This study recommends yoga, massage and tai chi for basic back pain; however, it primarily compared yoga to physical therapy and a control group with no therapy. I would always recommend a combination of therapies and active practices for back pain, focusing particularly on good therapeutic massage.
What’s often not understood is that some yoga postures can exacerbate back pain, like when someone is doing lots of forward bends on herniated lumbar disc. Or shoulder stands on top of cervical disc herniation or bone spurs. There is no one size fits all. I always stressed this when I taught A&P to yoga teacher trainees.
“The findings, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, are in line with new guidelines for treating back pain from the American College of Physicians. The group recommends that people with back pain should avoid pain medicines if possible, and instead opt for alternatives such as tai chi, yoga and massage. As we’ve reported, those guidelines are aimed at people with run-of-the-mill back pain, rather than pain due to an injury or other diagnosed problem.”