Fixing lower back pain with Tai Chi

An article written by one of our students at The Practical Sanctuary.

Photo by Adrian "Rosco" Stef on Unsplash

Generally I’ve always considered myself to be relatively fit. I have a farly ok diet, I try not to eat excessively and only drink now and then. I always walk up stairs and escalators and can move around with the usual aches and pains.

However, now and then, I get back pain. It starts with a bit of tension and when it gets really bad I have to lie down for a while or even sleep it off. I can conifdently say it is caused by sitting at work crouching over my laptop everyday.

I started doing Tai Chi as I heard it was good for health but I was not prepared to discover how tough it would be, especially when most of the time you think of Tai Chi, you think of a group of elderly people making slow arm movements in a park. I was wrong and I greatly admire how these old people can do these movements at such an old age.

So what happened?

When I started I was instructed to learn Qi Gong and placed into positions which were supposedly created to help optimise our blood and energy flow. This would inturn help circulation in the body and help the body heal itself. I must confess I was sceptical. The Tai Chi I was learning was Yang Style and there are 8 positions to put the body into when doing Qi Gong. At first I thought this was going to be easy, how hard can standing really be? I was wrong.

Surprisingly, after just 1 minute, my legs would start to shake, my arms would wobble uncontrollably and my muscles felt like they were on fire. How could a simple position, created so much intensity?

The Reason?

Previously I have been the gym, I’ve bulked up, I’ve played sports I thought if anything I had a good structure and body foundation. It turns out, that as we mature from a teenager into adulthood, we pick up bad habits and our bodies adapt so quickly that the majority of us are walking around in incorrect, unnatural positiona. What do I mean by that?

On the outside we seem the same but on the inside, our pelvis might be twisted 1 or 2 cms, this cause the upper body to twist to compensate, due to this the neck needs to lean slightly to ensure our head is straight so we don’t fall over. Over years, this position is what the body thinks is 'correct' but slowly this causes excess strain and load on body parts that are not meant to handle this much stress. This all leads to key areas which become affected. Lower back, stiff neck and shoulders, ankle pains, imbalance.

Allow the body to relearn and heal

In Tai Chi and Qi Gong, the practice allows the body to recognise and identify where our tension sits in our body. This is why I found it so difficult to stand in these positions but regular practice the body adapts and strengthems muscles that we have forgotten how to use, release the tension in areas which it understands it doesn’t need to.

What is left afterwards? A perfect posture that your body can depend on. It’s been over a year and each time I do it, I learn something new about my body. My legs are so much stronger than they have ever been. My knees are strengthened allowing me to put weight on them like I’ve never been able to. The best part is being able to loosen up, allowing my once tense shoulders to finally sit naturally

And the back pain?

I would be lying to say that it has been eliminated, but it is has been greatly reduced. The more the body strengthens and relaxes, the easier it is for the lower back to not hold the tension and strain. I am honestly confident that soon, the lower back pain will be gone and I’ll be able to keep it this way until I grow old.

Tai chi is a great way to improve your overall health and well-being. I encourage you to give it a try.

If you're interested in giving it a try, take an online course at The Practical Sanctuary.

If you’re based in London, UK, you can also learn in person with an instructor from The Practical Sanctuary. If you're based in Europe, you can learn Tai Chi at Master Ding’s Academy.