Online yoga has been shown to clinically reduce lower back pain

November 12, 2024 – With your doctor’s recommendation, explore yoga as a remedy for low back pain is now easier than ever – giving you the chance to see if the gentle stretching and movement exercises can provide relief.

Yoga is a common recommendation for lower back pain, but not everyone has a yoga studio nearby, and sometimes classes are expensive or offered only on a limited schedule. But now, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have shown that following a course of twelve weekly virtual sessions can significantly reduce lower back pain.

The findings were published in the journal JAMA network opened this month, and people in the study also reported improvement sleep and less use of pain medications.

The study is particularly notable because it was a randomized trial clinical trialmeaning that people who signed up all had similar lower back problems, but not all participated in virtual yoga sessions during the study period. (But during recruitment for the study, they were all advised that they would do yoga. Those assigned to the non-yoga group participated in assessments during the study period, but were not offered yoga sessions until after the study ended.) The two groups were named by researchers as the ‘yoga now’ group and the ‘yoga later’ group. The later yoga group was discouraged from starting a new yoga practice during the evaluation period.

The study involved 140 people, the average age of whom was 48 years old. Most were women. Their back pain and physically Disability was initially considered moderate based on a number of assessments, including assessment statements such as “I often change positions to try to get my back comfortable” and “because of my back, I try not to bend or kneel.”

The Yoga Now group received a handout with tips on what to wear, how to schedule time for the daily practice, and information about the different poses and movements. They had 12 weekly virtual sessions with trained instructors that lasted 60 minutes, and they were encouraged to practice for 30 minutes daily outside of the weekly instructor-led sessions, using a provided yoga mat and pre-recorded sessions that matched what was happening each week was taught. The sessions included approximately 15 yoga poses, and the classes became more difficult as the weeks progressed.

At both six and twelve weeks, pain intensity had significantly decreased and back-related function had improved in the yoga now group compared to the yoga later group. After twelve weeks of yoga practice, people in the yoga now group reported a decrease in pain intensity that was six times greater than the changes experienced by people in the yoga later group. The improvements in back-related function were almost three times greater.

Changes in pain intensity, back function, sleep and reduced pain medication use were all maintained at 24 weeks.

Low back pain is very common. It is estimated to affect as many as 20% of people, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“Yoga offers a comprehensive approach to managing low back pain, a condition for which traditional treatments often fall short,” said researcher Hallie Tankha, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Wellness and Preventive Medicine, in a press release. “Now we must work to increase access to this safe and effective treatment.”