Relieve Low Back Pain | Reduce Low Back Pain | Canada's Leading Authority in Human Movement | Dev Chengkalath

One of the most common questions I hear in my physical therapy practice is whether or not my client should be doing yoga to help relieve their low back pain. Most of the time these clients had heard of a friend or colleague who had gone and within a few sessions had been able to resolve all their physical ailments and issues while building their bodies, muscles and fitness. 

While I’d love to give a straight-up, cut and dried answer, a “yes” or a “no” if you will, it’s not that simple.

As is common with physical rehabilitation and corrective exercise, there is not one answer that will be applicable to everyone across the board. What is true, however, is that there is no panacea.

When it comes to yoga, there are a few key points you do want to think about:

1. Invest in the services of a qualified instructor: Angela Plaquin was my first clinical supervisor in my first clinical placement during physio school. When I came under her tutelage, I was but a young grasshopper with great ambition, and little practical experience. Not only was she a phenomenal physical therapist, but she was an incredible yogi as well. I had an opportunity to attend one of her yoga classes and I can tell you I was amazed at her attention to detail, her biomechanical acumen and her combined knowledge of injury pathology and human movement. Another good friend of mine, Mina Khan-Lee, would also be the type of instructor I would have no hesitation sending my injured clients. Under her expert guidance, you couldn’t help but improve your situation. She has put in the time and effort to not only improve herself as a yogi, but as a teacher. While yoga instructors with the level of knowledge described above are rare, they are out there. These are the instructors you need to find and invest in, just as they have invested in themselves.            
   

   Mina doing what advanced yogis do.

2. Know your limits: This is pretty self-explanatory. Just because the person beside you is coiled up like a salty-pretzel, doesn’t mean you need to do the same thing. As well, just because the instructor at your local yoga class is telling you to keep bending or twisting or contorting to “release the toxins in your burning joints”, doesn’t mean you have to listen (I actually heard this type of statement at a yoga class a few years back). You are the master of your own body and only you are responsible for listening to what it’s telling you. If your back or knees are screaming in pain when you attempt a certain pose or posture, there’s probably a reason you shouldn’t be doing it. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something isn’t right. Know your limits.                
   

   Beyond most people's limits and not good for your back.

3. Yoga is not necessarily exercise: I have no doubt that this point will raise the ire of some of my yogi friends and colleagues. In my mind, yoga is great for posture, breathing, parasympathetic training and body awareness. However, it is very seldom going to initiate significant physiological changes to be deemed as high intensity exercise. Don’t get me wrong. If you are extremely de-conditioned or unaccustomed to those yoga poses or postures, they will be challenging. But very few people will practice yoga to an extent where high levels of muscular strength or endurance are required. If you look back to the root causes of low back pain (lack of knowledge, motor control issues and de-conditioning) yoga will help with motor control issues (such as posture, muscle imbalances, movement patterns, and mobility issues) but won’t really touch upon the other two issues. So to bring home the key point here, for most people yoga is not necessarily exercise, but may be a great complement to your complete GOYA Therapy program.

Part of a complete GOYA Therapy program

So in the end, under the care and attention of a qualified instructor, yoga may be a great adjunct to your low back rehabilitation program. As with all physical activity, know your limits and play within them. 

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

P.S. Special thanks to Mina Khan-Lee for letting me use her incredibly awesome yoga photo for my blog. I will admit that I did spend all evening trying to hoist my body into that position. I will also admit that it was a stupendous failure.

The buzzword with low back pain these days is “core” training. And I agree. 

The only problem is that most often people will do the wrong kind of core training. In most cases, the type of training is flexion based (sit-ups, crunches, twists etc) and uses just a small component of the so-called core. 

In this short post, I just want to re-visit what is one of the best foundational core exercises that will also help protect your spine.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a short clip on the birddog exercise and its variations, popularized by Dr. Stuart McGill.

What are your thoughts on this type of core training? 

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

The other day I posted a link to a video of Dr John
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Far and away, the most frequent questions had to do with his
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Click here to check out the blog post announcing this amazing
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Now, today, I want to share with you a post covering the flip
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carrot, today’s video talks about the stick.

You see, Dr. Berardi’s a coaching expert.  In fact, he’s
probably the most successful nutrition coach in the health and
fitness business.

And after speaking with him, I realized that there’s something
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You see, the biggest transformations – body transformations or
otherwise – are accomplished when people have big incentives.

And I’d say 10 thousand bucks qualifies as a big incentive all
right.

But big inspiring goals also need some potential punishment.
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And in today’s video, Dr Berardi shows you how to coerce
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So, if you’re REALLY interested in changing your body and
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Again, this message is time sensitive.  From what I hear there
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So check out these posts below.  I know you won’t be
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Could The Chance To Win $10,000 Help You Get In Shape?

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The Best Kept Secret In Weight Loss

>>Precision Nutrition-The Punishment

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Dr. John Berardi and have seen his program do some amazing things. 

In fact, I’m even honored to a be a volunteer moderator on his amazing online forum.

So when Dr. Berardi dropped me an line the other day,
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Now, don’t get me wrong.  I respect Dr Berardi.  He’s
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Check out this blog post for yourself.

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Now, to qualify for this reward, you have to participate in
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Now, this message is time sensitive.  No, it’s not gonna self-
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—————

Yours in body transformation.

Dev Chengkalath

Over the last little while I’ve been going on about the movement-based causes of low back pain and what you can do to get “back” in the driver’s seat again.

Today, I’m going to shift focus a little bit and highlight some of the “other” steps you can take to hasten the healing.

If you’re taking care of all the physical aspects, it’s time to start looking at your nutritional habits.

We’ve all heard it before: 

But how many of us actually think about that before we put something that is less than optimal, when it comes to nutritional value, into our mouths?

Especially if we are injured. Or hurting? Or dealing with pain?

Have you questioned whether or not your eating is geared to get you off the injury list and into the active roster again?

If you suffer from low back pain, or any other type of injury, disease or pathology, ask yourself if you are doing everything you should, or could, be doing to let your body do what it does best, heal?

If you asked yourself these questions honestly and you can say for certain your nutrition is bang on, then you don’t need to read any further. 

If however, you are in the 99% of people who need help in this area, you need to check out Dr. John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition System. 

It’s not a restrictive, hyped-up fad diet. It’s something else entirely. Something way bigger. Something way better.

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If you don’t know your macro from your micronutrients, if you don’t know your carbs from your proteins, if you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, this system is for you. 

As Sir Francis Bacon said back in 1597: “Knowledge is power.” 

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I know it’s the best one I’ve used.

Yours in movement.

Dev Chengkalath

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