Back pain? Here is how to fix it in 12 minutes

One of the best ways to manage your back pain is to strengthen your abs and gluteus. But the problem is sometimes you get so busy with life, family and work that you forget to take care of it.

When your six pack/rectus abdominis muscles are weak or separated, it can cause lower back pain because they are not able to support the spine very well. Also weakness in the gluteus muscles can lead to a bad posture, slouching, less hip mobility and back pain. Once the pain appears, it reminds us to take care of it.

Remember that your body is your temple, without a healthy body you won’t be able to live life fully.

Here is a short 12 minute video based on the requests I received from my readers!

Try it and let me know in the comments if it helps or send me requests for future videos.

Back pain? Stretch your QL

Quadratus Lumborum or QL muscle is located at the back, on the right and left sides of posterior abdominal wall. It’s interesting to know that QL is the deepest muscle of our abs and it connects the spine to the pelvis. The origin of it is the iliac crest and the top part of it is connected to our 12th/the bottom rib.

But why is it important to pay attention to this muscle? the main reason is because sometimes we experience back pain due to a prolonged seated position, muscle fatigue, tightness and lack of enough blood flow in specific muscles including QL. We also need to be aware that the weakness in our gluteus and abdominal muscles and kyphosis can increase the pain significantly.

Stretching our QL muscle will release some of the pain so here is a short video for you to learn how to work on it properly.

You can practice this exercise anywhere even if you are in your office!

Give it a try and let me know if you have any questions.

Back pain? Strengthen your calves

Today we focus on the calf muscles: where they are located, their function and how to take care of them.

Did you know that your back pain has a close relationship with your hamstrings and calves?

The body is a spiral (please refer to the second video to understand the meaning of a spiral in our physical bodies) and if you have lower back pain you need to investigate its cause: Is it weakness in the abdominal muscles and gluteus, is it related to your sciatic nerve or a herniated disc?

For example, if its related to your sciatic nerve, you need to stretch and strengthen your hamstrings, calves and gluteus.

Location:

Calf muscles are located in the back (posterior) of your lower leg, behind your shinbone or tibia. It starts below your knee and extends to your ankle. It consists of 3 different muscles: gastrocnemius (it connects your knee joint to your ankle joint), soleus (it connects your tibia to fibula) and plantaris (it is between gastrocnemius and soleus).

Function:

We need our calves to be able to stand up straight, walk, run and jump also to rotate, flex and point the ankle.

How to take care of it?

You need to learn to strengthen, stretch and massage it, you also need to drink enough water daily because dehydration can lead to cramps in the calves.

Here is a short video for you to strengthen your calves:

Instruction:

Start in mountain pose with your feet hip distance apart, arms by your side or hands to your waist, take your heels up and down slowly with control.

Try this exercise and let me know if you have any questions.

Back pain? Try cat and cow

Cat and Cow is very simple exercise but its very beneficial for all of us. We are seated all the time and our spine needs some attention. Its a great way to start the class before doing other yoga poses or pilates exercises, physiotherapists recommend it too especially to the ones with back pain.

But do we really know how to practice it correctly? What I see in most classes is that teachers and practitioners either skip it or do it robotically without paying extra attention to it. Hence we need to understand the anatomy of our spine to be able to practice and teach it correctly.

Our spine is made up of 3 segments: cervical (neck area), thoracic (middle back) and lumbar spine (lower back). It is composed of 33 vertebrates: cervical has 7, thoracic has 12 and lumbar has 5 vertebrates. There are 5 vertebrates in the sacral and 4 in the coccygeal region as well.

Practitioners are more connected to their lower back rather than their middle back and that causes some problems. You need to bring some life to your cervical and thoracic spine because if you want to improve your posture and balance and learn the intermediate back bending yoga poses you need to first understand how to practice cat and cow.

Here is a short video for you. Try it and let me know if you have any questions.

Back pain? Try Revolved Triangle Pose

Do you sit at your desk for long hours everyday? do you experience back pain?

Then you gotta try Revolved Triangle Pose or Parivrtta Trikonasana.

Parivrtta means to turn around/revolve/back + Trikon means Triangle. 

It is a powerful and challenging pose which requires a lot of concentration and attention to some parts of our body that we may not be aware of. So if your mind wanders, this is a great pose for you because it enables you to practice “ekagrata” which means to pay close and undisturbed attention or having one pointed focus. 

