For my third blog this summer I promised to tackle true core strength. Abdominal strengthening is a necessary part of any back care programme, but incorporating it into a yoga regime can offer a different and effective approach. Strengthening abdominal muscles in isolation is not necessarily the best way to create core strength. Likewise, it is not healthy (or possible?) to hold your abdomen in all the time. Both lead to holding patterns that do not facilitate free breathing, easy movement or relaxation. This blog looks at true core strength from a whole-body perspective: demonstrating movements that engage core muscles in coordination with other muscles, the aim is to show you how to lay the foundation for a healthy back.
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A few weeks ago one of my students came into the group class and declared: “I want a beach body by August.” An unusual request in a back-care yoga class, so there were a few seconds of stunned silence. Then I thought “great!” A beach body presumably has shapely arms, firm glutes and a toned abdomen. Strong Glutes, arm and abdominal muscles also happen to be important for back health, so beach body and back health work together very well. My blogs this summer will focus on these three muscle groups, toning them to support your back health, and making them ready for an active summer. If we also do these exercises mindfully, they can have a positive effect on stress levels, and cultivate a healthy approach to our body. We are starting with the glutes today.
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In my experience teaching yoga to people with back pain, I have seen the benefits of strengthening the abdominal muscles for posture and back health. It is important to do these exercises in a careful and safe way. If you would like to learn how to strengthen your abdominals without straining back or neck muscles, this blog is for you. Maybe, like me, you have tried sit-ups to strengthen your abs, only to find that this hurts your lower back and neck. The classic sit-ups, where the chest lifts all the way towards your knees, cause too much pressure on the spinal discs. Abdominal crunches, on the other hand, prevent this stress for the spine by keeping the lower back on the floor. But even these crunches can be done in a way that is stressful and inefficient. Read on to find out how to do safe abdominal crunches for your back. We will look at two different abdominal muscles: the rectus abdominis and the oblique abdominis.
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Serious back pain can be debilitating and stop you from participating in the activities you love. While a conventional yoga class can help release muscle tightness, it can actually make serious back pain worse. Yoga therapy for back pain, on the other hand, adapts the poses to suit the particular back condition. The first task of a yoga therapist is to avoid movements that exacerbate the pain. This is based on knowledge about the cause of back pain but also depends on the individual. The second task is to teach the beneficial poses, those that can soothe tight muscles and strengthen weaker areas. Finally, a yoga therapist will include yoga techniques that relax the mind.

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Many people believe they are not good at balancing. Why should you be good at standing on one leg anyway when daily tasks don’t really require this for any length of time? Isn’t it just something people need to do in gym classes and quirky yoga lessons? Rather on the contrary, so many skills are developed or fine-tuned when we balance, that steadiness on one leg is actually very important to keep practising. The different skills that are required, such as strength, agility, awareness of the body in space, stability and concentration, tend to deteriorate with age, and if we never practise balancing on one leg, we may feel increasingly unstable on two! If you believe you can’t balance easily, take this opportunity to challenge yourself and improve, because you can and you may even come to love it. Read on if you’d like to know how to improve your balance.
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If you feel a little rusty and sluggish after the Christmas holidays, a short, daily yoga session can do wonders. It doesn’t have to be long or complicated, just enough to move your back, stretch your limbs, deepen your breath and encourage the blood circulation. What’s required is your attention, so that the movements are done well and the mind can relax too. The sequence below is good to keep your back mobile and healthy as it gently mobilises and lengthens the spine. It’s also generally beneficial and you may feel the positive effect on your mood. Here’s to the New Year!

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In my blogs about yoga for back pain the emphasis is often on relaxation: releasing tightness and relaxing the body and the mind. However, even with back pain we need a bit more ‘oomph’ sometimes. Stimulating yoga poses include standing poses, back bends and dynamic flow sequences, but many of these 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 if your back needs plenty of TLC.

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If you have trouble falling asleep or if you wake up during the night with your mind in overdrive, a yoga bedtime routine might help. The idea is not only to release physical tensions, but also to calm the mind, so that falling asleep and staying asleep become easier. Beneficial for most kinds of back pain as well, the yoga bedtime routine is designed with practices that can soothe the nervous system. Do try it out and let me know if it works for you.
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When I was very young, someone told me that we can never “own” a person: no person is ever ours to have and to keep. At that tender age I was impressed, but understood it to be true: people move on, people change, age, die, … Yoga philosophy teaches us that we find inner freedom when we let go of attachments. Of course, understanding this does not make it any easier when the time comes to part with a beloved person. Loving without possessiveness, and thus freely letting go, is hard, very hard. My son is ‘leaving the nest’ and even though I considered myself prepared, and I have had to feel grief before, it hurts. Yoga practices have given me an array of tools to help me deal with grief. They can, as it were, hold me by the hand and bring me back to a sense of inner peace. Because I know we all have to deal with loss and grief sooner or later, I decided to share some of these yoga practices for healing grief with you today.
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One of the greatest causes of back pain in our Western societies is the amount of sitting we do every day, and the way we sit, out of alignment or slouching. I realise that sitting straight is not cool; it is less relaxing and may look uptight. However, there are so many negative side effects from slouching that it is essential to include a good sitting posture in our self-care programme. Reducing slouching habits can have a positive effect on our breathing, digestion, mood, energy and back health!

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