Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back (6 page)

Within each chapter, you will find three introductory sections:

•  
Through Western Eyes:
Here you will learn how the Western medical community sees the area of the body we're working with. You will learn about the anatomy of the area, its relationships to its neighbors in your body, and some of the possible reasons why it can hurt. You will see anatomical illustrations in this section to help you visualize the concepts I'm describing.

•  
Through Eastern Eyes:
Next you will learn what Eastern medicine and philosophy has to say about that area of your body. This section will set the tone for the yogic work ahead, and you will come to understand why I have chosen the poses you will soon practice.

•  
Uniting East and West:
Now you will see the Eastern and Western insights we've explored as they relate to—and often echo—each other. In this section, I will offer any final preparatory thoughts before we begin our yoga practice in earnest.

Hopefully, reading these introductory sections will have you inspired and eager to bring yoga practice to that area of your body. Our practice will take shape over three sets of poses, and it will be illustrated throughout with photographs:

•  
Ask and Listen:
The first steps you will take in each chapter are “preparation for practice,” meant to help you discover an open curiosity about how the specific area of your back functions (or doesn't). What is this part of your back telling you? Can you find ways to relax and calm yourself so you can hear its message?

•  
Practice:
This is the main sequence of yoga poses for each chapter. In it, you will connect with, balance, tone, and strengthen the area of your body—with attention to variations of each pose that will meet you wherever your ability level is at the moment. This section will always end with a meditative deep relaxation.

•  
Grow and Progress:
After you've gone through the practice a number of times—or sooner, if you are an experienced yoga student—you will be ready to keep your practice fresh and expanding with a series of additional, more challenging poses.

There are a couple of ways to approach the physical poses in these sections. One is to look closely at the photographs to see how the models demonstrate the fullness of the pose and its variations. Another, of course, is to read the text for detailed instruction on the ways—often quite subtle—that you can arrange and adjust your body so that it receives the pose's maximum benefits while protecting joints, muscles, and your lower back. You may find it helpful to do these steps in either order.

There are also meditations and reflections in the practice, chiefly in the deep relaxations at the end of each chapter's step 2. It can be difficult to read and relax at the same time, so here are a few ways you can approach those sections:

•  Read the meditation aloud quietly to yourself, take a few deep breaths to process what you've read, then lie down and rest in the way the text describes, keeping your mind gently trained on the message of the meditation.

•  Have a friend read the meditation aloud to you while you relax. You can return the favor the next time you practice!

•  Make a recording of yourself reading the meditation aloud, and play it while you relax.

The structure I've just described is, if you will, the “spinal column” of this book. But just as your spine is the centerline of your body, surrounded by muscles, joints, ligaments, and organs, this book contains some other elements that will help you on your journey toward whole health. Read on for more on some of those elements.

H
OW TO
U
SE
Y
OGA
P
ROPS

In 2008,
Yoga Journal
magazine commissioned a study that found that Americans spend $5.7 billion annually on yoga classes, products, and props.
³¹
Don't scoff at that hefty price tag! Although some of these items come with cool designs and bright colors, they're much more than mere fashion accessories. Props are an integral part of a healthy yoga practice, and having a set available to you—and knowing how to use them—will help you experience the benefits of poses that you wouldn't otherwise be able to access. Perhaps most important, yoga props protect you from going too far into a pose, giving your body a little extra help so that it doesn't have to strain itself to come into the pose.

FIG. 1.7

Throughout the yoga practice sections of this book, you will see suggestions for how to use props to enhance or support your poses. For now, I'll lay out the most commonly used props (
fig. 1.7
), with a brief word on how you can expect to use them.

Belt

A yoga belt, which is sometimes referred to as a “strap,” is a long strip of cotton or nylon, usually two inches wide and between six and ten feet long, depending on the manufacturer. The belt usually has a cinch of some sort to allow you to form a closed loop, though many times a belt is used in its long form while you hold one end of the belt with each hand.

Belts are very helpful in seated forward bends, in which they can be wrapped around the arches of your feet to allow you to lengthen your spine without worrying about being able to reach your toes. Belts are also useful in arm stretches and chest openers, allowing you to protect your shoulder without having to struggle to reach one hand too far around, behind, or across your body.

Blanket

In yoga, blankets aren't generally used for cuddly napping (though they can certainly be used that way during deep relaxation!). Instead, blankets serve two main purposes in yoga practice.

