I used to always have a really sore lower back. Everyday it was there to some degree. The days I forgot to wear shoes on my concrete floor at home or the week before menstruation it would be almost unbearable.
Even when I began practicing yoga, it seemed to get worse. I began seeing a massage therapist to see if I could find relief.
It wasn’t until I began learning through my teacher training what terrible posture I had and that all day every day I was compressing my lower back when I stood due to the tilt of my pelvis and the external rotation of my legs.
In learning this I began to be very mindful of my pelvis and how and what I needed to do in order to create the space in my low back that was so desperately needed. At first it hurt more and I found myself falling into old postural habits to get relief.
Somewhere over the last couple of months my muscles have strengthen enough to have adapted to this “new” and correct posture and my back pain has vanished.
There are still the odd days where my low back aches a bit but on a daily basis that pain has been eliminated. As I continue to learn about my body and develop awareness, it is shocking to me that I am 26 and just learning about this stuff now; that I have walked around for 26 years with poor posture and in pain because I didn’t know that my pelvis could effect my back.
It excites me to consider that in becoming a yoga teacher I may be able to share this information with my students and offer them the knowledge to possibly rid themselves of long term pain and discomfort.