What yoga exercises can I do to help with my lower back ache?

What yoga poses can I do to help my lower back ache?

Now, before I answer this question, as a yoga instructor, I want to say that I am not a physiotherapist, I am not a chiropractor or a doctor.

So if this is something that has been going on for a while, I really recommend that you seek out professional support from somebody who is trained in that part of our body. So a physical therapist, a chiropractor massage therapist or any other professional.

Now, in terms of yoga poses, when we often think of a lower back ache, it might be because our muscles are somewhat tight, and I see that a lot in yoga classes that I teach, and I too, have a tight lower back, which can happen, for example, from sitting too much.

So a couple of poses that we can do.

The first one is called child's pose, where you're sitting on your mat and you bring your knees towards the edges of the mat. You walk your hands forward and stretch them out over your head and you place your forehead on your mat. That pose is a natural way to lengthen the spine and stretch out the lower back so you might find that helpful. It is also very mentally and emotionally calming.

The second pose I'll offer that can really help is called rag doll. So you'll stand on your yoga mat, bring your feet about hip width distance apart. You're going to hinge at your waist and allow your head to relax and your arms to dangle down to the floor and bend your knees a little bit. It's ragdoll, because it looks like we're just hanging out. And the way the gravity pulls our upper body down is actually quite relaxing. And lengthening of our lower back muscles make sure that you keep those knees bent so that you're reducing lower on your pressure on your lower back.