Yoga and the Back Pain

Back pain, one of the common problems of present day, is caused due to stress and tension in the muscles that support the spine. Sedentary lifestyle, stress, overuse or under use of the back, postural mistakes are unconscious triggers to the widespread problem of back pain. Regular exercise is a redeeming feature that brings relief to back pain. 

Backache strikes when the muscles are under fatigue, commonly at the neck or lumbar region (where most twisting, turning or bending occurs). Frequent backaches occur due to overstrained or over stretched muscles, improper sitting positions, stress, lumbar scoliosis and earlier injuries. Many conditions cause back pain and they can be treated with conscious and gentle yoga practice. It has proven to be a safe and effective way to alleviate many forms of back pain and prevent its recurring bouts. However, all cases of back pain need to be evaluated by a medical expert for diagnosis and treatment.

Healing Benefits of Yoga

Yoga strengthens muscle groups. Many postures in yoga strengthen the back and abdominal muscles and help the body maintain a proper upright posture and movement. Stretching and relaxation reduces tension in stress carrying muscles. When these muscles are well conditioned, it helps to offset back pain.

Yoga eases lower back pain, by stretching and strengthening the muscles of the lower back. It increases blood circulation, which brings healing nutrients to the injured tissues. Yoga for the Back also helps maintain a natural curvature of the spine that is crucial in avoiding lower back pain. 

Thus, Yoga is an excellent therapy for healing injured and sore back muscles, speeding time to recover from an injury and preventing re injury. It also reduces the risk of disability due to back pain. In short, Yoga increases awareness of the body and keeps the body healthy and supple. 

How to Lose Weight with Yoga

A month ago I was exercising rarely and had packed 5 extra pounds on my thighs and backside to prove it. My favorite blue jeans were banished to the back of a drawer, and I was fidgeting in bed every night. I was exhausted but too wired to sleep. It was awful. But I'd be lying if I said it was unusual. As a freelance writer, part-time editor, and live-in girlfriend to a night-owl musician, I work crazy hours and go out as often as I can. Sure, I'd go on mini health kicks for a week here and there. Then I'd get bored and return to pulling all-nighters and gorging on nachos. In a way, I was the worst person to test yoga for weight loss potential. But, in another, I was the best. Most people fall off the exercise wagon as quickly and as often as I do. If I could make yoga stick and slim down, it would bode well for yo-yo dieters everywhere. It would also be pretty surprising, considering that yoga is farbetter known for promoting relaxation than burning fat.

 

 As a sporadic fitness fan, I'd taken yoga classes at gyms and studios around New York, and had even done Bikram one or two times a week for almost a month last summer (until a beer-soaked trip to Europe broke my momentum). My objective was to find a way to do yoga no less than four times a week and see if that alone—I planned to eat the same as always, no dieting—would melt away my excess flab. It took a hefty amount of trial and error to find a routine that fit my unpredictable life. But by the end of Week 3, I was shocked to discover that yoga was starting to become a part of who I was—and that the number on the scale was steadily dropping.

Week 1: No Way Om

Since I had fond, if fuzzy, memories of hot yoga, I slotted it in for two of my four weekly workouts. Only now I lived 30 blocks from the nearest Bikram studio and, on most days of the week, work would make my only option an 8 PM class. Not ideal, but worth a try.

That first Monday I was working at home and struggling to meet a monster deadline. When 7:30 rolled around, I struggled to shift gears. Yoga. Yoga. What did I need for yoga? It was 7:58 when I rolled in, and the place was packed with a crowd that was as unrealistically fit and attractive as the cast of Lost. I shimmied through the swarm of bodies in the locker room, changed hunched over in a corner, and had to ask two chatting Evangeline Lily look-alikes to make room for my mat on the floor. Apparently Bikram had become way more popular since the last time I tried it.

I did my best to focus as I followed the teacher through the 26 postures over the course of 90 sweltering minutes (the room was heated to a suffocating 105 degrees). After class I was so dizzy I had to stand next to my bike for a while, just breathing the cool night air, before I felt steady enough to ride. When I got home, it was 10 p.m., and I still had to shower. My boyfriend and dog shot me accusatory looks from the couch as I headed to bed completely exhausted—only one night into my weight-loss experiment, and I was already neglecting my family.

The two slow-moving hatha classes I took that week were a walk in the park. There's a low-key studio right around the corner from our condo and the classes were blissfully small though still time-consuming at 75 minutes. Another downside: They were a little too easy. The stretching felt wonderful and my muscles were getting a mild workout from all those warrior Is, IIs, and IIIs, but it seemed like a shame to exercise for that long yet burn so few calories.

By Friday I had somehow managed to drop a pound and was already sleeping better and feeling less tense. My outlook, on the other hand, was crappy. There was no way I had the time or money to keep this up. Four classes had added up to $64, and I hadn't run a single errand or seen a friend all week. If I wanted to meet my goal of becoming a size 4 yogi, I was going to need a Plan B.

Easy way to Get Glowing Skin

We all know the basics of good skin by now, right? Always wear sunscreen, and if all else fails, fake it with a good bronzer or some pretty blush. But here are a few secret tips that don’t take a lot of time or money. From tweaking your skin care routine to no-fuss secret foods that give your skin a boost, here are some of our new favorites.

