muscle pain relief

Tadasana: Mountain (Standing) Pose

This may seem an odd place to start, but in yoga the bringing attention to the feet, through the standing pose is an easy way of becoming conscious of what is happening in the rest of the body. I’d go so far as to say that it informs everything!

I’ve mentioned before, that I had a history of back pain that developed after starting to do Iyenga Yoga regularly, back in 2001. It happened a few months before 9/11 and you can read about it here.

But it wasn’t until 2003 that I took it seriously when it happened a second time, and then realised I needed to make some adjustments, which I did.

I found some wonderful Inner Heart Yoga teachers in my local area, the first two being Erica Rasmussen and James Jewell. They are both magnificent yoga teachers who specialise in other body-related therapies, she in Craniosacral therapy and he in Bowen.

What I learned with each of them was so valuable, because I loved yoga but when my back went out-of-whack it just felt too strong. They taught me another way and they are both Jenny Beeken Trained Teachers.

Getting On Board With Yourself

Firstly I learned to take it back a notch, and this form of yoga, which I highly recommend for anyone, takes you into the deeper area of connecting you with what you body needs, rather than straining to reach a posture without any ideas of whether your body wants to go there or not.

This is how I learned to get fully on-board with myself, and in hindsight it took getting injured to achieve it.

Erica teaches in Kent and James did too but then moved to Spain, and he’s runs various Yoga Retreats in various countries from there. I went to one of his retreats at Molina Del Ray, which is itself a magical venue, there’s quite a history behind it’s origins, which is a dedicated post alone to do it justice.

Connecting With Your Body

Although yoga poses often look the same, this style of yoga differs, because it’s not about reaching a hand to the ground if the body isn’t ready, and with many styles of yoga the ego takes over, competing with other class attendees or even yourself, I know because I’ve also been there. Instead this way teaches you how to be mindful as you move into, and out of a posture, and where to hold the posture to suit your needs on the day.

One day can differ from another, even the time of day makes a difference. The body warms up as we get into the day, and with this in mind it’s preferable for the more flexible among us to exercise earlier in the day in order prevent overdoing it, and the less flexible to exercise later in the day, when they can achieve more. This refers back to an earlier reference to body hyper-flexibility in relation and susceptibility to injury.

The Postures

There are a number of poses to recommend for back pain, and if you look at many other sites, here’s a nice one that makes it look so easy. Her experience and story differs to mine.

When I was doubled up in pain, and recovering at that stage, I found yoga such a handy technique, even though I was limited in what I could do, alongside the usual hot and cold compresses, pain killers and ibuprofen.

There are however two or three poses I developed as my go-to’s during those times and would highly recommend them to anyone no matter how debilitated you are in the moment:

Standing Pose

Just stand on a yoga mat or a space on the carpet or laminated floor and get a sense of your feet, start to tune into your feet, your legs, your hips, your shoulders, your head. Spend 5-mins plus on this just so that you come to stillness and start sensing your body, and it’s stance.

Child Pose

The child pose is gentle and cannot be overdone, because your back well and truly let’s you know where you can get to with it, listen to it, and don’t strain, it’ll be far more beneficial. You will see this pose with arms outstretched or by the side, do whichever feels the most comfortable. Do what you can you will become more flexed once you start where you are, instead of pushing yourself, which is how injury comes about.

Body Twist

This pose is quite strong, but very good for an injured back, because done gently it really stretches out the spine. If you’re injured you may not be able to move the head, which is meant to turn in the opposite direction to the legs, to get the full effect, and if it is too much, for now, just keep the head centred.

Those are my tips for getting your back into better shape, but gently does it all the way, as I’ve probably emphasised over again, it’s very easy to overdo it with yoga, but it’s such a wonderful technique there’s little need to make it into a sport, and is best approached for body awareness, rather than a competition.

NB: All the images, apart from The Molina del Ray are taken from Jenny Beeken’s Yoga Books, if you want to check any of them out at Amazon.

Just to be clear I’m not trained as a yoga teacher, although my curiosity took me to take Jenny’s foundation year of training through another local yoga teacher. The information here is what I learned through my back and connected injuries.

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Who hasn’t had back ache at one time or another, because sometimes it’s just part of a cacophony of symptoms, when you’re suffering with flu or a viral infection.

But standalone back aches and pains are quite a different matter, and getting completely free of it seems nigh on impossible when you’re lying prostrate on the ground unable to bring yourself into the vertical, due to the pain.

This Happened To Me

In the spring of 2001 I experienced a back injury. I had been enjoying a Tai Chi evening class at a local college, when the company I worked at started offering Yoga classes one night a week. I took to it like a duck-to water, absolutely loved it, and felt about it the way I had about dancing back-in-the-day, couldn’t get enough.

It transpired that I was very flexible and could make all manner of shapes, which was very satisfying to my ego, but then it happened. One day as I was warming up in the gym, I had the idea of using my new found yoga success by doing a Down Face Dog pose. A classical error of course, and within a few minutes I was coiled up on the mat, having ice packs rushed to the scene. And that was the start of my bad back story and my allergy to gyms funnily enough.

According to the charity Backcare 80% of the entire population will have suffered with back-pain at some time in their life.

Does Being Flexible Lead To Injury?

According to the Physiotherapist, who tested my mobility with a range of finger/thumb bending exercises, people who are hyper-flexible are more prone to injuries during exercise because they don’t have the same sensory messages from the brain advising that they’re overdoing it. She also said it takes the injured area longer to recover.

