Yoga for Your Back!

BodyByGeoff offers Yoga on Tuesday morning at 10:30am with Angelika; and Thursday evenings with Amenaua at 8pm. Both classes focus on individual attention and working with people at their individual level. Our classes run continuously through the year and are a low 20 classes for $99. We also offer private Yoga instruction by appointment.

Yoga for Your Back

Up to 85% of American adults experience back pain at some point in their lives. Why is the back so prone to injury? As we age, ligaments and tendons shorten and joint range of motion (ROM) decreases. Disks lose their ability to absorb shock, muscles weaken and bones lose mass.

To add to these inherent biological weaknesses, we spend too much time sitting-in cars, at desks and in front of televisions or computers-and our back muscles weaken. Poor posture makes matters worse. The low back, which bears much of the burden, is particularly prone to disk problems.

Basic Yoga Back-Care Principles

Breathe as you do the poses. When we hold our breath, we hold onto tension. Quiet, introspective breathing alters the sympathetic/parasympathetic nerve signal balance to the arteries and veins, allowing increased circulation to tissues whose vessels are constricted during times of stress.

Create movement of the spine with flexion and extension To feed and lubricate the disks properly, it's necessary to reverse the curvatures for brief periods of time, which yoga postures do gently and wonderfully. Cow, Cat (pelvic tilts on your hands and knees) and Sun Salutations are excellent ways to create movement of the spine.

Balance, Flexibility and Strength Strength is vital but so is flexibility. Developing strong, yet flexible, muscles is perhaps the most crucial principle in back care. Remember that a tight muscle is not necessarily a strong one. In yoga sessions, it is important to lengthen contracted muscles before working on strength. For the back this means stretching the back muscles to lengthen the spine and create more space for the vertebrae and disks.