I was a setup for lower back pain. I had two pregnancies in three years and I didn’t really try to rebuild my core between them.
In my postpartum courses, I walked outside and on a treadmill to get back into my exercise routine. My driveway is literally uphill both ways and I love walking hills on the treadmill because it’s an added muscle-building exercise in addition to the “cardio” aspect. The risk of this is over-training the posterior, or backside, of the body.
And that’s exactly what I did. I lost baby weight and shaped up my posterior leg muscles. But I didn’t put any attention into my anterior, or front side, like my ab or thigh muscles. This led to a lot of straining into my lower back.
My kids were average size when they were born and that’s the last time they were average size. They are big and I pick up two of them. We do outside work. I have a physical job. I was very weak anteriorly and getting more and more sore posteriorly.
There was one day in the fall that something particular happened to my lower back. I’m not exactly sure what it was, likely picking something (or someone) up, but I couldn’t get comfortable after that. I was jarred. Interestingly, it was just weeks before my board examination.
I started focusing more on strengthening my anterior muscles. I stretched my posterior, used the foam roller. I’ve always done traditional yoga, which creates space in the body, so I continued.
I went to the chiropractor which helped some. I put a heating pad on my back.
I never took any medication, not even anti-inflammatories. It’s interesting that as a doctor, I now do a lot of things before I reach for medication.
This wasn’t debilitating pain. It was discomfort. It was annoying. Some days it was worse than others.
With any change of position, it would take a minute before the grip would let go. For example, when I got into bed at night and rolled onto my side, it ached deeply. As my weight settled into the bed, it would slowly release. The same happened when sitting or standing.
In my endless quest of betterment, I’ve decided to take chronic stress reduction seriously this year and I joined a local yoga Nidra class in January.
Yoga Nidra is also called yogic sleep. It’s a guided meditation. When you think of yoga movements and poses, this isn’t that. It’s lying on my back on a cushion while the instructor talks me through relaxation of body parts and mind.
The day of the fourth class I was really uncomfortable at work. I was walking around my office with a hand on my lower back. I was locked in extension (back arched) and felt jarred.
I went to class that evening, relaxed, and went home. The next day in my office, I noticed that I didn’t feel uncomfortable. It had been months since I had zero discomfort in my lower back.
Zero.
I kept it to myself.
That was Wednesday.
By Friday, I told my office staff all about it because I couldn’t believe it. I had no back pain, no discomfort. To this day, I have relief.
I told the yoga instructor at the next class to share this surprising and amazing result. She said she had led her grandmother, who uses a walker, through this type of yoga and the next day she walked without her walker.
I can’t quite explain it. Though I don’t need to explain it, I believe there’s a physical and mental component to this relief. We used a breathing technique where we “brought” the breath down to our tailbone repeatedly. Combined with the physical relaxation of the class, my body was able to release itself.
One of my co-workers said, “You must have been harboring your stress in your lower back.” I joined yoga Nidra to actively help myself with chronic stress management. Years of aspiring to be a doctor, pursuing the medical training, and now living the life have given me a career and the stress right alongside it. The disappearance of my back pain is a result that I was not expecting because I had no inkling that it was related to stress. In my mind, it was purely physical, so I tried physical things to relieve it.
That was the key: in my mind.
My mind needed to be part of the treatment regimen.
I’m still floored by this result, incredibly appreciative of it, and can’t wait for the next Nidra series.
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Some of the information contained in this article is the result of my training, medical knowledge, and personal experience without a specific source to be cited.
This is not medical advice.
