The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Hot Yoga Facts
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Hey,
So pleased to hear about your back getting better / your getting to the bottom of why it happens. Yoga to me is about finding these weaknesses, establishing why they are happening and then adjusting so they (hopefully) disappear!
Based on no scientific evidence, nor medical background I give you the following: I think that there is a tendency for us to treat our back like an elastic band, if you took an elastic band and put it round a bottle, the band stretches evenly, no one point has a weak spot, no one point weakens, the bottle exerts the same pressure across the band, evenly. I see this analogy as practicing with an engaged core, the stress is evenly distributed across your core and your lower back. When we dont engage our core we are in effect stressing the exact same point in the elastic band over and over again, weakening, stressing and eventually breaking the elastic band at one point, our lower back! Imagine going into standing bow without your core engaged, where is taking all the pressure? Your lower back. When you engage your core the stress is distributed across and around your core, belly and back. No one point of weakness.
I’m now on day 22 of a 30 day and from about day 8-15 I had real stiffness in my lower back, verging on pain. Having re-engaged and focused on my core I can now say that my back has got much better to the point of not being a problem – now all I have to do is keep focused on engaging my core!
Again this is only my story, but based on the discussion it seems that we should be engaging our core more!
Good luck to all.
Dom.
Hey bethrsmith & ipadjunen so first time poster hence apologies if I mess up etiquette!
I am currently in my second 30 day challenge, today being day 17. Anyway over the last month or so of practice I too have developed a stiff lower back, on a pain scale only around 2/10 (with 10 being the worst). Ipadajunen your comment “It’s not a shooting pain, or really even a pain, just a stiffness and soreness.” exactly describes what I’m going through (or was going through).
At first I thought that I was over extending my back in Locust/ full locust / the back postures so I sat out on that posture + cobra for a few days, no change… So then I talked to one of my teachers and she suggested the problem was not engaging my core whilst in pose. In such a hot and stuffy room the last thing I really want to do is to engage my core while in a posture, breathing is hard enough!! If you think about your practice when your teacher tells you to engage your core / suck your belly up are you? In my case I wasn’t so I’ve gone back to basics and am focusing on engaging my core whilst still breathing in each posture. Between postures I let me core go, let my belly go and breathe as I previous had.
Magically my back is getting better. So I could be completely wrong and it could be nothing to do with your core not being engaged and your lower back taking the strain, but for me it was! I hope this helps, what also helps is a hot water bottle applied regularly to your lower back!
Namaste,
Dom.
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