I did this simple yoga pose to relieve my lower back pain for a month – here's 3 things I learned

There are many yoga postures that can provide relief to lower back pain, especially when you consider that yoga focuses on the spine. It ensures you move your spine in all the directions it's intended to go. This alone can mean that yoga can benefit those with back pain when practised carefully, as it loosens and strengthens the back muscles in many different ways.

For years, I would practise forward bends to relieve the tightness I felt in my lower back. Forward bends have always felt nice for my body and have often resulted in some satisfying back clicks. Alongside this, I would practise gentle backbends on my yoga mat, like cobra, to strengthen my lower back muscles, which I hoped would reduce the likelihood of my muscles going into spasms. However, neither of these things have sorted my continuous lower back discomfort so I thought it was time to try something different.

Revolved head-to-knee pose stretches many parts of the body including the shoulders, chest, spinal extensors, intercostals, obliques, hamstrings and hips. There's a lot going on in this one yoga posture and, while it doesn’t immediately look like one that would relieve lower back pain, targeting these other areas can make a difference to the way your lower back feels.

Here’s what I learnt from practising revolved head-to-knee pose every day for one month.

1. Focusing on tight hips and sides reduces lower back pain

Not all lower back pain comes from just those low back muscles being tight. Our upper and lower body is connected by something called the Psoas muscle. This is a big muscle that runs from the tops of the thigh, through the pelvis to join onto the spine via the lower back. When this muscle becomes chronically tight, it can lead to lower back pain as it pulls the pelvis forward, which can lead to spasms in the lower back.

In terms of how stretching your sides can help relieve lower back pain, this is simply about gaining more flexibility in the upper body and spine which will ultimately allow better ease of movement. Stretching our sides can allow us to sit taller, which will also help us to lift the weight up and out of our lower backs, taking the strain off the lower back.

After practising revolved head-to-knee pose every day for a month, I can feel the difference in my sides and hips. When in the posture, releasing my sides feels heavenly and, compared to when I started practising this posture, I can feel they're no longer as tight as they were. I'm now able to sit better with a straight spine for longer periods with less fatigue in my lower back and side muscles. I feel taller and this helps me to think about my posture more often throughout the day, giving me a chance to lift out of my lower back and give those muscles a brief stretch and release.

My hips have also benefited, both in terms of my Psoas and inner thighs being released regularly and my hamstrings being targeted. Tight hamstrings can contribute to low back pain as their tightening can pull the back muscles, creating tension.

Everything now feels looser around my hips which has allowed me to feel less tightness in my low back — there’s definitely a correlation there for me. I’ve not experienced any severe lower back discomfort since regularly practising this posture and I believe this to be because my hips are getting a good stretch every day so the tightening, which can cause that pain, is being kept at bay.

When considering what yoga postures to do to help relieve your lower back pain, my advice is to also target the hips and sides of the body, where possible, to find a deeper release than say, a forward bend, which will lengthen the lower back muscles but won’t necessarily target other tight areas that could be contributing to lower back discomfort.

2. Regularity is key

Although it may seem boring to practise the same yoga posture every day, there are huge benefits to doing so. If I had only practised this posture a few times, I wouldn’t necessarily feel the benefits I do now after a month of regular practise. Change takes time so it’s important to be patient to see results.

While I aimed to practise this posture in the mornings, some days I didn’t fit it in until later in the day and, towards the end of the month, I could feel in my body that I hadn’t done the revolved head-to-knee pose in the morning — my body began to crave it. If I left doing the pose until later in the day, I would notice that my back would feel like it needed to click and my hips felt tight.

As soon as I’d done the posture, my body felt better, like I had given it what it needed. Regularity is truly key in seeing long-term, and hopefully lasting, benefits.

3. Don’t assume your lower back pain stems from where it feels sore

Revolved head-to-knee pose targets a huge amount of the body, which is why I believe it has been so beneficial in helping me manage my lower back pain. As mentioned before, regularly releasing my hips, sides and hamstrings has definitely contributed to a more comfortable lower back for me. Similarly, your shoulders can also impact sensations felt in your lower back. Tight shoulders and traps can cause tension to continue to travel down the length of the back to the sacroiliac joint in the lower back area.

For me, by involving my shoulders in this posture, it helped to release some of the tension I was feeling down the length of my back, which could have then been contributing to the tightness I felt in my lower back. Seeing the body as a connected chain can help you realise that just because there's a source of pain in one place, this doesn’t necessarily mean that area is the cause of the pain.

Where you feel the pain is where the pain has surfaced but it doesn’t mean stretching just that area is going to solve the issue. For example, I have tight traps that can cause me to experience migraines when they’re really bad. I can treat the migraine but if I don’t massage my traps out, they will continue to come back. This can also be the case with lower back pain.

If you notice that by stretching your upper back and shoulders, your lower back feels more comfortable afterwards, consider that perhaps your lower back is not the issue and that the pain may start elsewhere. Addressing these areas as well gives you a better chance of managing your lower back pain in the long run.