Should We Stop Teaching Yoga for Low Back Pain? — Jenni Rawlings Yoga & Movement Blog

Closing Thoughts From Jenni:

I think this article is important for the yoga community for a number of reasons.

On one hand, it might be disappointing to learn that science does not support the notion that yoga contains a special ingredient that makes it specifically healing for back pain.

But on the other hand, I think it’s actually encouraging to learn that science does support yoga as being about as helpful for back pain as exercise in general. This means that for those of us who feel motivated to use an active strategy to help with back pain, we have many options from which to choose! And if we happen to love yoga (which many people do), then yoga can be an excellent option for us – especially because we’re more likely to stick with a movement modality that we enjoy.

I’d also like to offer some additional thoughts on whether “Yoga for Back Pain” classes are evidence-based.

In my experience, most “Yoga for Back Pain” classes are not evidence-based. That’s because they tend to focus on biomechanical causes and solutions for back pain (as Paul discussed so well in the article).

However, if “Yoga for Back Pain” classes instead embraced a biopsychosocial approach to back pain, I think they could be evidence-based.

But ultimately, I don’t see how a biopsychosocial-informed “Yoga for Back Pain” class would look different in practice from a general yoga class that wasn’t specifically focused on back pain. In order to be evidence-based when it comes to pain, a yoga teacher mainly needs to avoid unhelpful biomechanical narratives and nocebos and allow the yoga they teach to work its nonspecific “magic” on students.

This doesn’t require anything more specific or specialized than creating a supportive and positive environment for yoga students to move, breathe, and pay attention to their body.

If a true evidence-based “Yoga for Back Pain” class looks no different from an evidence-based general yoga class, is the specific “back pain” title necessary or helpful?

Could embracing the nonspecific, positive effects that yoga can offer for back pain be freeing and empowering because we aren’t limited to narrow ideas about “Yoga for Back Pain” needing to be taught in a specific way?

I appreciate thoughtful articles like Paul’s because they do a great job of leaving us with as many questions as they do answers. I hope this piece offers you some insightful questions that help inform your perspective on how we can be helpful as yoga teachers – specifically with regard to students with back pain!