Cobra pose has really hurt my back!

[littleburn]

Could anyone advise on poses/stretches to help with this please? We did a lot of cobra in class yesterday and my lower back is so painful now! If I tip my chin to my chest or curve my hips forward there's a strong twinge and 'pulling' feeling in my lower vertebrae, spreading into my hip on the right side. Help!

Lie on your back, knees to chest and gently rock forwards and back to gently stretch out your spine in the other direction. Next time at yoga when doing cobra try placing your hands further forward in front of your body for a more gentle spine curve, rather than directly under the shoulders which requires quite a reasonable amount of flexibility to begin with. Hope the aches ease off soon!

Oh thank you! I will try that. Yes, I think I tried to do too much too soon!

Good advice @dancinfeet @littleburn next time you do cobra ..try and push up a little less .. I love it now but took me a while to build up the strength and realise why people love it ! I see people go up quite high which can really wrench their back if they're not warm or used to it . However, in time, it's because one of my favourite poses

Child's pose, on back with knees drawn up massage lower back.

If you ever don't fancy cobra you could take a cow stretch on all fours.

Yoga is an individual practice, doesn't matter what others are doing.

I avoid that pose as same issues....have tried to do it differently but also gives lower back problems so just dont do it...

Taking your legs out wider in cobra can stop the pinch in the lower back .
Don't come up as high .
Move hands forward .
All modifications that should be offered .

I have lots of niggles in my lower back so never go that high in cobra, I can never work out how people get that high!

I had this due to tight hip flexors (at the top of the thigh) which meant I arched my back too much to compensate. This was an issue when standing a lot but yoga made it worse until I understood why. It's an overstretch issue so not really something you can stretch out directly, though counter stretches with knees to chest take the pressure off. I manage it through a couple of things;

Do baby cobra instead of cobra - if you're not pushing up with your arms you're much less likely to strain your back. I have since added up dog, but make sure that I am feeling the stretch in my hip flexors rather than my lower back.

Being really careful to keep my pelvis in a neutral position i.e. tailbone tucked under and lower back pressing towards what world be the floor if you're lying down.

Working on hip flexor mobility e.g. by lunge type stretches - but approach carefully as it is really easy to end up arching your lower back instead of stretching the hip, which makes it worse not better. I had to be very careful about poses like warrior one to ensure I felt them in the hip flexor and not the back, even if that meant going less deep into the pose than I could by arching my back.

Of course your hip flexors may not be tight but it is a common problem and either way these tips can help protect the lower back as you heal up.

I don’t do cobra either. Likely you have a forward pelvic tilt, non engaged core and tight back muscles and you just collapse into it getting that crunchiness in the back.

I would avoid completely, and ask the teacher to let you know in advance if it’s going to be heavy in the session so you can skip that class.

Pilates is good for core. Much better than yoga IMO.

Can you lift chest / front using back and abdo muscles (so you probably don’t get much lift) rather than any pushing with arms.

Just do a very gentle version (don’t lift high at all) but I’d avoid until your back is better and Childs lose or cat/cow instead.

For what it’s worth I have hurt my back so many times in yoga. There’s no respect for people’s limits and it’s all about being hyper flexible (which naturally not everyone is) and forcing poses. Pilates is much more back friendly and has completely sorted my back out. I will never do yoga again. I get everything I need from Pilates.

This sounds like a very bad yoga class. At the studio I attend there is a huge emphasis on staying within your pain free range of motion and focusing on your own movement on the mat-not competing with the super flexible folk!!

After many years of small group yoga, my teacher only does 121 exactly because the difference between a safe and a harmful position can be millimetres apart. It's just not possible for a teacher to give the right adjustment to more than one, maximum two pupils at a time.

It seems that originally, yoga was transmitted from master to apprentice That was long before people who were stuck at a desk for so many days, for so many years, then transfer those bad postural habits right into the mat.

Nothing to do with yoga versus Pilates, everything to do with how it is taught or even transmitted.