Doug Swenson

Yoga is well known for making people more flexible, supple, lithe, and limber. In fact, you’ve probably seen photographs of yogis or yoginis contorting themselves into different yoga postures. However, recent studies indicate that it’s a safe and effective option for relieving moderate low back pain.In a study funded by NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), participants suffering from chronic lower back pain were divided into three groups: one group took 12 weekly yoga classes, one group took 12 weekly stretching classes, and one group was given a self-care book and encouraged to exercise to relieve pain.

Yoga itself is at least 5,000 years old, and yoga exercising — what you know as yoga postures, or asanas — emerged about 600 years ago. Even though yoga has evolved over the centuries as it traveled to new cultures, its principles are universal. Yoga is a practice of mind, body, breath, and spirit. The articles in the Cheat Sheet touch on the physical and mental benefits yoga offers, offer suggestions for how to enhance your yoga practice even when you’re on your own, and remind you why warming up is so important to any exercise routine — even one as “user-friendly” as yoga.

Posture alignment refers to how your muscles are integrated and your bones are aligned to support your body for optimal movement during yoga or other exercise. The aim of good posture alignment is to establish a solid foundation with your body so you can support your limbs, back, and head while you exercise. You want your body to be safe, secure, and able to expand more fully and freely during each exercise.

The best way to understand a yoga routine or posture is to see someone practice it. These ten short videos introduce you to a variety of yoga postures and beginning-level routines. With these demonstrations at your fingertips, you can improve your yoga practice, regardless of your age or physical abilities. Check out these tried-and-true poses and routines at www.

A key part of yoga is being mindful, yet sometimes your practice environment can have a spectacular effect — for good or ill — on what you get out of it. Although you may not be able to sit in a beautiful forest every day, you can still create a calm and focused atmosphere in a corner of your home or yard. Doing so can mean the difference between successfully managing your health with mindful work and struggling to do so.

Your spine is meant to curve in one direction or another, to one degree or another, in different places along your back. Having more or less curve can mean that your spine doesn’t handle impact well, your vertebrae have more pressure put on them, or certain muscles and ligaments are pulled tighter or looser and can offer more or less support than you may need.

Many mind-body programs are so gentle that nearly anyone can do them without fear. But to be on the safe side — and that’s always a smart thing when it comes to movement — take a few moments to assess your current fitness and health by asking yourself the following questions: Are you currently not exercising regularly?

How you live affects how you meditate, and how you meditate affects how you live. When your actions don’t jibe with your reasons for meditating — for example, when you’re meditating to reduce stress but your actions intensify conflict — your everyday life may be working at cross-purposes with the time you spend in meditation.

Stretching can help create a balance between strength and flexibility, between opposing muscle groups, between your left and right side, and between your mind and body (that’s what’s meant by “mind-body connection”). Stretching can also help solve many of the mechanical problems that create discomfort. Pain is your body’s way of telling you there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.