10 Yoga Poses for Lower Back Pain That Actually Bring Relief

If your lower back has been aching, stiff, or just plain cranky, these yoga poses for lower back pain can help you finally feel things moving in the right direction.

I put this list together by looking at what physical therapists, yoga therapists, and pain researchers recommend most consistently. These are the poses that come up over and over because they address what is actually happening in your back.

Not every pose works the same way. Some release tight muscles that pull your spine out of alignment. Others strengthen your core so your spine stops carrying more load than it should.

Here’s how yoga helps with lower back pain on two levels at once. On a physical level, specific poses lengthen shortened muscles, decompress your vertebrae, and restore healthy movement to your spine. On a nervous system level, slow, breath-focused movement reduces the tension and cortisol that make pain feel sharper and more relentless.

None of the poses on this list require experience or flexibility. If you are brand new to yoga, most of these are a safe place to start.

If your back pain is connected to tight hips, this guide to stronger, flexible hips gives you a deeper foundation to work from alongside this one.

10 Yoga Poses for Lower Back Pain

1. Cat-Cow Stretch (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)

Cat-Cow is the best place to start for lower back pain because it moves your spine through its full natural range of motion. The rhythmic arching and rounding gently mobilizes every vertebra and warms up the muscles on both sides of your spine at the same time.

It also coordinates your movement with your breath, which activates your parasympathetic nervous system. That matters because chronic back pain often involves a nervous system stuck in a high-alert state, and this pose begins to interrupt that pattern from the very first breath.

How you breathe during yoga directly affects how your body responds, including how much tension your back holds. If you want to go deeper on that, this breakdown of yoga breathing techniques is worth reading before you start.

How to do it:

1. Start on your hands and knees with your wrists under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
2. Inhale and let your belly drop toward the floor. Lift your head and tailbone toward the ceiling. This is Cow.
3. Exhale and round your spine toward the ceiling. Tuck your chin and your tailbone. This is Cat.
4. Move slowly and let your breath lead every single movement.
5. Repeat 10 to 15 times, pausing in any position that feels especially good.

2. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Child’s Pose creates a long, gentle traction through your entire spine that is very hard to get any other way. It also gives your lower back muscles a complete rest from the job of holding you upright, which is something they rarely get during a normal day.

The deeply grounding nature of this pose brings your stress response down quickly. That shift matters because tension held in the body significantly amplifies how much back pain you feel.

A Cochrane systematic review of 21 trials found that yoga improves back function and pain compared to usual care, with restorative poses like this one contributing to those gains through nervous system regulation.

How to do it:

1. Kneel on the floor and sit your hips back toward your heels.
2. Spread your knees wider than your hips.
3. Walk your hands forward and lower your forehead toward the mat.
4. Let your arms reach long in front of you, palms flat on the floor.
5. Breathe slowly and deeply into your back body.
6. Stay for 2 to 3 minutes. The longer you hold this, the more your spine decompresses.

3. Supine Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

A gentle spinal twist releases the muscles that run along each side of your spine, the erector spinae, which are almost always tight and overworked when lower back pain is present. The rotation also creates gentle traction in your lower back, which relieves compression between your vertebrae.

Doing this pose lying down makes it one of the safest options on this list. You get all the benefits of a twist without putting any weight or strain on your spine.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your back with your legs straight.
2. Pull your right knee into your chest.
3. Use your left hand to guide that knee across your body toward the floor on the left side.
4. Extend your right arm out to the side in a T shape.
5. Look to the right if that feels comfortable on your neck.
6. Hold for 1 to 2 minutes, breathing slowly.
7. Return to center and switch sides. Always do both sides equally.

4. Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

Bridge Pose does something most stretches cannot: it strengthens your glutes and hamstrings at the same time it stretches your lower back. Weak glutes are one of the most common underlying causes of chronic lower back pain because your spine overcompensates when your hips are not doing their share of the work.

The gentle backbend also opens your hip flexors, which shorten and tighten from prolonged sitting and pull your pelvis out of alignment. There is a lot more happening in a backbend than most people realize, and this guide to backbend health benefits breaks that down in depth.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart.
2. Place your arms by your sides with your palms facing down.
3. Press your feet firmly into the floor and slowly lift your hips toward the ceiling.
4. Squeeze your glutes and engage your core as you rise.
5. Hold for 30 to 60 seconds, breathing steadily.
6. Slowly lower your spine back to the mat, one vertebra at a time.
7. Repeat 2 to 3 times.

5. Sphinx Pose (Salamba Bhujangasana)

Sphinx Pose gently reverses the forward rounding that happens when you sit for long periods. That constant flexion compresses the front of your lumbar discs over time, and a supported backbend like Sphinx begins to counteract that pressure by encouraging the natural inward curve of your lower back.

It is also one of the most widely recommended poses for disc-related lower back pain. Physical therapists and spine specialists often prescribe this exact shape because it creates lumbar extension without straining the neck or shoulders.