First, blankets can be spread flat, or folded in half, across a yoga mat to offer greater support for your body against the hardness of the floor. This is particularly helpful when you are doing poses on your hands and knees, or lying on your front body.

Second, folded blankets are a wonderful way to bring height and support to your body in a number of types of poses: under your hips in seated poses; under your lower back or shoulders in lying-down poses; or under your neck during deep relaxation. You can lie down over folded blankets to open your chest, encourage a subtle backbend, or release tension in your lower back.

You don't have to have special yoga blankets for your practice, though those products are nice because they are usually both durable and uniform in thickness and texture. Having more than one blanket handy is a good idea; often I will advise you to stack blankets or roll one and fold another.

Blocks

Yoga blocks, sometimes called “yoga bricks,” are used whenever your hands, feet, knees, or hips need a little extra height from something firm, not something soft like a blanket or bolster. Yoga blocks are usually made of lightweight, sturdy foam and come in an array of colors. More and more, yoga blocks are being manufactured with recycled foam. Many people prefer to use wooden or cork blocks made with renewable products from responsibly managed forests.

The blocks are rectangular in shape, which means they can be used at three different heights. I'll refer to these heights throughout the book when I call for the use of blocks, but you can always adjust your blocks to the height that works best for your body in a particular pose.

As the photograph shows, these are the three ways you can position yoga blocks (
fig. 1.8
):

•  
Low:
The block's lowest position is with its longest, widest side flat on the floor.

•  
Medium:
The next height has the block's longer edge on the floor.

•  
High:
The highest position for a block is with its short end on the floor.

Bolster

Yoga bolsters offer some of the same benefits as blankets—bringing height and support to your hips in seated poses, and allowing for both chest opening and back bending in lying-down poses. Many practitioners of meditation sit on round bolsters to meditate. And as you will see, bolsters also are absolutely delicious props for resting poses such as Child's Pose.

FIG. 1.8

The difference between a bolster and a blanket, though, is that while a blanket is soft and adjustable, a bolster is firm, three-dimensional, and of a fixed diameter. Yoga bolsters come in a few different shapes, the most common being thick rectangles or round, log-like forms. Bolsters are usually stuffed with some sort of batting or foam, and they come in varying firmnesses, with covers that are usually made of cotton. They usually have handles on one end, which makes them easy to move around, and which can also be used as a grip during certain yoga poses.

Eye Pillow

An eye pillow is simply a soft cloth bag filled with rice, flax seeds, or even aromatherapy herbs such as lavender. It is not as important a yoga prop as the others I'm mentioning, but after a challenging, satisfying yoga practice, you will find it a great help in coming to a place of deep relaxation. As I said in “How to Rest,” a comfortable body is only part of the story of deep relaxation; encouraging the mind to look inward is as key a component. Resting the eyes is central to that mindful gaze.

Draping an eye pillow over your closed eyes is a subtle but powerful gesture that encourages them to stop “looking” toward the external world and start to soften and gaze inward. A few minutes of deep breathing with an eye pillow over your eyes can be as refreshing as a short nap—or just what your body needs to calm down enough to go to sleep at night.

Mat

A yoga mat is perhaps the most iconic piece of yoga equipment. Although one can theoretically practice yoga on virtually any flat surface, including sand, grass, hardwood, or carpet, the use of a mat is advised for a number of reasons.

Yoga mats are made from such diverse materials as rubber, latex, cotton, bamboo, plastic, or a blend. Until recently, most mats were made with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), but now many eco-friendly options are available, made from naturally derived materials that do not contain potentially toxic chemicals.

Your mat gives your feet and, depending on the pose, hands something to grip so you don't slide along the floor. Some yoga mats are also handily marked to provide a measure of distance for all types of poses.

The yoga mat has metaphorical value as well, for it is the symbolic home of your yoga practice. In yoga circles, you often hear about carrying a teaching or posture “off the mat” and into your everyday life. Sometimes, after a long, hard day—or at the sleepy start of a new day—the simple act of unrolling your mat can trigger your mind to come into a quiet, focused state . . . and your body to follow.

S
TARTING
Y
OUR
H
OME
P
RACTICE

Now that you have your props . . . what's next? You are ready to start practicing yoga, of course! That doesn't mean you have to quit your job to make room in your life for yoga—your home practice can take as little as fifteen or twenty minutes of free time, two or three times a week. Set realistic goals at first—as your skill and strength broadens, a desire for more time on your mat will likely follow.