How to do the pose:

Start in Tadasana/mountain pose. Have two blocks on top of the mat and place your right foot forward between the blocks at a 90 degree angle and left foot back at 45. Your feet are heel to heel alignment and they are 4 to 5 feet apart (depending on your height and balance) If you feel you might lose your balance have a shorter stance. Keep your legs straight and on your inhale take your arms up and lengthen the spine, then take your right hip back and left hip forward, on your exhale take your arms forward and down to place them on the blocks, on the way down make sure you maintain the length in the spine. Keep your legs strong, straight and engaged. Anchor the outer edge of your back/left foot. Bring your right hand to your sacrum and lower back area to keep your hips level. The tendency is to sometimes twist from where it is easy, which can be the lumbar (lower back) or cervical spine (upper back and neck) and not to twist from where it is not easy and that's our thoracic spine.

Take your right hip back and left hip forward and twist through your thoracic spine/middle back. Open the chest to the right and the last piece is to take your right arm up.

There are a few options for your left hand:

1. You can keep it on the block on the left side of your right foot or i

2. If you have a good balance, place your left hand on your shin bone or on the ankle

3. You can have your left hand on the right block (adjust the height of the block if you need to)

4. For the final variation, you will place you left hand on the mat, on the right side of your right foot.

You also want to keep your arms straight and engaged in line with each other.

Now let's pay attention to your neck and focal gaze. If you experience neck pain, tuck the chin in and keep your neck in line with your spine, look to the floor or to the side, if you are not experiencing any pain, you can gaze at your right thumb.

Paying attention to your breath is very important, you can inhale to lengthen the spine to create more space among vertebras, exhale and twist more. Hold it for 5 deep breaths and then switch sides.

What are the benefits of this pose?

• It increases your concentration

• It strengthens your arms, spine, legs, ankles and hip muscles

• It teaches you to twist from your middle back

• It facilitates the movement of your abdominal muscles hence it helps with digestion

• It increases flexibility of hamstrings, calves and the spine 

• It broadens the chest fully, presses your shoulders back, hence you will have enough space in your diaphragm to breath while you are twisting 

• It relieves pain in the back

Precautions:

You should modify it if you have a bulging or herniated disc, have issues with your SIJoint or if you are pregnant.

In any above case, you can have your bottom hand on two blocks stacked on top of each other to decrease the twist or you can have the same hand to the wall or on a chair. 

Its very important not to over twist the neck and thats why you want to get connected to your middle back to revolve from there.

Warrior II

Virabhadrasana II / Warrior II

Virabhadra = the name of a fierce warrior, named after a hindu god who incarnated as a human

Start in Tadasana/mountain pose. Inhale to either jump to spread the legs or step your right foot forward and left foot back. Your feet are 4 to 4 1/2 to 5 feet apart (it depends on your height). Keep your right foot at a 90 degree angle and left foot at 45. Bend your right knee until your right femur is parallel to the floor and your shinbone is perpendicular to the floor (only if it works for your body and your knee: If you try this variation and you experience knee pain or discomfort in your hips, you can raise your pelvis without keeping the thigh bone parallel to the floor). Keep your right toes lifted to activate the arch of the foot and anchor the outer edge of your left foot. Keep your legs engaged and externally rotate your front thigh and internally rotate your back thigh (You need to use your TFL and quadriceps for the rotation).
Extend your arms to the sides as if two persons are pulling them in the opposite direction. Keep them in one line with your shoulders. Expand through the chest and pay attention to your scapulas. Retract your shoulder blades by bringing them close to each other towards the spine and engage your serratus anterior.
Use your posterior and lateral deltoids to keep your arms straight to the sides and keep them engaged. The last piece is to lengthen your spine by using your erector spinae and maintain the length while you are holding the pose for 5 to 10 breaths.
A few extra tips:
1. In case you have a shoulder injury or pain, you can bring your hands together in front of your heart or you can hold on to the opposite elbows behind your back.
2. You need to keep your knee above the ankle facing your second and third toe. Avoid it from turning in or out. You can practice it against the wall by having a block between your knee and the wall. Try to press into the block with the knee by engaging your quadriceps, sartorius and TFL. If your front knee or quadriceps become tired feel free to straighten your leg for a breath or 2 and then get back into the pose.

How to practice Warrior I?

Warrior I

Virabhadrasana I

Vira means hero and bhadra means friend

Please find below the instruction on how to do this pose:

You can start in Tadasana or mountain pose.

