Yoga and back health

How yoga can help and prevent chronic and occasional back pain (from Loren Fishman MD, Cure Back Pain with Yoga):

1. Yoga stretches muscles to reduce spasm and increase flexibility

2. It strengthens muscles and bones (both isotonically [i.e., with movement of a joint, and through the use of one's own body weight] and isometrically [i.e., without movement of the joints]).

3. Increases range of motion, by: (a) enlarging the joint capsule and promoting joint lubrication, (b) gently stretching the ligaments, and (c) lengthening shortened and tense muscles.

4. Sharpening focus.

5. Heightening self awareness. A better understanding of the way your own body works – what it can or cannot do – is the first line of defense against back pain. One of the most important lessons I learned from my first yoga teacher (Denise Thibault) is that yoga acts as a gauge of one’s physical and mental condition.

6. Producing calm. The regular practice of physical process of yoga (both the postures [asanas] and breathing [pranayama] results in creating a mind that is calm and steady.

Yoga is both a preventive and healing practice that uses the body to manage the mind, simultaneously using the mind to restore the body back into a state of strength, balance and symmetry.