Yoga Poses to Ease Back Pain
Ouch, my aching back!
I wanted to show you a few poses that can help if you have a sore back. Lately, my back has been sore, so this has been helpful for stretching out of my low back and relieving some of the pain I’m feeling. I hope that this will work for you. Let’s get started.
What we’re working with today is two folded blankets, two blocks, and a strap. You can use books, a dog leash or a skipping rope, and hopefully, everybody has blankets.
Let’s start by sitting in the first pose which is called baddha konasana or bound angle pose. So now I’m just going to sit right up on my blankets, bring the soles of my feet together, move the inner thighs toward the floor so that I can line up my femur or my thigh bone right up into my hip socket. Soles of the feet together and pushing down through by shin bones, leading with my collar bones, I place my elbows on the inside of my knees, holding on to my ankles. Lean forward just until I start to feel sensation in my low back. I like to hold this for about five breaths.
Slowly opening your eyes, lift your head and your heart up and come to an easy cross-legged position. You can just cross your ankles or your shin bones and again taking a nice inner spiral of your thighs, take your right hand to your left knee, hitchhike back with your left hand and then pushing down through your sitting bones, just take a nice gentle twist. Hold for a few breath. Let’s do the second side. Take a nice twist here. Inhale back through the centre.
We’re going to make our way on to our backs for the next pose. You can remove the blankets from beneath you and place them off to the side. If you have a sore back like I do, it’s easier to come on to your right side and lower yourself down and then make your way on to your back. Walking your heels closer to your sitting bones. I’m going to use a strap for this next pose. You can do this a couple of different ways. I’ll show you. Draw your right knee to your chest, right toes up to the sky and grab the back of your thigh. Just take a nice stretch. You may feel this in the back of your thigh, you may feel this in your glutes, you may feel this in your low back. Or you can take a strap around the knuckles of your toes. Pull down on the strap as you push up on the inner part of your foot. And then slide the strap down towards the heel or the ankle of your foot, just above the heel, and then cross the strap, pull the strap against your foot, and push out through your heel as you bring your leg in a little bit closer. Beautiful. Exhale and release.
Let’s do the other side. You can take the left foot or the left leg, and you can place your fingertips behind the leg—that’s option one. Option two: you can take the strap around the knuckles of the toes, push up through the mound of the toe, the inner edge of the foot, as you pull the leg closer into you. If you like, you can slide the strap just to the arch of the foot at the lower part of the heel, and then cross the strap behind your shin bone and push out through the heel. I find it’s a little deeper stretch in the hamstring.
Now, using your strap, you can place both feet in the strap. So you’re about at the knuckles of your toes, wrapping the strap around your hand, pushing up through the mound of your big toes, pull your legs in toward your body. Maybe your hips lift a little bit. This is a nice mid to low back stretch for some people. You may feel this in your hamstrings and low back. Hold for five breaths. Now I’m pushing out through the inner edges of my feet, through the mound of my big toe, pulling the legs back, stretching and release.
Now we’ll do a double pigeon. Some people call it “threading the needle.” Both feet flat on the floor. Cross your right ankle over your left knee. Flex your foot. The first step, you can take your right hand and just kind of push the leg away from you. That’s option one. Option two, you can bring the left knee into the chest, just kind of stretch that out. Both feet flat. Let’s do the other side. Cross the left ankle over the right knee. Draw the right knee into the chest. I sometimes use a little push on the left knee, just push it away from me. It’s an extra stretch which I find helps my low back. And then both feet flat to the floor.
Now, I just like to rock my knees back and forth. It’s a little massage for the low back. Take your knees all the way over to the right. And if it’s available to you, take your right heel, place it on top of your left knee and stretch your arms up over your head. Bring your legs back to center. Both feet flat on the floor. Both knees come to the center. And then the opposite side. Put the left heel on top of the right knee. Good. Bring your body back to center. And then you can roll over to your right side and gently push yourself up to seated.
I want to thank you for being here. I hope you found these poses useful. So next time your back feels sensitive or sore, you can try some of these poses to help relieve back pain.
Thank you for being here.
Namaste.
Building a Strong Practice Using Props
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