Yoga For Back Pain

A double blind study published in the December 2005 edtion of the Annals Of Internal Medicine showed that 3 months of a specifically designed yoga practice gave significant relief to subjects suffering chronic back pain.

This carefully designed and executed study published in a prestigious medical journal brought tremendous credibility to the yoga community.

But before you start reaching for your sweat pants and your yoga mat you should know that the yoga practiced in this study is NOT the typical form of yoga taught and practised in the western world.

"What's the difference?" you may ask.

"Isn't all yoga practice pretty much the same?"

The answer to that question lies in a deeper understanding of how exercise can help relieve back pain.

First moving and activating your joints and especially the vertebrae in your back helps improve circulation.

What Most People DON'T Know Is The Cartilage Of Your Joints Is Soft Like A Sponge...

When you move a joint the cartilage is first contracted or squeezed which pushes waste out...

Then the cartilage expands - again like a sponge - and nutrients are drawn in.

So moving your joints helps the passage of nutrients and fluid into your joints and helps get the toxins and wastes out.

This can be a catch 22 situation for people who suffer joint or back pain.

Once your back is hurting you avoid moving it and when you stop moving those joints you slow down the passage of healing nutrients in and waste out.

So your back deteriorates even faster and the pain gets worse.

That's where exercise can help.

In theory if you can get your back moving you'll improve circulation to your joints and the muscles surrounding your joints and your back pain should ease.

Unfortunately in practice it's not quite that simple.

Many exercises carry a high risk of injury and can be uncomfortable or even painful to perform.

Most Yoga Modalities In The Western World Focus On Trying To Push Your Body Into A Predetermined Posture - A "One-Size-Fits-All" Approach...

This "pretzel yoga" ignores the unique needs of each individual, often INCREASES back pain and can cause permanent injury.

What many people excited about the 2005 Annals Of Internal Medicine study were'nt told is that the study is a Viniyoga sequence designed by American Viniyoga Institute founder Gary Kraftsow.

Gary trained the teacher who led the study and custom designed a sequence for the subjects in the study.

The fundamental difference between Viniyoga and most yoga modalities in the western world is that Viniyoga embraces your individuality.

Every posture, every movement, every repetition, every breath and every sequence is uniquely tailored to suit you and your unique needs.

By being constantly aware of how you're feeling with every movement and changing that movement to suit your body you can perform a Viniyoga practise without pain or discomfort.

And your sequence will change and adapt as your body changes and adapts.

Your risk of injury is extremely low or non-existant.

The Benefits Of Viniyoga For Relief Of Back Pain Go Beyond Increasing Circulation To Your Joints And Muscles...

We already know that performing a movement over and over that's not adapted to the unique needs of our body can lead to repetitive stress injury (RSI).

In a similar vein chronic back pain can have it's root cause in repeating movements in your daily activities that aggravate your back condition.

By constantly changing and adapting your movement when you perform a Viniyoga sequence you can reset those neuromuscular movement patterns.

Put in simple terms you retrain your muscles to move in ways that help rather than hurt your back condition.

Viniyoga also helps to safely build muscles around your joints and your spine.

Muscles make great cushions - protecting your joints from injury.

And Viniyoga increases flexiblity. Increasing your range of motion in this way can reduce your chance of aggravating a back condition with normal, every day movements that test that range of motion.

Again The Difference With Viniyoga Is Every Movement, Every Sequence Is Tailor Made For You As An Individual...

Flexibility, strength, neuromuscular retraining and enhanced circulation are all achieved with a minimum of risk - each student's unique needs in mind every second of every practice.

Finally Viniyoga embraces spiritual and emotional transformation.

Relaxing your mind - finding peace with yourself and with the world help reduce the stress linked to back pain.

And even this spritual and emotional dimension is tailored to the individual.

Viniyoga is not a religion or a set of dogmas.

As a student you're encouraged to find your own way, your own path on your journey to inner peace - your journey to physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

The Viniyoga science stretches back thousands of years through a lineage of teachers who dedicated their lives to learning and sharing this art.

The power of this Viniyoga science to heal is no secret to this long line of teachers and each of their students.

Modern studies are vindicating the science behind a whole range of traditional therapies that have survived the ages.

And Viniyoga now stands as a viable, proven natural therapy for back pain.