Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back: A Practical Guide to Developing Strength and Relieving Pain

by Liz Owen, Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Overview

A guide to managing lower back pain through gentle yoga exercises—perfect for beginners and anyone with conditions like fibromyalgia and arthritis
 
The sacrum, or lower back, is an incredibly powerful part of the human anatomy. It’s what enables you to stand upright and tall, it unites your upper and lower body, it roots you to the earth—and it is one of the most common areas where people experience chronic pain and discomfort. Yoga practice can have a transformative effect on lower back problems: it allows the body to gain the range of movement and flexibility that short-circuits the mind’s perception of limitation and pain. Yoga for a Healthy Lower Back will help you understand lower back pain and heal it through gentle exercises that can be done even by those with no previous yoga experience.

Liz Owen describes the anatomy of the sacrum and the region around it, including the hips and lumbar spine, and illuminates both the Western and Eastern approaches to understanding back pain. She then provides simple, easy-to-learn sequences of yoga poses for general sacrum health and then for specific issues or conditions such as pregnancy, fibromyalgia, and arthritis, among others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611800494
Publisher:	Shambhala
Publication date:	08/20/2013
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	7.12(w) x 8.82(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Holly Lebowitz Rossi is a freelance writer whose articles on religion, health, wellness, and happiness, have appeared in Newsweek, Spa Finder, Tango Magazine, the Washington Post, Slate.com, Parents.com, and Beliefnet.com. She is also a student of Liz Owen, whose methods she credits with eliminating her own lower back pain.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

1 The Journey into Wellness 1

2 Your Hips 31

3 Your Sacrum 75

4 Your Lumbar Spine 125

5 Your Abdominal Core 171

6 Your Middle Back, Upper Back, and Neck 203

7 Maintaining a Healthy Lower Back 245

8 Practices for Specific Lower Back Conditions and Diagnoses 257

Sacral Sprain 258

Referred Sacral Pain 261

Sacral Joint Dysfunction 264

Lordosis, Lumbar Muscular Pain, and Strain 267

Herniated Disc and Pinched Nerve 270

Arthritis, Spinal Stenosis, and Spondylolisthesis 273

Fibromyalgia 276

Pregnancy 279

Notes 285

Glossary of Sanskrit Terms 293

Recommended Reading for Lower Back Health 297

List of Yoga Poses by Chapter 301