A regular yoga practice can help to eliminate your back pain.
Betty came up to me after yoga class. She was very excited because she had some good news from her doctor.
About a year ago her doctor suggested that Betty start yoga because it would be good for the back pain that she was suffering.
Betty’s experience over the past year matches a recently released study which showed that both yoga and stretching exercises helped with reducing back pain compared to handing people a book on how to reduce back pain.
When was this study
The results of the study were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on the 24 October 2011. http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/archinternmed.2011.524
How was the study done
In this study, led by Karen J. Sherman, PhD, MPH, a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute, 228 people in six cities in western Washington state were randomly assigned to one of three groups:
- 12 weeks of weekly yoga classes
- 12 weeks of weekly stretching classes
- given a self help book “The Back Pain Handbook”
90% of the people in the trial were primary care patients that had moderate but not severe back pain, were in good mental health and were physically active in some form prior to the study.
Betty closely matched these people. She had mild back pain and walked her dog everyday.
What were the results
The study found that both yoga and the stretching classes were more effective in reducing the amount of back pain that they were suffering compared to the group that were given the self help book.
Six months after the study completed, they were still enjoying the benefits of reduced back pain.
The researchers were surprised by these findings. “We expected back pain to ease more with yoga than with stretching, so our findings surprised us,” Sherman said. “The most straightforward interpretation of our findings would be that yoga’s benefits on back function and symptoms were largely physical, due to the stretching and strengthening of muscles.”
She went on to say that “In retrospect, we realized that these stretching classes were a bit more like yoga than a more typical exercise program would be.” So the trial might have compared rather similar programs with each other.
“Our results suggest that both yoga and stretching can be good, safe options for people who are willing to try physical activity to relieve their moderate low back pain,” Sherman concluded. “But it’s important for the classes to be therapeutically oriented, geared for beginners, and taught by instructors who can modify postures for participants’ individual physical limitations.”
These results were very similar to Betty’s experience with her yoga practice.
How much yoga did Betty do?
Betty started yoga classes about a year ago and at the time she had mild back pain.
The people in the study did yoga once a week and were encouraged to practice daily at home.
Betty has been coming to yoga classes about three times a week fairly regularly for the past year. Betty found that this level of yoga practice was helping her.
Did the yoga practice help Betty?
Over the year her back pain has gone away and just this past week Betty had a bone density scan to determine the progress of her Osteoporosis. The results she got back were positive. The bone density in her back had improved.
Betty was very glad to confirm what she had observed that yoga was helping her and she was getting healthier.
Summary
The recent randomized study and Betty’s experience both agree that yoga can improve the health of your back. Your back muscles will get stronger, your back pain will reduce and your bone density will improve as well.
Next steps
If you are having minor back pain talk to your yoga teacher and they can help you with your yoga practice to improve the health of your back.
