After dealing with back pain for years I stumbled upon a teacher (bless her) who after observing my yoga claimed that my back was not the problem but my hamstrings. When I got home I started experimenting with different poses that work well for the hamstrings and kept at it for a couple of days. I was shocked and incredibly relieved when I realized that she was right! Stretching my apparently very tight hamstrings are doing wonders for what I have always perceived as a problem localized in my lumbar spine.
I don’t really have a proper set and sequence of poses that I do but have been winging it from day to day. After reading up on the issue I have noticed that it seems to be well known in the yoga world and that it is recommended to do at least 10-15 minutes of hamstring stretch and inner hip flexor stretching every day and that some of the hamstring stretches should be held for at least 2-3 minutes.
It may be worth noting that I have a very hard time to do the usual hamstring stretches that require you to tilt your pelvis forward, I can hardly do this action at all and when I try the weight is moved forward causing my lower back to take all the pressure instead of providing a nice stretch for the hamstrings. Most yin-yoga hamstring stretches do nothing for me because of this.
I would deeply appreciate if anyone would recommend what kind of poses or even a sequence that would be suitable for what I am trying to do (discourage a backward tilt of my pelvis by enlongating the hamstrings). Basically what I am looking for is deep stretching of the hamstrings in a series that I can do every day, 15-30 minutes or so.
If you experience back pain yourself, do examine the state of your hamstrings. It may be the key to healing your back.