A meta-analysis of 18 randomized controlled trials found that yoga reduces pain and disability in people with chronic lower back pain, with extension-based poses playing a key role in restoring lumbar function. If you are not sure whether Sphinx or the more intense Cobra is right for your back, this comparison of Sphinx vs Cobra explains the differences clearly.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your stomach with your legs extended and the tops of your feet pressing into the mat.
2. Bring your elbows under your shoulders with your forearms flat on the floor.
3. Press gently through your forearms to lift your chest and upper body.
4. Keep your lower belly lightly engaged so you are not collapsing into your lower back.
5. Look straight ahead and keep your neck long.
6. Hold for 1 to 3 minutes, breathing slowly and deeply.

6. Knees-to-Chest Pose (Apanasana)

This pose provides direct, gentle compression and traction to your lower back simultaneously. When you hug both knees in, you flatten your lumbar spine completely against the floor, releasing the tight muscles and compressed joints that build up from standing and sitting all day.

Rocking gently side to side turns it into a direct massage for your sacrum and the muscles around it. That area accumulates a significant amount of tension in most people with lower back pain.

How to do it:

1. Lie flat on your back.
2. Inhale slowly, then exhale and draw both knees toward your chest.
3. Wrap your arms around your shins and hug them gently toward you.
4. Rock slowly from side to side for 30 to 60 seconds.
5. For more targeted work, do one leg at a time. Pull your right knee in, hold for 30 seconds, then switch to the left.

7. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Downward Dog decompresses your entire spine by creating traction from both ends at once. Your heels press down while your hips lift up, and that opposing pull lengthens the space between your vertebrae and releases the muscles along your whole back.

It also strengthens your core, shoulders, and hamstrings in a way that builds the full-body support your lower back needs to stop being overloaded. This is one of the few poses that simultaneously stretches and strengthens everything your spine depends on.

A randomized trial confirmed that a 12-week yoga program was as effective as physical therapy for improving back function and reducing pain in adults with chronic lower back pain.

How to do it:

1. Start on your hands and knees in a tabletop position.
2. Tuck your toes and press your hips up and back toward the ceiling.
3. Straighten your legs as much as feels comfortable. A slight bend in the knees is completely fine.
4. Press firmly through your hands and lengthen from your wrists to your hips.
5. Let your head hang naturally between your arms.
6. Hold for 5 to 8 breaths, then lower back down.

8. Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana)

When you fold forward over straight legs, you lengthen your entire posterior chain, the hamstrings, calves, and the muscles running along your spine, all at the same time. Tight hamstrings are a massively underappreciated driver of lower back pain because they pull on your sitting bones and flatten your lumbar curve.

This pose also activates your parasympathetic nervous system through the combination of forward folding and slow breath. That systemic calming effect reduces the pain sensitivity that builds up when your back has been hurting for a while.

How to do it:

1. Sit on the floor with your legs extended straight in front of you.
2. Flex your feet so your toes point toward the ceiling.
3. Inhale and sit up as tall as possible, lengthening your spine from your tailbone to the crown of your head.
4. Exhale and hinge forward slowly from your hips, not your waist.
5. Reach your hands toward your feet. Hold wherever you can comfortably reach, whether that is your shins, ankles, or feet.
6. Stay for 1 to 2 minutes, softening a little deeper with every exhale.

9. Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana)

Low Lunge targets your hip flexors directly, and tight hip flexors are one of the most common structural causes of lower back pain. Research confirms that tight hip flexors disrupt pelvic alignment and increase compressive load on the lower vertebrae, contributing directly to lumbar pain.

The psoas muscle, your deepest hip flexor, attaches directly to your lumbar vertebrae. When it shortens from prolonged sitting, it compresses your lower back with every step you take. Consistent stretching of this muscle is one of the highest-impact things you can do for your back over time.

How to do it:

1. Start on your hands and knees.
2. Step your right foot forward between your hands.
3. Lower your left knee to the floor and slide it back until you feel a stretch in the front of your left hip.
4. Lift your torso and rest your hands on your right thigh.
5. Keep your front knee directly above your front ankle.
6. Hold for 1 minute, breathing deeply into the front of your left hip.
7. Step back and switch sides.

10. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)

This is the easiest pose on the list and one of the most effective finishers for back pain. When your legs go up the wall, your lumbar spine releases into a completely neutral, unloaded position that it rarely gets to experience during a normal day.

The full-body calming effect also pulls your nervous system out of the stress response that amplifies pain signals. A 2024 randomized trial found that consistent yoga practice reduced pain and disability significantly compared to a wait-list control, with improvements sustained at 24 weeks. It pairs beautifully with a pre-sleep stretching routine, since relaxing your nervous system at night supports better recovery through the following morning.

How to do it:

1. Sit sideways next to a wall with your hip close to the baseboard.
2. Swing your legs up the wall as you lower your back to the floor.
3. Scoot your hips as close to the wall as feels comfortable.
4. Let your arms rest by your sides, palms facing up.
5. Close your eyes and breathe slowly.
6. Stay here for 5 to 10 minutes.

Your Back Can Feel Different Than This

Start with Cat-Cow and Child’s Pose to warm up, move through the middle poses at your own pace, and always finish with Legs Up the Wall. That sequence takes about 20 to 25 minutes.

Aim for three to four sessions a week. Lower back pain responds well to consistency, and a short daily practice will outperform an occasional long one every time.