Inhale and step your right foot forward in a 90 degree angle and left foot back in 45. The feet are 4 to 4 and half apart. Keep in mind that the distance between your feet is always depends on your height too. You can keep your heels in one line or right heel to your left arch. If you need to go wider and it feels better for your hips and knees then that's the alignment which works for your body. So do that!

On your exhale bend your right/front knee and keep your left/back leg straight. If you can keep your right shin perpendicular to the floor, go for it but if you experience discomfort in the knee, take your shin bone higher. Your right knee ideally should not extend beyond the ankle and try to keep it in line with the heel. On your inhale take the arms up, join the palms, and stretch the spine from your coccyx.

Pay attention to the sides of your torso, your spine and your arms. Stretch and elongate them as much as you can as if you want to reach the sky. Soften the shoulders and gaze at your thumbs. Hold this pose for 5 deep breaths and switch sides.

Practice it and let me know you if have any questions :)

What is the "Warrior I" pose?

Warrior I is a fundamental yoga pose that has many benefits. For example, If you suffer from fatigue or want to improve your balance, Warrior I will be very beneficial to you.

Why warrior I is so common in most yoga classes? And what are its benefits?

Warrior I is one of the poses of Ashtanga Surya Namasakra B.

• It works on your upper and lower body at the same time

• It strengthen the legs including psoas, ankles, calves & thighs

• It stretches your legs including your hamstrings, gluteus & calves

• It works on your balance & improves your posture

• It boosts energy and helps with fatigue

• It expands the chest so it helps with deep breathing

• It relieves stiffness in the shoulders and back so its recommended for people who sit at their desk for long periods of time

• It relieves stiffness in the neck

• It reduces fat around the hips

• It strengthens your deltoids

For practitioners with certain physical limitations, be sure to read the instructions below.

1. Knee pain:

To avoid front knee pain: Engage your quadriceps and abductors and draw your right femur back to the hip (if your right knee is bent)

To avoid back knee pain: Engage your left thigh and adductors (if your left foot is back) and anchor the outer edge of your left foot and press your heel down

Pro tip: imagine you are dragging your feet towards each other without moving them. That brings contraction to certain muscles and you will experience less or no pain in the knees.

1. Lower back pain:

Make sure you elongate the spine and reach your arms towards the sky. Engaging your back muscles including your lower trapezius. Be aware of your lower back by not over arching it, so engage your abdominal muscles (not too much) and draw your pubic bone up and take your sacrum down. Also draw your ribs towards the spine and bend your front knee less than usual.

1. Limited balance:

Either shorten or widen your stance (or try both) and see if it improves your balance.

Overall, Warrior I is a pose that strengthens and stretches many different muscles and it works on your balance. Hence it has everything you need. You just need to pay attention to the details of it to receive all the benefits. Also in order to improve your practice, we need to embrace the poses of Surya namaskar A & B. These poses build a great foundation for our practice in the future.

The benefits of Warrior/Virabhadrasana II

Virabhadrasana II

What are the benefits of the pose?

• Strengthens and tones your abdominal muscles including your transverse abdominis
  Improves your posture and balance because it works on the legs, arms, and spine
  Opens your chest and hips

• Builds stability because it works on your balance

• Stretches your inner thighs, groins, calves and hip flexors

• Relieves cramp in the calves and thigh muscles

• Increases your endurance

• Creates length in your pectoralis major, biceps, front leg hamstrings, back leg psoas, gastrocnemius and soleus complex

• Strengthens your deltoids, triceps, middle and lower trapezius and rhomboids

• Strengthens your legs including your quadriceps, gluteus medius, soleus, gastrocnemius, adductor magnus and ankles

• Stretches your psoas, gluteus maximus, sartorius,
  
  Warrior 2 is a pose that has it all in a way that it is grounding, opening, lengthening and strengthening.

The benefits of Parvakonasana

Parsvakonasana/Side angle is a standing pose that has many benefits:

• Strengthens your legs including your inner thighs, gastrocnemius, soleus, quadriceps, tibialis anterior and ankles (your quadriceps, inner thighs and calf muscles should be contracted in this pose)

• Stretches your obliques and transverse abdominal muscles

• Strengthens the muscles around your shoulder joints/deltoids

• Strengthen your arms including your triceps (your triceps are contracted in this pose)

• Strengthens your serratus anterior

• Strengthens your TFL (Tensor fascia lata)

• Stretches your trapezius and erector spinae

• Reduces fat around waist and hips

• Relieves sciatica nerve and arthritic pains

• Increases peristaltic activity and aids elimination (peristaltic is a type of involuntary muscle movement that occurs in your digestive system.)