Back pain is a chronic disease of our century due to desk jobs but yoga is the first thing you can try at home to solve this kind of problem. There are many yoga poses for many purposes, even though most of them are used to improve the quality of our lives, some of them can be a big help to improve your posture and relive your back pain.

1. Cat & Cow

Cat & cow poses are very common poses that you’ll see in the beginning of most yoga classes – it’s like a warm-up.

Cat & cow is great for happy spine, massages the internal organs, stretches the belly, builds muscles in the back and can also reduce back pain if you have any.

Start the pose on your hands and knees. You can pad the knees with a blanket or we can double up the mat. Spread your palms as wide as you can and place them underneath the shoulders, knees directly underneath the hips.

Move your belly downward and the shoulders upward while looking towards the sky as you inhale – that’s cow.

As you exhale, curl your tailbone under travel up the spine, draw the navel up towards the sky, chin slowly rotates, tilts towards the chest.

2. Back Extension

Most of the time, you look in the mirror, you see front of the body and that’s what most people tend to focus on when go to gym. However, your back and spine is the driving force that affect your posture and how you look. This yoga pose is important especially for people with desk job because it strengthens the muscles between the shoulder blades – the muscles that retract your shoulder blades.

Lie down on your stomach, you can use a mat or blanket. Place your hands near the body or some people prefer taking their arm out – doesn’t matter, either way is fine.

The most important thing about back extension is, as you lift up, lift your legs and upper body, rather than just the cervical spine or neck.

Try to lift your body up for about 2-3 seconds then go back to original position. You can increase the number of sets as you feel comfortable due to developing muscles.

3. Back Stretching

Seated toe touch is the most common back stretching method. It is easy to improve and as you improve, you can lower your upper body more towards your toes.

Once you get used to touching your toes, you can try reaching out beyond your feet and stretch more.

4. Heel Kick

Heel kicks are probably going to be your favorite pose in this list because it is the easiest one and you can easily master it.

Lie on your stomach and place your elbows on the ground. You should use mat or blanket if you love your elbows. It might not hurt in the beginning but you are going to feel the pain next time you try to do this pose.

Bend your knees towards your body like a high school girl, repeatedly, until you feel nice & stretchy pain in the muscles.

5. Double Impact

Double impact is very similar to back extension, the only difference is the position of your hands, which makes this pose stretches a whole different muscles.

This pose, unlike others, has two steps. You can’t just skip to step 2 before doing step 1.

Lie on your stomach and hold hands behind your lower back. Bend your knee towards your body until your legs become rectangular to the ground – that was step 1.

Move your legs and upper body upwards, look forward and keep this position for about 2-3 seconds – that was step 2.

6. Swimming

Swimming is, just like double impact, another version of back extension but it is much harder.

Lie on your stomach and extend your legs & arms.

Raise your arms and legs up off the mat including your head & chest. At this point, start fluttering your arms and legs up and down until you can’t do it anymore.

This is one of pro yoga poses so you don’t want to start with this one.

7. Stomach Rolls

This pose is probably the fastest way to fix your pelvic tilt because unlike any other pose, it directly affects glutes.

Lie on your stomach and bend your legs towards your body. Hold your legs by the feet and don’t let go.

Pull your feet towards your back as much as you can. I’d like to use the term “as much as you can” because if you are new to this pose, you should probably use your full strength to do the right pose.

Once you pull your feet and form a nice arch, roll forward just a bit to complete the pose.

8. Diving Swan

Another pro yoga pose from our list. Some people find this pose harder than swimming and it requires strong back muscles to lift your upper body that much off the ground.

Start with lying on your stomach and then lift your body up off the ground while extending your arms to both sides. Once you reach the desired pose, keep this pose for about 2-3 seconds before you roll forward to end the pose.