Back, neck or hip pain can radically improve when you sleep in the right position. After all, this is a position we hold for several hours. No wonder we wake up in pain during the night, or stiff in the morning. With my students, I have found that changing the sleep position is part of a better back care regime, alongside movement, relaxation and breathing practices. This blog gives a few suggestions about what to do for your back before going to bed. It then goes on to explain which have been found the best sleeping positions for people with back, neck or hip pain.

As we age, osteoarthritis is a common form of joint deterioration that may come to challenge us. The pain, swelling and stiffness can occur in different joints, such as the knee or hip joint. This blog examines yoga therapy for osteoarthritis of the spine. Our spine has 24 moveable vertebrae that are linked together by 4 facet joints each. On top of that, the spine houses the spinal cord that branches into the nerve pathways that connect our brain with the rest of the body. The potential for these joints to develop osteoarthritis and cause stiffness or nerve pain is considerable, especially in the neck and the lowest part of the spine. Read on to learn how yoga therapy can help prevent or manage osteoarthritis of the spine.

In my blogs about yoga for back pain, the emphasis is often on relaxation, releasing tightness and relaxing the body and mind. However, even with back pain we need a bit more ‘oomph’ sometimes. This need can be even more acute in January. We’ve had a seemingly interminable, grey January so far, with more than one ‘blue Monday’. The cure for me is to move in nature daily, whatever the weather, and to practise more stimulating yoga poses. These include standing poses, back bends and dynamic flow sequences. Unfortunately, quite a few of them could make your back pain worse. Try this feel-good yoga sequence if you want to feel energised in a way that is still gentle and caring enough for your back.

A herniated disc in the lumbar spine can take a long time to heal. Even when the often-accompanying sciatic pain has gone after a few months, the healing process can last about a year. During this time, it’s crucial to aid the recovery by avoiding certain positions and practising the right ones. This blog about yoga therapy for a herniated disc discusses which movements are important to avoid. It also describes one relaxation position that may relieve the pain. I have re-written this blog in memory of my mentor Robin Monro, a pioneer in the field of yoga therapy in the UK. He dedicated decades to researching yoga therapy for lower back pain. It is thanks to him that yoga therapists know the particular approach that a herniated disc requires.

There was a time when I regularly woke up in the morning with neck pain. Once, on holiday, the pain was so bad I could barely lift my head off the pillow. I thought my acute neck pain was due to wrong pillows: too low, too high, going down during the night. I would do gentle neck stretches during the day and wait for it to pass. One time, during the first lockdown, I started to have nerve pain going down one arm and into my thumb. Since then I have researched neck pain more seriously. I am happy to say that even though I have to be careful, I don’t wake up with neck pain any more, not even on holiday. The nerve tingling and numbness in my arm and thumb have disappeared. In this blog I am sharing my insights and hope it will help you to prevent, manage and relieve acute or chronic neck pain.

Did you know that the ability to balance can be a reflection of how well your brain functions? On the Radio 4 programme ‘Just One Thing’ the late Michael Mosley mentions a study that connects the ability to stand on one leg in your 50s with your eyes closed and being alive 13 years later. This is because balancing requires the brain to integrate the different physiological systems that are needed to balance. If the brain is struggling to coordinate these different messages, it could point at a more general decline in brain function. Luckily, it’s never too late to improve one’s balance, and doing that will have a positive effect on the brain. Mosley’s report suggests that it may even slow your chance of developing dementia. This blog takes you through different stages of learning to balance, gradually increasing the level of difficulty. If you would like to learn how to improve your balance and boost your brain health, this step-by-step guide can help you.

If your tight muscles don’t seem to respond to stretching, you may be stretching in the wrong way. Pulling strongly, bouncing in the stretch, and not staying in the stretch long enough can all be futile. In this blog I explain some yoga techniques that can help, so read on if you would like to learn how to stretch tight muscles effectively.

Polymyalgia rheumatica is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease in people over 70, according to NICE. The onset is usually fast and the main symptoms are pain and stiffness around hips and shoulders, on both sides of the body. The tightness in the morning can be extreme and immobilising. Both the inflammation and symptoms are relieved with corticosteroids, anti-inflammatory drugs. Apart from that, staying mobile and stretching are recommended. This is of course where yoga therapy comes in. Yoga therapy for polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) can help loosen tight muscles in a relaxing but effective way. Also sleeplessness and the stress associated with having the condition, can be addressed with the relaxing tools of yoga therapy. This blog discusses PMR and explains the many ways in which yoga therapy can help.

There are many reasons why you could feel tight and achy in the morning. They don’t have to be serious. When you’ve just been lying still for a long time, already tight muscles tend to tighten more. Then again, you may have slept on an uncomfortable mattress or in an awkward position. Apart from these straightforward reasons, there are health conditions that will make you feel particularly tight upon waking. This blog discusses these health challenges, and provides a morning routine for achy joints that could benefit all. Moving your body gently in the morning will allow you to keep your mobility, flexibility and stability in the long term, as well as make you feel much better overall.

When you have back pain, you are desperate to ease the pain straight away. Taking pain medication is one option. Waiting until the pain subsides is another, longer-term option. But what if you knew exactly what to do to relieve the pain? Back pain is draining, sapping all your energy. The better you look after your back, the sooner you can return to feeling more carefree. This blog gives you a few general guidelines and discusses how yoga therapy can help when you have acute back pain.