As mentioned that was in 2001, but it happened again in 2003, and it too had what I assumed was another association with yoga although I wasn’t doing a yoga pose at the time my back pinged (a technical term haha).

I’d attended a yoga retreat weekend and they’d worked us, where again my love of moving myself into postures. And in all innocence it felt beneficial (of course it wasn’t the yoga, the issue sat in overdoing it). A week or so later, I was kneeling on the garden patio just reaching for something when it happened, only this time it meant business.

In hindsight I wasn’t listening to my body:mind:brain the first time around, regardless of the humiliation I’d undergone, i.e. needing an orthopedic chair at work, and walking as though I’d got an ironing-board glued to my spine. But the memory soon forgets, or does it?

My conscious memory certainly had, and of course the body adapts.

The original discomfort went and my yoga resumed, where it took a little while to resume normal service and of course my practice was deepening simultaneously, so you never have the same experience twice anyway.

Why Does The Pain Continue To Come And Go

Now I understand it from a completely different perspective. Firstly I finally found myself a much kinder form of yoga, that came from the Jenny Beeken school of yoga, that is far more mindful than the Iyengar model I’d been using, and I found some amazing teachers in my locality.

I went to a really good McTimoney Chiropractor as well, which helped my back become more malleable again. But the back continued to ping off and on for many years, with less frequency, but never the less.

Then one day META-Health stepped into my life, which I mentioned recently here, and that’s when a far greater understanding of what had been going on came about and I was able to address the actual cause that would let the back pain be gone for good.

Read more about what creates back pain here, so that you can finally get free of it..

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Changing unwanted patterns with all-things-food makes an enormous difference to everything else, especially how you feel about yourself.

When it comes to making better decisions, addressing what stops you is a very good place to start. Are you ready to take the plunge?

According to the UK’s Back Care Statistics, back pain is so common that according to a survey published in 2000 around 40% of adults report suffering with Lower Back Pain (lasting for at least 24-hrs) at some time each year.

It goes on to estimate that around 80% of adults will experience it at some point in their life, although in most cases it won’t linger the indications of cost on our overburdened health service, is costly to say the least.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey

The report goes on to assert there is no clear pathology that identifies a cause, although they say there could be contributing factors such as:

• Having had back pain before
• Smoking or obesity
• Physical factors such as heavy physical work, where frequent bending, twisting, lifting, pulling and pushing are involved
• Repetitive work, static postures and vibration
• Psycho-social factors such as stress, anxiety, depression, job (dis)satisfaction, mental stress

What does META-Medicine say

According to META-Medicine there are very specific causes to all pain and disease, so let’s look at what might be causing Lower Back Pain shall w?

The muscular-skeletal system comes under the jurisdiction of the Medulla brain relay, and is identified as being a self-worth issue. But what does this mean in terms of the lower back, well firstly we need to get more specific as there are a range of areas around the lower back, so let’s take a look at a couple of them.

We’re going to draw from The Biogenealogy Sourcebook by Christian Fleche because it’s a mainstay in assisting with META-Medicine diagnosis and well worth a read if this sort of thing interests you.

First let’s look at the Coccyx because it’s at the base of the spine and helps with stabilization:

• It helps us stand upright and distinguishes us from other animals
• Symptoms in this area are related to self-worth at the base of the personality
• This loss of self-worth can be related to a loss of self-worth in relation to expressing oneself sexually

So already we can see a picture emerging of how being in the wrong job or a failing relationship could be impacting a person’s health.

Another area to consider is that of the Inter-vertebral Disks which stem from conflicts that are less severe than those affecting the bone, where a person suffering this way:

• May not feel up to the job
• Or may not feel they can rely on themselves for inner strength
• Disk problems can arise from a situation where someone is buffered between two people arguing

Could it be more simple

You may be beginning to notice how simple this stuff is, because there is a clear correlation between the affected area and the type of conflict that lies at the root, and this is what I’ve found so magical about the META-Medicine diagnosis.

I’ve yet to come across a case where it doesn’t work, the challenge lies in being honest with yourself so you can open up to the process of listening to what the brain is desperately wanting to communicate by creating the pain in the first place.

Once you recognize what’s going on, within, you can fully begin a proper recovery process and that may require some lifestyle or other changes in order to learn-from the lessons and heal they body.

What is clear is that an acute back pain will clear within 6-wks, but if you’re among the 7% of the population where it develops into a chronic condition, then you won’t find a better system for learning the information behind the pain, in order to become free of the discomfort.

Simple measures can be taken to reduce the chances of developing back pain and thereby reducing the impact of existing back pain.

But nearly 40% of back pain sufferers consult with a GP and 10% will visit an alternative practitioner for help. It’s now accepted practice to advise that remaining active is vital as resting up will make the pain worse.

Does exercise help

Physical exercise can be very effective in helping to overcome the stiffness and discomfort, from personal experience I’ve found gentle yoga very helpful as one of a number of recuperative methods in assisting full recovery. But for me the pain didn’t actually stop occurring until I uncovered what lay beneath and now I’m pain-free.

In order to become free from a recurring chronic back pain the treatment will require the discovery of what underlies the origins for you and then a range of clearing methods.

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Working with Jane

Changing unwanted patterns with all-things-food makes an enormous difference to everything else, especially how you feel about yourself.

When it comes to making better decisions, addressing what stops you is a very good place to start. Are you ready to take the helm?