The Yoga rules

By Glen Wood

Doing yoga cultivates a balance between the flexibility and strength of the muscles of the body, often the real culprit in back pain. While yoga can confer many benefits on the back or neck pain sufferers, it can have its pitfalls. Establish a yoga practice that takes into consideration why you have back pain, and how much of it there is.

The health benefits of yoga are many and wide reaching from increasing strength and muscle tone to relieving back pain and treating serious medical conditions. To achieve all the benefits for mind and body that yoga has to offer is not as simple as doing a bit of stretching. To be most effective, yoga requires the practitioner to follow a well-designed routine of poses and their counter-poses. With back pain, that's why most people go to classes and one of the obstacles to practicing yoga at home - unless you're as experienced as a teacher - is knowing the right poses and the order to practice them.

The other aspect of Yoga is its curative power. It has been seen over a period of time that mostly people get enticed to learn and practice Yoga for its curative properties. Yoga helps manage or control many ailments including asthma, arthritis, back pain and blood pressure. Therefore, it becomes very important that the Yoga trainer should be an expert in all postures and their effects before jumping on to the career bandwagon. Generally, if somebody has a physical problem, then emphasis is laid on asanas and breathing exercises. Mediation along with breathing exercises in also practiced. If the person has mental illness, depression or anxiety, then more stress is laid on mediation and breathing exercises.

With back, neck and shoulder pain, each yoga pose is held for anywhere from five to sixty seconds. The level of difficulty and the physical comfort experienced by the student doing the exercise determines the length of time for holding the pose. Yoga should not be practiced on a hard floor. The student should always be using a mat or some other article that can be both soft and supportive. Each pose loosens up certain muscles while stretching others. Stretching is a very important part of the yoga experience. It lessens the tension of the area, increases blood flow at the same time as allowing muscles to feel this extra nourishment. It trains the body to be healthy.

If you have pre-existing back pain, which style of Yoga should you seek out? Regardless of style, you may want to observe a Yoga class before trying it. You should seek out a gentle style, and you should talk to your prospective Yoga teacher ahead of time.

Glen Wood - The Yoga Teacher, dedicated to unlocking the Real Secrets of Back, Shoulder and Neck Pain.

To help you further with your shoulder/back pain you need to sign up for your FREE "Yoga and You" report at http://www.YogaTeachingwithGlen.com