A new study indicates that one form of therapeutic yoga – Iyengar – may help those suffering from chronic lower back pain.

For the current study, published in the journal Spine, researchers randomly assigned 90 adults (average age 48, range 18-70) with chronic lower back pain to either stay with conventional care or take six months of Iyengar-style yoga classes.

Overall, the researchers found, the yoga group showed not only greater improvements in pain and mobility, but also a larger reduction in depression symptoms. And the benefits were seen immediately after the six-month yoga regimen ended, as well as six months later.

This wasn’t your standard yoga workout.

There was a “specific rationale” behind the pose choices and sequencing used in the study, study author Dr. Kimberly Williams noted. Because all of the muscles that act on the pelvis can affect lower back pain, the classes focused on those muscles, with postures that “opened” the hips and stretched the backs of the legs, for example. Backbends, a staple in many yoga classes, were excluded.

The researchers stress that this study involved one particular type of yoga (therapeutic Iyengar), and that anyone with lower back pain who is looking for relief along these lines find a certified, experienced teacher that is aware of the result that is trying to be achieved.

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