How to get glowing skin: Don’t skip toner.
We know it’s hard enough to remember to moisturize every night, but adding toner to your daily routine could make all the difference to your face. It can help balance your skin’s pH level and shrink the look of pores—talk about a clean sweep.
How to get glowing skin: Use an illuminating BB cream.
The lightweight consistency of beauty balm is great for transitioning your beauty routine into the warmer-weather months, and it’s also packed with moisturizing and anti-aging benefits. Your skin will look sexy in one easy step.
How to get glowing skin: Exercise daily.
Getting your heart pumping doesn’t have to entail a marathon session at the gym. Quick 10-minute breaks throughout the day (like taking a walk around the block or climbing the stairs at work) can get your blood flowing and bring a natural flush of color to your skin.
How to get glowing skin: Eat cucumbers.
Cucumbers contain vitamin C and caffeic acid, two antioxidants that help fend off wrinkles and sun damage. Vitamin C gives your skin a boost of collagen and elastin, which keeps you looking radiant. Plus, you can save the leftovers for a cooling eye mask or add them to your water for a refreshing twist on plain old H2O.
How to get glowing skin: Use your night cream in the morning.
Because our night creams are typically more hydrating than daytime lotions, use one in the morning before applying sunblock for an extra dose of moisture.

Yoga and Health Benefits

Yoga and Health

Chronic Backpain
When doctors at the HMO Group Health Cooperative in Seattle pitted 12 weekly sessions of yoga against therapeutic exercises and a handbook on self-care, they discovered the yoga group not only showed greater improvement but experienced benefits lasting 14 weeks longer. A note of caution: "While many poses are helpful, seated postures or extreme movement in one direction can make back pain worse," says Gary Kraftsow, author of Yoga for Wellness, who designed the program for the study.

Depression
Low brain levels of the neurotransmitter GABA are often found in people with depression; SSRIs, electroconvulsive therapy, and now yoga, it seems, can boost GABA. Preliminary research out of the Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard's McLean Hospital found that healthy subjects who practiced yoga for one hour had a 27 percent increase in levels of GABA compared with a control group that simply sat and read for an hour. This supports a growing body of research that's proving yoga can significantly improve mood and reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Menopause
A preliminary study at the University of California, San Francisco, found that menopausal women who took two months of a weekly restorative yoga class, which uses props to support the postures, reported a 30 percent decrease in hot flashes. A four-month study at the University of Illinois found that many women who took a 90-minute Iyengar class twice a week boosted both their energy and mood; plus they reported less physical and sexual discomfort, and reduced stress and anxiety.

Yoga and Heart Failure
A regimen of yoga is safe for patients with chronic heart failure and helps reduce signs of inflammation often linked with death. More than 5 million Americans have chronic heart failure, a long-term condition in which the heart no longer pumps blood efficiently to the body's other organs.
Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta who measured the effects of an eight-week yoga regimen on heart failure patients found the yoga routine improved exercise tolerance and quality of life.

More on Yoga and Health

Uniqueness of Surya Namaskar

Surya Namaskar

Best Energization Technique -Surya Namaskar brings a unique dimension to yoga. It energizes the body through a combination of stimulation and relaxation techniques. It can be singularly useful for people with either Tamas (inertia), Rajas (hyperactivity) or Satva (balance). In every human physiology, we have both stress response and relaxation response but we do not seem to have control over them. Yoga, and especially Surya Namaskar, brings a voluntary control over this involuntary capacity of human physiology and personality.

Best Aerobic tool -Surya Namaskar is also a very effective cardiovascular exercise. There is a common concern that Yoga does not provide adequate cardiovascular endurance. Not only does Surya Namaskar have cardiovascular benefits it is also least likely to cause injuries to muscles and joints. This is attributed to the continuous variability of muscle length during a flow of 10 postures reducing the probability of the types of injuries typically seen in other forms of aerobic activity. Surya Namaskar practice produces hormonal balance thereby resulting in overall good health. According to recent research (Pubmed), Surya Namaskar can result in an energy expenditure of 230 kcals during a 30 min session for a 132 lb individual.

Breath Work - The alternate expansion and contraction of the chest helps in regulating and deepening the breath through the practice. For a novice yoga practitioner, it is hard to synchronize breathing with body postures. Regular practice of Surya Namaskar is the best way to learn the breath synchronization aspect of yoga practice.

Sense of body awareness – We are usually not aware of our bodies all the time. If we were, we would be sensitive to our posture, our discomforts and thereby avoid unnecessary wear and tear and be able to detect the onset of diseases. Surya Namaskar enhances this body awareness and improves overall quality of life.

Social Transformation – A mindful person is by nature more aware of other people’s feelings and hence tends to exhibit more empathy and kindness. Regular Surya Namaskar practice not only helps individuals with their personal health but benefits the entire society by moving people towards a more harmonious life one individual at a time.

Some other Physiological Benefits:

Cyclic Practice of yogic postures in Surya Namaskar helps to loosen up joints and muscles in a short period of time. Abdominal Organs are alternately stretched and compressed. This ensures proper functioning of the organs. Surya Namaskar removes nervous tension and anxiety due to the dynamic nature of the practice. This practice also has a profound positive effect on the back as it involves alternate backward and forward bends. It also improves spinal flexibility and results in improved immunity.