amazon – Free if you have Amazon Prime, $1.99 rent | $14.99 to purchase
I’ve suffered from lower back pain for over a year. I’ve been to Dr.’s, massage therapy, swimming, physical therapy exercises, pain meds and nothing helped. Or it was just a temporary fix.
If you have Amazon Prime you also have Amazon Instant Video (free streaming of certain videos). I knew there were movies/TV shows of course but I hadn’t realized there were exercise/yoga videos available. So I set out to try a few. For the most part they are older, cheesetastic workout videos that I could barely get through but I found this yoga DVD that helped my back after just one session so I thought I would share it with you guys.
It’s long (1 hour) and Barrios tends to hold the stretches for longer than the usual (& there's the typical flowers and zen background music). I mention this for people who struggle with patience doing yoga but I also believe it’s the reason why this routine worked for me when so many others didn’t. Trying to force my body (& back) into positions it wasn’t ready for did more harm than good – even when the advice came from professionals. The simplest of stretches would still hurt my back because I wasn't getting to the source of the problem.
What I like about this video is that she pays attention to form and easing into a stretch rather than going straight for the deepest stretch right away. She also starts at the legs/quads/hips before getting into the lower back stretches so your body is properly warmed up and more limber. Even though your lower back may be where all your pain is located – it could be another tight area of your body that’s actually causing the problem. In my case it’s tight quads and psoas muscles.
Barrios starts with a warm up (@9 minutes) then hip openers (@12 minutes), thigh and hamstring stretches (@12 minutes), moving on to more intense lower back work like down dog, cobra, chair pose, forward bends (19.5 minutes), then a few restorative poses like child’s pose.
I try to do the full routine once a week but once you do it a few times you can perform portions of it as needed. I find the hip opener routine to be especially helpful and do it after every regular aerobic workout.
Bonus: For more intense workouts Jillian Michaels has quite a few of her DVD’s available for free on Prime. Like I said most of what I found was old and cheesy but she has a good selection and variety – and FREE. So yeah – if you can handle her yelling at you go for it. I found the 6 Week Six-Pack and No More Trouble Zones to be particularly good.
Amazon – The first 5 on the list are free with Amazon Prime
If you want to try a ballet style workout give Ballet Beautiful Body Blast a try I found this one to be insanely boring but man if my arms and legs weren’t killing me at the end! It was deceptively tough. lol
I'd need it. I wake up every morning all achey
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the few things that really helped me but I'm sure it's different for everyone.
DeleteI recently started doing yoga again because I have problems with one of my hips (an old snowboard injury), but I do suffer from lower back pain as well from time-to-time, practically every office worker does. I don't like that the routine is so long, but otherwise this sounds good. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI stream it for free so I don't get the DVD menu but if you purchased it - you have the menu and can select shorter/targeted workouts.
DeleteI was doing yoga for a while but stopped. I actually had a teacher who would help me and I really like the class. I'm trying to get back in it and I may have to check out her videos. I so wish my dad would do this. He has back problems as well.
ReplyDeleteCool find! I like yoga too although I haven't been practicing as much as I used to, I just so some of the stretches for my leg pain. I should probably go back to it.
ReplyDeleteMy go-to is Kristin McGee and Rodney Yee. Kristin does the deep ones you talk about, challenging practice even for beginners while Rodney is more relaxed, more meditative like this.
I feel ya on the back pain. They say mine is fibromyalgia. I haven't tried yoga yet though
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I have scoliosis; found out a few years ago. I've been using medicine and the like, but I'm in physical therapy right now. I hope to get an MRI soon just to make sure it hasn't gotten worse or anything, but any exercises to help the pain are great.
ReplyDeleteI've done yoga for years but suffered a burst fracture of my L1 in a snowmobiling accident 7 months ago. Since then, I've been severely limited in my mobility. I think it's mostly muscle as opposed to bone, it takes a while to heal but I'm so interested in this!
ReplyDeleteI have prime so I'll be checking this out, pronto! Thank you so much for sharing!
I'm always looking for a good yoga workout. I get back into it when I start hiring, but should make it routine. Thesis for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh this yoga sounds very good. I need to stretch in my morning too :)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great -- I've been trying Yin Yoga, which is all about holding the pose longer, rather than rushing from pose to pose. I resist, but it's really better for me. I need the stretching!
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