In a previous blog post, we discussed your core muscles and the importance of keeping strong stomach and side muscles in order to overcome chronic back pain in Pittsburgh. If you have yet to read that particular blog post, you may be thinking, Hey, wait a minute; what do my belly and side muscles have to do with my back pain?

Your Core Muscles

Your core muscles are the muscles in your body that support your spine, mainly comprised of your abdominals, obliques, spinal erectors and other spinal muscles, your diaphragm, and your pelvic floor muscles. All of these muscles work together to provide 360 degree support, stability, and movement to your torso, so when one muscle group is weak, the other groups must compensate, most commonly causing strain on the back muscles as they compensate for weaker stomach and side muscles. When you strengthen your belly and side muscles through yoga, you may notice significant back pain relief.

How Does Yoga Strengthen Core Muscles?

Posture & Position

Even if you’ve never tried yoga before, you’re likely familiar with certain poses, such as downward facing dog, plank pose, or tree pose. Each pose in yoga is designed to activate certain muscle groups while others are allowed to relax and stretch. By performing the specific yoga poses, you can engage your belly and side muscles while giving your back muscles the chance to extend and release built up tension. Some great poses for this include downward facing dog, chair pose, child’s pose, thread the needle, cat pose, and more.

Controlled Stretching

Stretching out your core through yoga will go a long way in relieving tension in your back muscles and reducing your pain because proper stretching during yoga can help stretch and realign the spine. When in a pose such as downward-facing dog properly, your muscles may be stretched in ways they haven’t been in a long time or perhaps ever. Introducing new movement to your muscles will improve your range of motion and flexibility, and this is step one in engaging those core muscles you didn’t even know you had.

Controlled Breathing

In case you needed one more excuse to try yoga, allow us to explain how it can help you strengthen your core just by breathing correctly. A large portion of yoga is centered around breath control with inhales and exhales correlating correctly with body movement as you work through the poses. Proper breath control during yoga requires your belly muscles to engage and your lung capacity to improve, increasing the amount of oxygen your body is getting.

If you’re ready to try yoga to reduce your chronic back pain, talk to your doctor or chiropractor to find out if your body can handle it. Don’t have a chiropractor? Contact our chiropractic office today to discover how chiropractic care can help you get out of pain.