3 Ways Yoga Improves Your Joint System and Skeletal Structure
Regular practice of yoga is commonly known to give you a mental serenity and level of fitness unlike any other form of exercise. Many practitioners do not even realize that there are even more benefits being explored underneath your muscles. Yoga is proving more and more to have a significant effect on healthy joint function as certain poses promote the release of fluids while strengthening the muscles supporting vital joint systems. Here are three ways yoga can help get the juices flowing in those joints and keep you walking smoothly into your elder years.
- Promotes Flow of Synovial Fluid
Synovial fluid is the slippery liquid in joint systems that along with hyaline cartilage, allows smooth, painless movement of the bones. Synovial fluid is found in joints like the knees, hips, and elbows where more free movement of the bones is allowed. The few joints that do not have synovial fluid are the discs between your vertebrae in your back and both sacroiliac joints in the back of your pelvis. Consequently, movement of these joints is more limited than the others. Synovial fluid is also essential for delivering nutrients and oxygen to the hyaline cartilage which don’t have any sort of blood supply. The various poses in yoga allow this fluid to flow to different part of your body and with regular practice can increase the smooth flow of synovial fluid to your joints and make you move around more smoothly.
- Strengthens Joint Supporting Muscles
The isometric poses of yoga train the smaller muscles surrounding our joints to endure more pressure and make us work them harder in order to stabilize ourselves. Poses that force us to balance on one leg and change elevation or rotate train our supporting muscles to work in ways strictly for stability and balance, thereby improving their function as you go about daily activities.
- Weight Loss
Every pound of excess weight you carry on your body puts an unnecessary burden on your joints. The weight your joints are supporting grows exponentially when doing vigorous exercise such as running or jumping. Running upstairs can put as much as five times the amount of excess weight you’re carrying in pressure on your joints. Our joints are built to support us as we carry extra loads now and then but excess fat; to the point of obesity has been proven to cause earlier and more serious joint problems in individuals throughout their lives. Yoga along with a healthy diet can help you shed excess weight that is putting more pressure on your joints and inhibiting your movements.
No other form of exercise can isolate and concentrate on the muscles surrounding joints like yoga can while promoting healthy flow of blood and synovial fluid throughout the body. Even if joint problems are already getting the better of you there are still many poses that can be done on the floor that allow you to increase fluidity and loosen up the joints. Talk to your instructor before attempting certain poses that might put more stress on fragile or injured joints. Remember it is not a competition; do what is comfortable and beneficial for you.
About the Author
Quadratus Lumborum and Mindful Back Health in Yoga
Low back pain is an increasing issue in our society dominated by poor posture, sedentary lifestyles, and chronic sitting patterns. The source of low back pain can vary, but a great deal of these muscular dysfunctions emanate from the quadratus lumborum muscles.
Most of us are quite familiar with the erector spinae muscles that travel from the hip crest/sacrum to various points up the vertebrae and ribs. These muscles function primarily as extensors of the back. Few people (including yoga teachers) are aware of the all-important quadratus lumborum muscles that are located deep toward the erector spinae.
The quadratus lumborum muscles sit on either side of the vertebrae. They originate on the iliac crest (hip bone) and insert on the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae and the 12th (last) rib.
When both sides contract, they extend the spine (and/or depress the ribcage from behind). When only one side contracts, the spine flexes laterally and/or elevates the ilium (hip) on that same side. In forced expiration, the quadratus lumborum will fix the 12 ribs.
When Back Pain Can Occur
Dysfunction and low back pain can settle into the quadratus lumborum under a few conditions:
- If the erector spinae are weak or inhibited (as they often are in chronic seated postures), the quadratus lumborum attempts to take up the slack and loading in back extension and spinal stabilization leading to overall muscle fatigue.
- If muscle imbalances build up across the pelvis (e.g., tight hip flexors), the lower vertebrae can shift into chronic excessive curvature (lordosis), which will shorten and weaken the quadratus lumborum and erector spinae.
- If poor posture and upper body muscle tension forms across the chest and shoulders, rounded-back posture (kyphosis) will pull the rib cage up and away from the hip crest. This places stress and drag on the quadratus lumborum and portions of the erector spinae.
- The deep gluteals (gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) are responsible for hip abduction and pelvic stabilization in walking and other gait patterns. If these deep gluteal muscles are weak and inhibited, the quadratus lumborum and tensor fascia latae have to compensate to stabilize the pelvis.
- Some physical experts have also found that tight hip adductor muscles (groin) can inhibit (through reciprocal inhibition) the gluteus medius muscles. As mentioned above, the quadratus lumborum muscle may compensate for the gluteus medius muscle’s lack of activity and pelvic stabilization.
How to Keep Your Back Healthy with Yoga
Understanding that the dysfunction residing in the quadratus lumborum is often the result of dysfunction and tension imbalances coming from other muscles, here are some initial approaches to maintaining health of the quadratus lumborum:
- Develop a strategy to maintain fluid balance in upper and lower body posture patterns to avoid chronic hip flexor tightness, back extensor tension, and loss of natural vertebral curvature and pelvic placement
- Stretch the chest, front of the shoulders, hip flexors, groin, and lower back frequently
- Strengthen back extensors and overall core stabilizers
- Strengthen and stretch deep gluteals to unload unnecessary engagement of the quadratus lumborum
- Engage in proper therapeutic treatments when discomfort and pain develop
Need help with yoga for back pain? Sign up for our Yoga Foundations Guide with Rodney Yee & Colleen Saidman Yee!
Do These Yoga Poses for Back Pain
Here are some basic, accessible stretches readily prescribed to restore and maintain flexibility in the quadratus lumborum muscles:
Child’s Pose
When aiming to stretch the quadratus lumborum muscles and other lower back musculature, I would personally recommend avoid using forward bends like Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend), Paschimottasana (Seated Two Leg Forward Bend) and other similar poses.
Due to the nature of intervertebral disc compression in spinal flexion, these types of forward bends would be better served to actually involve engagement of the back extensors and transverse abdomen in order to extend the spine, shift the ‘flexion’ into the hips, unload the lower vertebrae and protect against disc compression.
