Yoga · Somatic and Movement Healing

Yoga for chronic non-specific low back pain

Wieland LS, Skoetz N, Pilkington K, et al. · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2022

This Cochrane review assessed yoga for adults with chronic low back pain that has no specific identified cause. It included 21 randomized trials with 2,223 participants, mostly women in their 40s and 50s practicing Iyengar, hatha or viniyoga styles. Compared with no exercise, yoga produced small improvements in back function and pain at three months, smaller than what is usually considered clinically important, along with a small improvement in physical and mental quality of life and possibly a higher chance that people rated their back as improved. Compared with other back-focused exercise, yoga made little or no difference. Yoga was also associated with more adverse events, mainly temporary increases in back pain. A key limitation is that participants could not be blinded, and most outcomes were self-reported.

Our summaries describe what each study found. They are not medical advice, and the practices at Halcyon are not a treatment for any condition.