Back pain

[Questioner]

Am grateful for your service and this opportunity to learn from you and serve my students better. This one is a 50-year old who has been coming to my Svaroopa yoga classes consistently twice a week now for a year. He has a relatively rigid body but has loosened up
significantly. He has come to understand himself much more, and understands that releasing one layer might bring up deeper-held tension at a deeper layer. One so-called “flare up” has been nagging him. I include his words below with some of my modifications: P.

Hi P, regarding the knot, for the past few years I’ve had an occasional problem with my back on my left side. When it flared up the pain was moderate to severe and would last about a week. The pain was centered in the same muscle group that the rotated belly pose [Jathara Parivartanasana, knees bent, to side] stretches, but with most back pain it would spread around a bit. The pain would always start a day or so after an activity that caused the flare up, it would never start during the activity. An activity that could cause a flare up may be sitting on a stool and working under a bathroom sink. The bending/twisting motion while reaching down below my waist level could cause a flare up. Unfortunately during and after the activity everything felt fine, it’s the next day or several days later when the pain would occur.

While the rotated belly pose works the same general area it didn’t seem to help with this particular knot. What’s strange is when I’m feeling pain from a flare up and do a rotated belly pose, while stretching the same muscles that are in pain the pose didn’t seem to affect the pain. Anyway I started to notice side stretches [Ardha Chandrasana, especially, as well as seated side stretch, part of the JFS] caused a milder version of the same flare up pain. While doing the side stretches I felt the normal stretching sensation, it was the next day I would feel the pain. So my plan is every day do a very gentle side stretch and increase the time I hold the position. If the next day the pain is very mild I’ll know I held the stretch the correct amount of time. No pain or too much pain I’ll adjust the holding time. For now I’m doing the side stretch with my hands on my waist but bending my hips and adjusting my weight the same as we do in class when our arms are over our heads. I appreciate you looking into this for me and would value your opinion on what I should be doing. Thanks ...A

[Mukunda]

P and A - On the deeper level I wonder about his kidneys and adrenals and possible suppressed emotions that might be held there. Delayed reactions to practices are signs of this and kapha imbalances. On a technical level I would make sure he is elongating pelvis away from rib cage during all twists. In general my concern is to elongate first on inhalation and twist second on exhalation. Also to end the pose when either intention is not manifested. If there is no movement or feelings of energy/emotions opening then the pose is done.