For a bad back, does yoga help or hurt?

Back pain is common, but what causes it can vary. So, it's tough to recommend one perfect exercise or treatment. Yoga is a tricky option. Anecdotally, some people swear that yoga helped their back problem. And while there is very little research on yoga injuries, one 2005 randomized clinical trial in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggested that yoga is an effective treatment for chronic low back pain.

The researchers pointed out that while some yoga moves may be beneficial, some styles or positions in yoga may be too vigorous for those with back pain. And that may explain the increasing number of injuries being seen from yoga.

Some aspects of yoga including positions like the plank can be beneficial because they strengthen the core muscles that help support your spine (although someone with back pain may have to start with very modified versions of the plank and only hold the pose for a few seconds to build up strength).

Yet other aspects of yoga have a high potential for overstressing the spine, including those poses that bend the back and load vertebrae with excess body weight (such as the shoulder stands), or deep stretches where joint angles are severely stressed (such as during forward back bends or extremely arched Cobra positions).

So while some yoga moves may be helpful, others may hurt—and it's hard to know which ones to do if you don't have a background in biomechanics.