TF03: Yoga Therapy’s Value in Low-Back Pain

Speaker bio: Loren Fishman, MD, C-IAYT

Low-back pain is the medical reason people most frequently cite for taking up yoga—and medical students may spend less than one afternoon learning about it! Special training in treating back pain is generally reserved for orthopedic surgical residency. These two facts may be connected: Many people come to yoga as the most reasonable option on the safer side of surgery.

In this session, you’ll get acquainted with a workable strategy for assessing low-back pain through a yoga therapy lens, along with evidence-informed methods for working with this all-too-common malady.

The same back-pain symptoms can arise from different causes, and the course of action may be different—even diametrically opposite—based on the cause. We will discuss the three main types of low-back pain: (1) neurological (herniated disc, central spinal stenosis); (2) musculoskeletal (muscle spasm, facet syndrome, sacroiliac joint derangement, scoliosis/kyphosis); and (3) mixed neurological and musculoskeletal (piriformis syndrome, spondylolisthesis, arthritis). We will consider the physiology, signs and symptoms, and yoga therapy strategies for each cause. We will also delve into yoga methods of assessment and their use in detecting people’s attitudes, underlying mood, and disposition, which are often critical factors in assuaging lower-back pain. We may even experiment with some of my favorite poses!

Learning Objectives

1. Identify and characterize the three major categories of low-back pain.
2. Name three salient characteristics of low-back pain of neurological origin.
3. Name three salient characteristics of low-back pain of musculoskeletal origin.