Lower back training

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Last months I have felt pain in lower back, due to too much office work w/o training. I came across some exercises for training lower back and one of them were this one:

Notice there at 2:17 how he contracts the belly just like in Ashtanga yoga (the style I used to train), claiming that the purpose of that is to activate the right muscles.

So… as a former Ashtanga practionist I start to wonder if that style (first serie) could be good for strenghtening the lower back?

I have come to the point were I feel I must start training again before something gets serious. Have felt this before when I trained and never had any problems with training so I feel it would work just fine if I take it easy in the beginning. Especially asanas like ‘utthita parshvakonasana’ actually felt really pleasant for the back.

#2

no one?

#3

Hi,
The video…at least the bit I watched…showed an exercise for the gluteal muscles (bum) not the lower back.
Without knowing exactly what is wrong with your back it is not possible to say what exercise or stretching would be good.
You could check with a properly qualified fitness trainer/gm instructor or yoga teacher about some back strengthening exercises.
As for Ashtanga…there is a great deal of forward bending in the primary series…this could be very beneficial to your back…Or very bad…depending on what the issue with your back is.

#4

thanks! yes lots of forward bending, hmm, maybe I should check with someone.

I read somewhere that (some) lower back problems mostly depends on that muscle so that’s why I looked up such things. But if that is true then ashtanga would be good I think.

(forgot to say, I have nothing to do with that video)

#5

Yes, I’ve had the most interesting meetings these two days.

  1. Yoga teacher. Yesterday I visited the prospective shala and talked to one of Swedens best teacher. He had good insight in the injury aspect and said that the bandhas (mula) is for locking just those parts of the back and that if you practice in a controlled fashion and really listen to your body it wouldn’t be any harm but just good for the back.

  2. Naprapath. Today I visited a naprapath that first interviewed me and then made lots of tests. All questions and tests didn’t result in so much, except for ONE test. I was lying on the back with [I]right[/I] underleg up and while he hold I tried to push leg up. That didn’t go well on the right side because of stability issues with the muscles (gluteus maximus being one involved). So then he squeezed my left shoulder a little while doing this and suddenly it worked! Almost magic!
    So he said the muscles don’t cooperate like they should and gave me two exercises to control and strengthen the muscles around mula bandha (lying on the back, and every evening).

Now was that funny. That means ashtanga yoga should be very ideal for me just now. I will actually start training soft in a few weeks (he agreed on this).

That was the short version, disclaimers for missing some aspects here. And this is for [I]my[/I] situation only.

Suddenly summer holiday (tomorrow) feels much better! :slight_smile: