Back pain - reduce it with yoga

The participants reported moderate back pain; most of them had been doing some form of exercise before the study.

During the 12-week study, yoga practice led to improved function, reduced back pain, and—perhaps the most important clinical benefit—the participants required significantly less medication than those who did not practice yoga. After stopping the exercises, the beneficial condition persisted for more than six months!

A previous 2005 study had already demonstrated the positive effects of yoga, but the new study, carried out with a larger group, confirmed that yoga and similar stretching physical trainings are beneficial in reducing back pain. During the trial, both the yoga and stretching programs included poses and exercises that worked the legs and the trunk.

• The yoga exercises were supplemented with breathing exercises and a meditation session following the training.
• They performed 15 stretching exercises, each held for 1 minute with a single repetition. The total stretching time was 52 minutes.

The researchers had expected that yoga would be significantly more effective than the stretching exercises, so the identical results were surprising. On examining the outcome they found that the group performing stretching had carried out their training in a very similar, quiet, calm environment to the yoga group, which made the exercises very similar to yoga. They believe that in a noisy gym the effectiveness of the stretching exercises might differ, but this was not investigated.

According to the results, both yoga and stretching exercises are beneficial for those suffering from back and lower back pain. It is recommended to seek the help of a trained professional to select and learn the exercises, but afterwards they can be performed at home. The key is regular repetition.