Here you will find articles, newsletters and web links for yoga teachers. The YogaUK.com website was founded in 1999 by Andrea Newman to support and connect heart-centred yoga teachers who work hard to serve their local communities. All yoga teachers are welcome, from anywhere in the world.
Fix your back pain with this one exercise!
β As yoga teachers, weβre not therapists, and neither should we try to be unless we are working one-to-one and are qualified as a therapist. But in a yoga class situation, we can work to enhance the therapeutic aspects of yoga for our students. β β β β 1) Slow down In class, we can teach our yoga students to work slowly and encourage them to take this more mindful approach into everyday life. This is particularly important for personalities who tend to rush. The best way to speed up recovery from back pain is to slow down and go slowly. Many people do tend to slow their movements when there is pain, which is often accompanied by frustration. Emphasising the value of moving slowly can legitimise a 'slower mindset'. This can help turn frustration into understanding that slowing down is a constructive practical step towards healing and health maintenance.
2) Keep moving daily As uncomfortable as it is, itβs important to move daily with back pain. Only exercising at the weekends, or once a week at a yoga class, is not the best approach and this can actually exacerbate the back pain. Regular practice at home is something to be encouraged. Resting and relaxing with as much comfort as possible is important for healing of course. But the body also needs to move regularly to recover. The best approach for back pain is β do less, more often. We can teach students small simple dynamic poses that they can use at home, such as small pelvic tilts or tiny cat stretches. Or little stretches that they can do while waiting for the kettle to boil, for example. Micro-movements with the breath may seem counterintuitive (and boring!) to usually active busy people. But these can have a powerful impact.β β 3) Warm up Warming up at the beginning of a yoga practice is essential, as we all know. With back pain it is more important than ever to start each practice with gentle stretching and mobilising movements. Warm ups prepare the body for the coming practice, but they also give yoga practitioners a chance to check out their bodyβs parameters on that day. As teachers, it's helpful to draw their attention to this. These limbering movements can then be repeated or developed (or avoided) later in the lesson with the experiential knowledge from having explored them at the start of class. β
4) Variation Gentle yoga is an ideal way to heal from back pain as it offers a variety of different body movements alongside a mindful practice. Any mild to moderate yoga pose that doesnβt increase the pain is good. For beginners to yoga, sticking with familiar body movements initially is useful when there is back pain, rather than being too exploratory to start with. Big stretches of the back can feel good, and in some situations may provide temporary relief to back pain, depending on the cause. But these can do more harm than good in some cases. Itβs very individual, so using a staged approach to break down and work up towards a stronger pose, gives students the opportunity to test out their body and to only go as far as is appropriate along that journey on that day. β One of the great things about yoga is its adaptability. Paying attention to the body and breath enables us to monitor our body's responses to practices and to adjust as necessary. Being mindful of the body can be particularly challenging with back pain as there is often a desire to dissociate and move away from the pain. β β Pain exists for a reason. Itβs the brain waving a big red flag to tell us that there is something here to be addressed. Going to a yoga class is a positive step in that direction and shows an intention to take practical steps to address the problem. When a yoga practice causes increased pain, it is important to stop and rest. But also to learn from the experience. As yoga teachers we can guide students how to adapt a practice and help them to select a less demanding alternative. β Pain in the back is often caused by muscles tensing up or going into spasm in response to the detection of instability in the body. We can use the support of the ground to develop stability in asana. Sometimes itβs necessary to stay still and practice grounding, before introducing movement. β β β Maintaining anatomical integrity during movement is key in preventing back pain. When there is already back pain, it is something to pay attention to. In gyms they call this exercising with βformβ. In yoga this is about sitting and standing up straight, being grounded, keeping congruency between the regions of the spine, and using joints within their natural range of movement. It may not be possible to sit upright while there is pain, but as yoga teachers it's something we can spot and help the student work towards over time. β
Patanjaliβs βsthira sukham asanamβ indicates that we ideally need to have good stability and strength, balanced with ease and mobility. When we don't, anatomical integrity is lacking. This sensitive balance and dynamic equilibrium is reflected in biology. With back pain, this balance is usually off, so again it is something we can help people work towards as they rehabilitate. β
When there's pain thereβs usually a visible lack of flow in body movement. Whatever poses we teach or practice, cultivating a sense of fluidity and grounding provides a better anatomical pattern of health that is conducive to healing of the back pain over time. β β β Yoga teacher Q&A β Dates for your diary The next three Q&A meetings are on: Saturday 18th May 10-11am Friday 21st June 2.30-3.30pm Saturday 13th July 10-11am To receive email invitations to the Q&A sessions, sign up hereβ Wishing you enjoyable May bank holidays, β Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to any yoga teacher friends or colleagues who might be interested in any of the content. They can sign up to receive newsletters to their own inbox at www.yogauk.com β You can unsubscribe from Yoga Teaching and Learning at www.yogauk.com at any time using the link below. Note that unsubscribing will cancel any live course enrolments you have and you will lose access to those courses. If you wish to remain subscribed but don't wish to receive these monthly newsletters, let us know at support@yogauk.com
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Yoga Teaching and Learning
Here you will find articles, newsletters and web links for yoga teachers. The YogaUK.com website was founded in 1999 by Andrea Newman to support and connect heart-centred yoga teachers who work hard to serve their local communities. All yoga teachers are welcome, from anywhere in the world.
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