and lift head off floor, extend and pull in raised leg (core work). Reclining pigeon again. Lay on stomach w/ arms along side and lift arms, legs and chest off floor and hold. Child’s pose. Cat cow. Down dog. Forward fold. Ends with deep breaths while reaching arms overhead and extending through spine.
For more info on JessicaSmithTV and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.
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