Yoga Helps Relieve Lower Back Pain

A study was conducted by Annals of the Internal Medicine on three groups of adults with chronic lower back pain over a 12 week period. The experts compared the effects of yoga with conventional physical therapy. They found that yoga yielded significantly better results showing positive results such as the reduced pain and the improved back function. Surprisingly they found that these benefits lasted for 14 weeks even after the yoga session has ended.

However, researchers have not yet determined how yoga helps relieve lower back pain. According to their possible hypotheses, yoga increases muscle strength and flexibility, reduces tension, decreases fear and reduces psychological stress.

Another important thing about this study is that it only considered the effect on people with minor back pain issues such as muscle strains and sprains. So, yoga might be effective for small issues only. However, when it comes to major issues like herniated disc, scoliosis and spinal stenosis, the experts are suggesting avoiding yoga for such conditions. It is always advised to take doctors suggestions before starting yoga, they added.

Experts from John Hopkins viewed that even after the doctor permits you to do yoga it is always better to make sure to know exactly what type of yoga is necessary before the sign up. Some yoga postures are too tough to do for the beginners. So there are particular poses which are meant for beginners suffering from lower back pain and those are only to be followed.

The researchers from John Hopkins also suggested that it is very important to select a qualified and certified trainer than to practice yoga by oneself, to reap better benefits from it.