If you’ve been on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve seen at LEAST one post that says “do these three yoga poses to never have low back pain again,” or some other large claim. Whoa – I mean with all of these poses out there, it seems like no one should have back pain at all! Sweet–crisis solved. Hold up.
Still here?
Y’all I can’t tell you how many people I talk to regularly who have tried this stuff out and then feel WORSE. Turns out, there isn’t a list of three magical postures that are going to fix everyone’s back problems because, guess what, we’re all different.
Ok, let’s look at some stats….
According to a 2021 study, 58.9% of American adults over the age of 18 are struggling with body pain, 39% are dealing specifically with back pain. As age increases, this percentage increases: of folks ages 30–44, 35.2%, have back pain; of folks ages 45–64, 44.3% have back pain; and finally, of folks who are 65 and over, 45.6% deal with back pain. Fun fact: 40% of women experience back pain while 37.2% of men experience back pain. According to another study by The Lancet, well over $300 BILLION is spent on medical care for back pain in the United States and it is the leading cause of disability. I don’t know about y’all, but I think those are pretty damn staggering numbers!
So what’s the deal? Well, for starters, the biggest attributing factor is prolonged sedentary work days.
Many of us, even those who prioritize our health and wellbeing, still remain relatively sedentary due to our jobs and the long amount of hours we spend at them. We sit at our desks, we sit in our cars, we sit on our couches because we’re so exhausted from our workday that we have no energy for anything else. So, what do we do?
Well, my short answer is: it depends
My longer answer is: we need to understand our own bodies and get to the root cause of our pain patterns. You might have low back pain that is related to tension in the fronts of your thighs! Or maybe from weakness in your hips. It could even be from your rib cage being shifted forward. Or so many other reasons and combinations of reasons for that matter!
To fulfill my promise of telling you what 3 things to do for back pain, here’s my list:
- Understand why your back hurts–the root cause happening inside of your body (I’m happy to help you with this)
- Dedicate time to a regular practice that supports your individualized needs (y’all 5-10 minutes is enough)
- Take movement breaks throughout your day (set a regular alarm if you need!)
The main takeaway? While low back pain is a major issue facing a large number of people all over the world, we are still all unique and have our own reasons for feeling the same pain. The treatment of that pain needs to also be as unique as we are.
Want to learn more about root causes of back pain and how to solve them? Join me for my upcoming workshop, Therapeutic Yoga for Back Pain
Sources: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/0003-4819-143-12-200512200-00003#t3-3
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