8 Yoga Poses that will Alleviate Your Back Pain

Hip opening stretches are great to help with lower back pain. During theses stretches focus on breathing slowly and deeply.

Meditate a little! 🙂

I always feel the best when I do these moves right after I wake up or even before I go to bed.

They really wake the body up and get all of the kinks out!

Erik and I can tell a huge difference in our achy old bodies when we skip doing yoga!

Ever since I’ve been pregnant my back hurts ALL OF THE TIME! I knew that I would hurt in my back, but it gets so bad that I can’t even move till my back stops spasming.

The only thing that has helped me alleviate my back pain is doing these moves. If I skip a day I feel a huge difference!

Try these yoga poses if you have back pain

There are also many other benefits to doing yoga. I feel like yoga is so underrated!

It really helps to calm yourself, but also to relive all of the lactic acid build up in your body.

When Erik starts people on a training program he always tells them to set aside time to meditate or do yoga.

With anything in life mindset can affect it a lot.

If you are unmotivated to workout, you won’t do it.

If you don’t want to eat healthy it won’t happen.

You have to change your mindset in order to help you achieve your goals.

So while you are doing your yoga sequence to help heal your back focus on centering yourself and having a more positive mindset.

Make sure you are careful that you don’t move beyond your range of flexibility.

Take this low and slow.

Try to focus on relaxing and stretching your muscles out.

If you try to overstretch or push your muscles to hard it can do more damage than good. So just try to breath deep and calm yourself.

Enjoy this yoga sequence and relax!

Ankle-to-knee pose

  • Start in a seated position with your feet on the floor, knees bent and shoulders relaxed
  • Slide right flexed foot under left knee so right knee rests on the floor
  • Stack left shin on top of right so left foot rests on right knee and left knee rests on right foot
  • Hold for a few deep breaths
  • If you would like a deeper stretch tilt forward
  • Switch your placement of legs and repeat

Seated side bend

You can do this either criss-crossed applesauce (like the good old kindergarten days!) Or you can do this with your legs spread wide open.

Any side bend variation helps a lot with back pain.

Excuse my dogs they either love to watch me do yoga or even try to snuggle with me. Its too cute!

  • Start in a comfortable seated position or legs open, whichever you prefer. Rest your right hand on the ground or comfortably in front of you
  • Stretch your left arm straight and bend the right
  • Focus on keeping your torso open and gaze up at your left hand
  • Hold for a few breaths and then repeat on the other side

Pigeon Pose

  • Start on all fours
  • Slide right leg forwards right knee comes next to right wrist
  • Put your left leg down to the ground extending directly behind you. Keep your left foot relaxed and your leg internally rotated
  • If you can and its comfortable, fold the top half of your body over your right left and on your forearms
  • If your belly won’t allow you to fold forward its okay to remain comfortably upright. Be careful not to put excess pressure on your lower back
  • Hold for a few deep breaths and then repeat on other side

Middle split forward bend

  • Sit with your legs extended straight in front of you
  • Spread your legs wide, like a straddle. Be careful not to overstretch because you don’t want to injure yourself
  • With a flat back, lean your chest towards the ground and place either your hands or forearms on the ground in front of you to hold yourself up
  • Hold for a few deep breaths

Rag Doll pose

As you can tell I can’t bend over to much because of my big tummy in the way, but its still a great move to do while being pregnant.

Just spread your legs a little wider so you can fit your cute tummy in between them!

  • Stand with your feet wider than hip width apart and knees slightly or significantly bent
  • Bend forward at the waist allowing your head to drop while your head and knees stay loose. Make sure to not to overstretch.
  • Hold for a few deep breaths

Yoga squat

  • Begin on your feet crouched down with your tailbone between ankles. and hands in prayer at your chest
  • Press your elbows against your inner thighs to get a deeper stretch
  • Hold for a few breaths
  • If you have a tough time staying in this pose you can do this stretch while your butt is sitting on an object. You can use a block or I occasionally use a foam roller

Cat-Cow pose

I use this one a ton, especially when I’m having round ligament pain or when my back hurts from sitting all day.

  • Start on all fours
  • During your inhale look up and allow your back to bend naturally
  • As you exhale round your spine and tuck your rear. Look down and toward naval
  • Continue going back and forth on your inhales and exhales
  • Do this for a few deep breaths

Wide-legged child’s pose

This will feel amazing when your belly is so heavy because it will take the pressure off of your back.

  • Kneel on the ground, butt on your heels with the top of your feet against the floor
  • Make sure your big toes are touching and your knees are wide apart (wider than hip-width apart)
  • Slowly bring the top half of your body to the ground in between your legs
  • Extend your arms in front of your body and rest your forehead on the ground
  • Hold for a few deep breaths

Comment below or share if this helped you!