My Back Hurt for Three Years. Here's What Actually Helped.

For three years in my late thirties, I had chronic lower back pain.

Not dramatic, not debilitating. Just a persistent ache that was there when I got out of bed, worse after sitting, and occasionally sharp enough to make me catch my breath when I bent over wrong. I saw a physio. I got a better chair. I tried stretching more. Nothing really changed it.

What eventually changed it was a consistent yoga practice. Not because yoga is magic, and not because any single pose fixed anything. But because of what it built over months of showing up: better hip mobility, a more functional core, and a spine that actually moved the way it was supposed to.

I want to be specific about what helped, because generic advice about yoga for back pain is everywhere and most of it isn't very useful.

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First, a distinction that matters

Lower back pain is not one thing.

There's pain from tight hip flexors pulling on the lumbar spine, extremely common in people who sit a lot. There's pain from weak glutes that force the lower back to compensate. There's disc-related pain, SI joint pain, muscle strain. Each responds differently.

I'm not your doctor, and I can't tell you which type you have. If your pain radiates down your leg, or is accompanied by numbness or weakness, please see someone before you do anything else. That needs a professional assessment.

What I'm describing here is the garden-variety chronic lower back ache that most adults will recognise: the stiffness, the dull persistent discomfort, the way it flares after sitting too long or moving too fast.

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What yoga does for lower back pain

There are a few mechanisms that actually work.

Hip mobility reduces load on the lumbar spine. When your hips can't move through their full range, your lower back borrows that movement. Over time, that borrowing creates compression and strain. Improving hip mobility lets the lower back do what it was designed to do: not very much.

Core strength stabilises the spine. The core isn't your abs. It's the deep cylinder of muscle around your trunk, diaphragm, pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, multifidus. A yoga practice builds this functional stability in a way that crunches never do, because you're training it in motion and under load.

Spinal mobility matters. A spine that doesn't move through its full range loses that range. The flexion and extension you get in poses like Cat-Cow keep the discs healthy and the muscles around the spine elastic.

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The poses that helped me most

Cat-Cow

I do this every single morning. Not as a warm-up. As a practice in itself.

Five minutes on hands and knees, moving through spinal flexion and extension with your breath, slow enough that you can actually feel each vertebra participating. It's unglamorous and it works. My spine feels profoundly different if I skip it for a few days.

Low Lunge

This is the hip flexor opener. Step forward, lower your back knee, sink your hips forward and down.

If tight hip flexors are pulling your pelvis forward and creating lumbar compression, this is your pose. Hold it long, 8 to 10 breaths per side, and let the hip flexor genuinely release rather than just passively stretching. Go daily.

Bridge Pose

Lie on your back, feet flat, lift your hips. Simple. But this is the glute strengthener your lower back has been waiting for.

Weak glutes are underrated as a cause of lower back pain. They force the lower back to take over hip extension, which it was not designed to do. Three sets of 10 bridges every other day changed my back more than almost anything else.

Supine Twist

Lie on your back, bring your knees to your chest, let them fall to one side. Arms out, look the other way. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths each side.

The rotation releases compression along the spine and the SI joint area. It's also just immediately comfortable in a way that feels disproportionate to how simple it is.

Child's Pose

When it's bad. When the ache is more persistent than usual. Come here.

Child's Pose gently decompresses the lumbar spine and lets everything that's been gripping release. It's not solving the problem, but it provides real relief and a moment to breathe.

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What I'd tell someone in this situation

Don't try to stretch your way out of back pain. Stretching the tight muscles without building the supporting strength tends to create more instability.

Build strength and mobility together. Cat-Cow and Low Lunge for mobility. Bridge Pose and Bird Dog for strength. Do it consistently, which means most days for at least two months, before you decide whether it's working.

Be patient in a way that's genuinely hard when something hurts. The body takes time. But it responds.

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Explore the full Pose Library for step-by-step guides and modifications. If lower back pain is new, acute, or accompanied by other symptoms, please see a doctor before starting a new movement practice.