Are you looking for a quick, easy way to relieve tension and tightness in your back? Research has shown that practicing yoga over a three-month period can be an effective treatment for chronic or recurrent low back pain.
A short chair yoga sequence of poses and exercises can be a good way to combat the stiffness and soreness in your lower and upper back.
Read on to learn how you can use this 10 minute chair yoga practice to address your back pain.
Why do we get back pain?
If you’re reading this blog post, you’ll likely have experienced back pain at some point. Perhaps you’re struggling with pain right now, or it’s a common reoccurring issue for you.
Well, you’re certainly not alone!
Lower back pain is reported to affect 60 – 70% of people worldwide at some point in their lives. It also accounts for a large number of sick days from work.
It’s particularly an issue for people working in sedentary jobs—where most of your time is spent sitting behind a desk and computer.
When you spend most of your day sitting (particularly when working behind a computer), it's easy to forget your posture. As the hours pass, you might slump in your seat, rounding your spine, hunching your shoulders, and leaning forward with your head.
Unsurprisingly, our body complains about this posture and tries to tell us to change something through the pain in our back.
If you’ve suddenly developed sharp or intense back pain, it's best to first see a professional, like a doctor or physiotherapist, to check if they recommend gentle yoga stretches. These chair yoga poses can help release tension and tightness from your back after long periods of sitting, but they aren’t guaranteed to be the right thing for all types of back pain.
Benefits of chair yoga for back pain
A chair yoga practice has many benefits—you’ll become more flexible and stronger and feel in balance. And it will help you take short energizing breaks throughout your day.
Integrating chair yoga poses and exercises into a busy workday makes it much easier. Making it far more likely that you’ll be able to create a sustainable new habit. Chair yoga allows you to practice yoga poses on your office chair at your desk. It is also possible to do yoga at your office or when working from home.
One of the reasons I love chair yoga is you don't need any special equipment. You don’t need a yoga mat or a change of clothing, and you can easily fit a 5 – 10 minutes chair yoga practice into your busy day.
Another consideration for chair yoga is that many people’s back pain likely results from sitting for long periods of time with poor posture. Chair yoga can, therefore, help us find a more intentional and supportive posture while sitting at a desk. It can also provide the necessary tools to relieve and prevent back pain.
Prefer to practice traditional yoga poses on a yoga mat to help address your back pain? Check out these seven easy yoga poses to relieve back pain.
How can you get started?
After you’ve established from a doctor or physiotherapist that practicing yoga with back pain is ok, you could try my guided YouTube video chair yoga for back pain.
This 10-minute chair yoga practice is focused on relieving back pain. Aiming to release tension that might have built up and resulted in painful tight muscles.
During the practice, you’ll be guided through five gentle yoga postures and movements that can be easily done while sitting in a chair.
Only got 5 minutes? Jump ahead in the video (via the time stamps) to the specific poses you want to focus on to help keep your spine mobile.
Once you’ve followed the guided practice a few times, you’ll know how to do these yoga poses and stretches on your own. This is where you can really take control of your own well-being, having the tools to ease and prevent back pain whenever and wherever you need them.
Happy practicing!
💛 Irene
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