An important question for Yoga Teachers

A question for you if you teach yoga, or you’ve just qualified to teach it.

Do you know how many of your students walk in with lower back pain? 😬

I’ve been running the studio since 2013, and I promise you the number is higher than you think. The research puts the number around 70 to 80% 🤯. And I know it varies by where you are in the world but studies do paint a pretty clear picture for us. The truth is, over time, the majority of the bodies in your class have dealt with, or are dealing with, a dodgy lower back.

So here’s the second question. Are you confident that what you’re teaching them is actually helping? Or is there a chance you’re making it worse? 😨

I don’t ask that to scare you. I ask because it happened to me. Years ago, a yoga teacher re-injured my back and sent me into a downward spiral that took a long, long time to climb out of. She had the best intentions in the world. She just gave me the wrong advice, because generic wisdom, the stuff that works perfectly well for a generic body, does not work for a body in pain (specifically lower back pain). Sometimes it does real long-term damage 🚑 💉

Let me give you the clearest example I know. We teach people that you lift up on the inhale and fold on the exhale right? 👍🏽 Breathe in, open up. Breathe out, "soften" down. For most bodies this general rule is fine. But for someone with lower back pain, that can completely flip. I’ll often tell people in class that when I go into a backbend, I create the backbend on the exhale, not the inhale. Most people in cobra lift the chest as they breathe in and the lungs fill. I do the opposite. Because to accommodate a painful back, you sometimes have to do the exact reverse of the standard instruction, and you’d only know that if you understood the mechanics underneath it 🫁.

And if you don’t understand the mechanics or the physiology, the best (and safest) option is to say nothing at all. Just be honest. “I don’t know why your back hurts, that’s outside what I can tell you, so just do what feels right.” There’s no shame in that t all. It’s far better than confidently handing someone the cue that tips them over the edge, the way I was tipped over it 😤.

But if you do want to help, properly, then you have to understand that there is a world of difference between teaching the general population and teaching someone with lower back pain.

And if you want to go further with it, I can help 😬. This isn’t me turning into a salesman, most of you know I’m probably the worst salesman you’ve ever met, that’s not false modesty, it’s just true. But I’ve put everything I know into a few places so you can take it as far as you want.

There’s a mini course and its FREE this week ONLY. Give it a go and see if it helps. It will as its very logical and every yoga teacher can learn something from it and that change will show up in the next class you teach. And if you want to go further, this Saturday (24th October) I’m running a full day in-person training on lower back pain in Yoga. It's 8.30am to 3pm and my mission is to take you through what back pain really is, because it is not what most people think it is.

We cover the triggers, the specific movements that can set it off, because once you can spot a trigger you know what to do to settle it. We get into the role evolution plays in all this, the role breathing plays 😤, and most importantly, how you as a teacher can actually help a student understand their own back.

It's for Yoga teachers but also perfectly useful if you are a student who has back pain and just wants to understand everything a little bit better. So you can still practise when you are 80 years plus.

And one last thing to chew on. Did you know a good number of students who say they have back pain, and genuinely feel it in their back, don’t actually have a back problem at all? 😨 It sounds like a riddle I know. And some students with pain in the butt cheeks don't have butt pain, the issue is the lower back 😏. On Saturday I’ll show you why it’s true, what it means for how you teach and I don't worry if it sounds confusing, we will get to the bottom of it. Oh c'mon I got this far without a pun, give me a break 😬

IN-PERSON TRAINING 👇🏽

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References 1. Goutham S, Bhargav H, Holla B, Mahadevan J, Nagendra RP, Jasti N, Narasimha VL, Mehta UM, Varambally S, Venkatasubramanian G, Chand P, Gangadhar BN, Hill KP, Keshavan M, Murthy P. Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online 7 January 2026. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2843424 Free full text (PubMed Central): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12780978/ (Study design, 59 participants, 30 yoga and 29 control, ten 45-minute sessions over 14 days, median recovery of 5 vs 9 days, improvements in heart rate variability, anxiety, sleep and pain.) 2. Powell A. Yoga can help cut severe, initial opioid-withdrawal period in half, study finds. Harvard Gazette, 24 February 2026. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2026/02/yoga-can-help-cut-severe-initial-opioid-withdrawal-period-in-half-study-finds/ (Group sessions, the specific practices used, and comments from the Harvard researchers.) 3. Yoga accelerates opioid withdrawal recovery. Healio, 23 January 2026. https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20260123/yoga-accelerates-opioid-withdrawal-recovery (Parasympathetic activity accounting for 23% of the effect.) 4. Jha S. Drug withdrawal takes 9 days, yoga brings it down to 5: NIMHANS study. The South First, 16 February 2026. https://thesouthfirst.com/health/drug-withdrawal-takes-9-days-yoga-brings-it-down-to-5-nimhans-study/ (Stress markers rising briefly during breathing practice, then improving at rest by day 15.) 5. Gratzer D. Reading of the Week: Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal? The New JAMA Psych Paper. 29 January 2026. https://davidgratzer.com/reading-of-the-week/reading-of-the-week-yoga-for-opioid-withdrawal-the-new-jama-psych-paper-also-maois-history-and-ai-associated-psychosis/ (Average age of 25.6, and the study's limitations: small sample and no active control group.)