What You Need to Know About Yoga for Lower Back Pain

You know that feeling.

First thing in the morning, or when you stand up from sitting, your body feels stiff and cranky. Especially your lower back. You may blame it on aging, but it’s actually what you’ve done with your body every day over the last few decades or more. How you’ve sat, how you’ve stood, and how you’ve moved.

There are many causes of lower back pain, but most of them come down to imbalances in your musculoskeletal structure based on what you’ve done with your body up until this point. While most people over 45 have vertebral disc degeneration, but this isn’t usually the cause of pain. Because most people have disc degeneration and many experience zero symptoms, I feel this is often a red herring.

Posture has the biggest effect on your lower back. I will write more specifically about this next week, but broadly, what you do with your body matters. Slouching for a minute once in a while is no big deal. Slouching for 20-40 years will lead to serious dysfunction. Muscle strain and tightness build up over time, and eventually you can’t stand up straight, even if you wanted to.

And don’t get me started on how we sit/stand while using devices…I will rant about that more next week.

Yoga to the rescue?

Yoga encourages good posture through stretching and strengthening. Tight or weak lower back muscles aren’t the only source of lower back pain. There are many muscles that attach to the Lumbar spine (lower back) and pelvis that can get tight or weak and affect how your lower back feels and functions. Just stretching the lower back will not give you what you need to get out of pain. Often, without understanding the nature of your pain, it can make things worse.

We are one-side-dominant creatures, so even though we have mostly the same parts and pieces on both sides of our body, we use them differently. Over time, this can lead to one side being stronger/weaker or tighter/looser than the other. Plus we don’t lead symmetrical lives. Many movements are one sided, like driving, brushing your teeth, or playing certain sports.

Playing tennis or golf, for example, can lead to lower back pain simply because they are one directional sports. With golf you never swing in the other direction. Tennis has forehand and backhand, but because you mostly hold the racquet with one hand, you use your body differently on each side. Repeating these swings over years and decades leaves you imbalanced, where one side is tighter than the other.

Yoga is a bilateral practice, where everything you do on one side, you do to the other. While an hour of yoga a day won’t undo 40 years of imbalances, it can help move you toward center. Every little bit helps.

Important note: if you have severe, acute lower back pain, talk to your doctor before beginning any sort of exercise routine. Some types of lower back pain require surgery, though most do not. If you have chronic aching or stiffness in the lower back, you will most likely benefit from practicing yoga.

Functional movement and strength

As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Working on your posture, strengthening, and stretching can help prevent lower back pain. Even if you already have lower back pain, yoga might help you feel better.

Practicing yoga cultivates both functional movement and strength. While some of the poses might look unnatural from the outside, they encourage mobility and strength in a way that mimics the movements of daily life.

For example, Utkatasana/Awkward pose, mimics how we get in and out of a chair. Tadasana/Mountain pose encourages the good posture we need for sitting or standing upright. Any revolved pose mimics the twisting movements that we do, like looking over your shoulder while driving or pulling weeds when gardening. Or playing tennis or golf.

Building strength and encouraging mobility through multiple planes of motion makes yoga one of the best ways to cross-train for life. This becomes more important as the years go on. Preventing injury is much easier than healing from one when you are over 50. If your body is conditioned for life’s movements, you are less likely to hurt yourself.

Simple yoga poses for lower back pain

While there are many imbalances that can lead to lower back pain, here are three simple yoga poses that will strengthen your core and create mobility in the spine. These poses can be modified as necessary. I have included links to other posts with further detail on the modifications.

Cat/Cow

While these are technically two poses, it’s rare that you practice one without the other. Ideally when you move from Cat to Cow and back to Cat, you want to move sequentially through the spine, starting each pose by moving the pelvis and finishing by moving the head.

Start in Table pose, stacking your shoulders over your wrists and your hips over your knees. Spread the fingers wide on the mat and press every knuckle into the floor. If this bothers your wrists, you can make fists and keep the wrists straight resting on your knuckles. Alternatively, you can lower your elbows to the floor, bringing your forearms parallel to each other with your elbow under your shoulders.

As you exhale, aim the tailbone for the floor and round the spine one vertebra at a time, dropping the head as your finish your exhale. This is Cat pose. On your inhale, lift the tailbone, drop your waist, pull your chest forward through your arms and you soften the shoulder blades down your back. Your head lifts last to arrive in Cow pose.

Exhale to move into Cat pose, and inhale to Cow pose. Go back and forth between these two poses, following your breath. Do each pose 3-5 times.

Watch this video to see 3 variations of Cat and Cow pose:

Watch this video for a short Cat/Cow flow to open the spine, as well as the hips:

Plank pose

This is one of the best core strengthening and lower back stabilizing poses you can do. I can take some time to build up the strength, but your body will thank you. Remember to keep breathing through your nose while holding this pose. Steady, even breathing will keep your mind calm as you hold this pose.

Start again in Table pose. Extend your right leg behind you with the ball of the foot on the floor. Stand on the right foot as you extend the left leg behind you. This is Plank pose. Engage your abdominals, pelvic floor, glutes, inner thighs, and quads. The hips should be lower than the shoulders but higher than the heels.

For more support, lower your knees to the floor behind your hips so that you are one straight line from your head to your knees. Engage the same muscles as above. You can also do this on your forearms like Cat and Cow. Hold Plank pose for as long as you can without struggling, working your way up to 10 breaths or longer.

Here is a deep dive into Plank pose and all the modifications:

Ask a Yoga Teacher: Plank Pose

Here’s a video with alignment guidance and modifications:

Bridge pose

This pose strengthens both the spinal muscles and glutes (a huge culprit with lower back pain). I’ll be doing a full post on Bridge pose this coming Saturday, January 3, 2026 as part of my Ask a Yoga Teacher series, but here are the basics.

Start on your back with your knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Your feet should be between hip and shoulder distance apart and parallel to each other. Inhale a breath. As you exhale, engage your pelvic floor and lower abdominals, maintaining the small space under your lower back. As you inhale, press your feet, especially your heels, into the floor and lift your hips and high as they will go. Engage the glutes.

You can stay as you are, with your arms forward on the floor, palms facing the ceiling. For more chest and shoulder opening, walk your shoulders toward each other underneath the body. Interlace your fingers, pressing the palms and wrists together in Yoga Mudra. Reach the tailbone forward toward your knees as your chest moves toward your chin, creating the upper back backbend.

Hold this pose for 5-10 breaths, then rest. Repeat, interlacing the fingers with the other fingers on top (they all shift over by 1).

Here’s a video to guide you through Bridge pose:

Coming in March

If you suffer from a stiff and cranky lower back and want to do something about it, stay tuned! In March 2026 I will be launching Yoga for the Lower Back, an online program to support lower back health when you are over 50. More details to come!

Click the button below to be notified when the course goes live. Anyone who registers for the course before April 1st will get 25% off the course price!