Lower Back Strength Excersizes

Stretching, breathing, relieving stress with yoga

The gentle voice of the teacher prompts the students' movements: Bending, stretching. Arms, legs, torso.

Slowly, they follow directions, breathing deeply all the while.

Amy Levin is teaching yoga.

Yoga combines body movement, meditation, awareness and breathing. Its advocates say it increases flexibility and balance, and the breathing exercises enhance mental clarity. It also is said to help with specific conditions such as joint tightness and lower back problems.

Levin became aware of yoga as a teenager when diagnosed with scoliosis. She followed the prescribed physical therapy, but the results did not meet her expectations. Then she discovered yoga, began lessons and found it increased her flexibility and range of movement.

Twenty-five years ago, she became a serious practitioner, then a teacher of yoga in 1997. Her exploration of yoga included spending four weeks studying therapeutic yoga in India, the birthplace of the discipline.

'Yoga encourages you to pay attention to your body," she said. 'It's a way to slow down and take stock, to go deeper into yourself."

People of all ages can practice yoga. Levin's students range in age from 23 to 73.

Iris Bliss has practiced yoga for four years with Levin, and considers it the ideal exercise for older adults.

'It's non-competitive, maintains flexibility, strength and balance and lowers blood pressure," she said. 'Balancing exercises have been shown to stimulate brain activity and slow the progress of dementia. Yoga exercises improve circulation."

Diana Summers has been practicing yoga with Levin for two years. She began yoga as a way to deal with arthritis and sciatic nerve pain. She was pleased, she said, by 'how good it made my body feel. I felt better almost right away after beginning yoga. And now I feel tired but refreshed when I finish each session."

Summers enjoys Levin's teaching style.

'She explains the moves, how to do them, and why we are doing them," she said. 'I'll keep doing it as long as I can.

Strengthening And Lengthening Core Muscles For Back Pain Relief ...

In this exercise I’m going to show you a great lengthening and strengthening exercise for your core musculature. This is really good for lower back pain . Strengthening your core musculature, lengthening your whole body out; this is a whole body movement, a whole body exercise. It strengthens your whole body, and lengthens the parts that are short, and relieves pain. This is a great exercise to do, it’s very simple. You’ll start out with a yoga mat, a sticky yoga mat, not a slippery yoga mat which some are. So we’re really particular about that. You can buy this from my website, or from any website, or from different places. You can also do this on the floor, on a floor with a solid surface. But I prefer a yoga mat This exercise will show you a fabuluous way to get rid of your lower back pain and upper back pain at the same time, and altogether lengthen and strengthen the core musculature of your body and the base of support for your core. Initially, you’ll want to start out with your legs, stand up straight, you’re two feet are parallel with your ankles, your knees and your hips. Your feet should be facing forward. This is your base of support, to support the core structures of your body. Now raise your arms above your head, straighten your arms. If you’re unable to, take it into a “V” shape. But it’s critical that you’ll straighten your arms. And then bring them as close as you can towards the center. Straighten your arms out. The arms, the body, and the legs should be vertical. If you need to do a “V” shape that’s fine too. Start where you can do it. The point of this exercise is to really work at where you’re at, and eventually, if you do this every day, you’ll be able to place your arms straight out. Now, my arms are up, and my lower back starts to fall forward. So I’m going to rock my weight back into my heels a little bit, push the front of my heels into the ground, and I’m going to lengthen my body out. It pushes my lower back backward, and gives more length to my body, strengthens the back of the body and lengthens the part of the part of the front of the spine on the lower back, and the pelvis. This is a great exercise, it’s very easy to do, and it’s a great way to start. Have fun.

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