5 Yoga Poses to Protect Your Low Back

Your lower back takes on a lot of your body’s B.S. The area provides much of your core stability, which means that when surrounding muscles are weak or tight, your lower back tends to compensate.

Although lower back pain is incredibly common (nearly 10 percent of the world’s population experience it in 2020 and the World Health Organization estimates that almost everyone will experience lower back pain at least once in their lifetime), the causes are varied and personal. It could be your lifestyle—too many hours spent hunched at a screen or lifting heavy items without adequate preparation. Your tight hip flexors, shoulders, hamstrings, or weak glutes might be to blame. Or it could be just too much stress.

No matter what’s causing your back pain or strain, yoga is an effective means of addressing it. But due to the varied causes, a “this one yoga pose will fix-it!” approach is a non-starter. The following yoga poses focus on easing pain in your low back by stretching and strengthening the muscles that influence the area in order to help bring long-term relief.

5 Yoga Poses That Protect Your Lower Back

Anyone with pre-existing or known back injuries, herniated discs, and spinal anything should approach these poses with care and consult your physician prior to proceeding. If any pose begins to strain your lower back or cause discomfort beyond that of a really good stretch, stop immediately. The point is to support, not push, your body.

1. Bridge Pose

Lift your hips and give your back a break with Bridge Pose. Spending time in this mild inversion strengthens your core glutes, thighs, and your mid-to-upper back. It also improves slouchy, slumped posture, which could contribute to your lower back stuff.

2. Triangle Pose

This shape calls for full-body awareness as it activates your core, opens your chest, hips, and shoulders, and stretches the hamstrings. Triangle Pose also stretches the spine, loosening up muscles and relieving built-up tension in and around your lower back. All of this contributes to better back health over time.

3. Seated Forward Bend

Stretching the hamstrings can help ease tightness throughout your entire body. And Seated Forward Bend releases not only the hamstrings but the hips and the lower back, so if tension alone is the culprit, some time spent here is likely to help. Fold fully over your legs if you can (and if it’s comfortable), but know that a bent-knees variation is just as effective.

4. Pigeon Pose

Wait a minute, Pigeon Pose is a reliable hip opener, right? Right?! But that doesn’t mean the posture doesn’t also benefit your lower back. Hip tension, which can happen from something as simple as too much sitting, often begets lower back tension, as tight hips can force your back to overcompensate. Opening up your hips allows your lower body to enjoy more mutual support—and the spinal stretch feels good, too.

5. Cobra Pose

This baby backbend is a welcome counter to the way we all spend much of the day, hunched over laptops and phone and steering wheels. Intentionally opening your chest with Cobra Pose can help alleviate stress and strain and provide postural support for your entire back body, including your lower back as well as your upper body.