acute lower back pain after 1 month of bikram

This is why I stopped Bikram. Extreme forward bends, despite what the instructors say, are not in the “natural range of motion” for our bodies.

From what you describe, it sounds like you have a herniated disk in your lumbar spine. The clincher was when you said you got a little relief from sitting on sit bones and slightly back bending. That’s because the pressure on the disk is relieved in backbends, and greatly increased in forward bends.

Chiropractors and physical therapists will give you a series of exercises to do that will help over time. It may take a long time. The exercises usually involve lying on your stomach and lifting your legs one at a time and then both at a time, plus a number of others. You might have to avoid forward bends for a time until the disk begins to heal.

If you get temporary relief from such exercises, or from lying flat and letting your lower spine sag, as in lying between two pillows or draping yourself across a big chair with upholstered arms, and letting your lower spine sag toward the seat cushion, the diagnosis is pretty assured.

But of course I am not a doctor! I only check back to this forum occasionally so that if I see things like “acute lower back pain,” I can chime in to keep people from panicking and going through lots of MRI’s, treatments and such needlessly.

I have posted a number of times about this situation on this forum, so if you search “herniated disk” you will find more information.

Remember there is an industry out there that wants you to think you need to pay them a lot of money over this. Stay calm. REST, at the early point you’re at now, is incredibly important. I didn’t rest, but kept going to yoga, doing yard work, etc. etc., hoping to work through it. Very stupid of me.

Be careful. Do a little research online but do not panic!

Wonderful! Mindfulness is always a good thing. No two bodies are exactly alike, but in the Bikram studio there is a tendency to strive for a single ideal.

When you think about it, stretching is a good thing but EXTREME STRETCHING is not. Muscles and tendons hold bones (including the lumbar spine) in place. When we stretch them too much or too far, it makes perfect sense that the bones, disks, etc. are now in a more loose, or vulnerable, position, hence more likely to slip or otherwise move out of place, causing pain.

What you don’t want to do, over time, is create an ever-looser situation where a more serious/permanent disk slippage occurs.

You have received a warning with this pain … heed it!

During my treatment I was told that some people are “loose” and some people are “tight;” those who are loose benefit more from postural yoga (like Iyengar) and those who are tight benefit more from stretching yoga (like Bikram).

Know which you are … be careful … good luck!

Hi, thanks for the support!

I think I had a breakthrough!!! Yesterday I decided to sit and do some meditation (which I used to do every day but had stopped since i hurt my back cause it was painful to sit still). So I sat though the pain just observing it and not reacting and amazingly my body was able to exit panic mode and relax. So after one hour of meditation I still felt pain but was very clam about it and decided to do some stretches as I was still sitting on the floor. I basically just ALLOWED my body to stretch down naturally with gravity instead of FORCING it to stretch. It was absolutely amazing – i felt some stretching pain but I was just observing it and not reacting and slowly the muscles would release and I was able to get closer and closer to the floor. So finally in child’s pose I was able to touch my forehead to the floor like I used to be able to!!! Anyway, I feel a LOT BETTER now. There is still some pain and I still have to be very careful about how I do things but my mobility has increased to the point where I almost feel normal. But the most important thing is that I now see the light and know that I will be ok. I am thinking of going back to Bikram next week but definitely not pulling to stretch in any of the postures. I might just go and let my body do what it can. Looking back at it, I think one has to be very careful with the ego in Bikram – it can push us to do stupid things. At the end I will probably go back to Iyengar style yoga – I had a teacher who would look at you and if he thought you were trying too hard he would ask ‘Do you need a hammer?” . I think a lot of time we try to ‘hammer’ our body into a position we want it to go in instead of listening to it, respecting it and being patient.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the encouragement. I might go to the chiropractor anyway just in case to see what he/she says.

That’s fabulous news! I didn’t post any advice earlier because I’m fairly new to Bikram myself, but everything you wrote makes a lot of sense. It’s always challenging to find that proper balance so you are trying but not pushing too hard. And it is very hard to keep your ego out of it. I think it’s easy to put pressure on yourself to keep improving, whether your body is ready for it or not.

I was going to say it’s probably good to work on the back strengthening and back bending postures(obviously still in an ego-free and mindful manner) and see how everything heals. There is also a free video here on strengthening your core, and that might be useful as well as it seems very related to lower back pain in my experience.

But congratulations on your progress and thank you for sharing! I know I need to work on being more mindful sometimes and it’s good to hear how important it really is.