Prevent Back Pain With These Adjustments During Yoga + Free Video

We all know that yoga is good to prevent a multitude of issues. But what when you already have some problems going on?

These days classes are getting bigger and bigger and yoga teachers have to deal with the fact that they can’t focus on everyone in their class.

That said, it’s always easy to talk about some easy adjustments that you can just do yourself while you are in a yoga class. This will be really easy and you can take it into the studio.

This will take some pressure off your yoga teacher and you won’t have to be worried about your lower back!

That said, make sure you don’t ever go across your own limits. These adjustments may help you, but every body is different. That said, it might also be that these tricks won’t work.

But try it yourself in a setting where there is no pressure in going into the next position. You can even watch my video and pause whenever you’d like!

Here we go!

Yoga Sequence with Adjustments for Lower Back

Childs Pose

Within this sequence, we’ll actually be starting in Childs Pose. If you already have back issues, sitting in an upright position might be horrible.

If this is you, then you can start your yoga practice in Childs Pose. Talk to your yoga teacher before the class to ask his or her permission to start off into this position. They might have a more appropriate way to start their class, fit to their sequence.

And another great tip for you, if putting your hands in front of you is also causing too much decompression. And therefore pain. You can also put your hands beside your body.

This will make sure that your spine doesn’t get stretched too much. Preventing pain from happening.

Go ahead, give it a go!

Sphynx Pose

This position itself is already focused on the lower back, and therefore it might be dangerous for people with lower back issues.

However, there are also safe ways to pull this asana off.

It’s not such an impressive one, regarding the looks of it. However, it might cause a lot of compression on your vertebrae, and therefore not suitable for hernias and such.

There is a really easy way though to make sure that you are able to do this asana in your yoga class.

Rather than keeping your arms at a 90° angle, you can bring your arms more forward. This will lower your upper body and keeps the backbend to a minimum as well.

As you can see, really easy to do and it will save your spine a lot!

Half Frog Pose

Frog pose is a nice position for the hips and the lower back IF you don’t have an issue going on around this area.

If you do, you might be better off with Half-Frog.

And the best part of it is that you will relax your lower back as well. No compression, nor decompression. Your spine will be in a state of complete stillness, making sure that you won’t feel pain (or at least down to a minimum).

For this pose you just have to lay with your belly on the mat, you bring your left or right knee at a 90° angle next to your body. And you stay here for a couple of minutes.

Of course, you mustn’t forget to take care of your other side as well!

Crocodile Pose

This one has the exact same outcome as Half-Frog. So again, this asana is great for when you want to relax your back. And is actually great for people with Sciatica.

Same as before, you’re going to lay on your belly. But now with your both feet wider than the hips.

After this, you bring the inside of your feet toward the mat, lowering your heels into the mat as well.

If you can’t do this, bring your feet a bit more away from you, go as wide as possible. Until you hit that spot where you are able to lower your heels into the mat.

You can stay here for as long as you’d like. I always find this asana so relaxing that I forget to watch my clock.

Supine Butterfly

What a lot of people aren’t aware of, is that going into Butterfly might not be so good for your lower back.

Yes, we don’t really bend forward a lot when we are in this position. But when you are someone with vertebrae issues, this might hurt like hell.

As I said before, my body is not your body, and vice versa. So pain can manage whenever and in any kind of form. So even if it looks like we won’t move that much in Butterfly, even the subtle movement can be painful for someone.

And in this position we are still moving forward and using our spine.

To resolve this, we just go backwards, rather than forwards.

And if you have the chance, you can maybe even put some pillows underneath your back for some extra support.

Supported Bridge Pose

If you have or had back issues, then you know that going into bridge pose is awfully painful.

This can actually be resolved very easily.

There are a couple of ways on how to get into bridge pose without pain or less painfully.

For this, you’ll be needing a prop though. You can decide if you’d like to get a pillow or a block.

If you don’t have any major spinal issues, I’d go for a block (preferably a cork block).

With major issues, I’d go for a pillow. And the lower the pillow the better I’d say.

We will start on our back here.

Then we bend our knees and put our feet into the mat.

With your props next to you, you can slowly raise your hips and put one of them underneath your buttocks.

If you are using a block, you can decide which side you’d like to use. Just make sure that you choose a height that is comfortable for you and isn’t painful at all.