Lower back pain

Yoga Discussion Structural Yoga Therapy
#1

Hi Mukunda,

I’ve been reading your SYT book trying to understand my condition and
how to (after years and years of pain) alleviate the pain and
inflammation.

My lower back (L5/S1) has forever been painful… I’m a yoga teacher,
and I find it difficult to back way off and do nothing in order to
discover what poses aggravate my situation, but I think it’s the back
bends. Anyway, I had to have an MRI to discover the deeper issues.
The results were that my sacrum is tilted extremely forward… almost
parallel to the ground… that extreme… the doctor was quite surprised.
Now my disc is beginning to bulge and I’m in daily pain. How do I
release muscles that may be pulling the sacrum in that direction… my
lumbar curve is disappearing as well.

I’m sure you need more info… and I would welcome any insights from
you…

many thanks,

#2

Mark -

In the future it is optimal if you ask questions via www.yogaforums.com site rather than to my personal email. It sounds to me that you are dealing with two challenges. Being too aggressive in poses which will aggravate pitta the Ayurvedic energy that in the long run creates inflammation. Secondly you do not understand anatomy and kinesiology enough from not having gotten an accurate body reading of your condition. Optimal is to have the latter handled in person by me or one of my graduates in MA or CO. If your assessment is correct, which I doubt, then releasing the psoas and iliacus muscles should do the trick to free the anterior tilt of the sacrum. This can be done by searching for poses in which you feel the release (not stretch) in the back of the pelvic wall or anterior spine where these muscles are located. I suspect you sacroiliac is in a state of dysfunction rather than the problem being caused from anterior tilt. To correct that see sacroiliac mobility exercise on the above website archives to my Q & A column. Namaste