Yoga for your back in Pokhara
Ease your lower back and stand taller.
Back gathers classes with a focus on the spine, especially the lower back: gentle mobility, core work, Pilates, Iyengar with props, yin and back-care courses. They move the spine slowly in all its directions. The aim is to feel more at home in your back, not to fix anything.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Back does for you
You get slow, careful movement for the part of you that sits all day. Bending, twisting and lengthening the spine with attention can feel like opening a window. Many people say they stand taller and feel more at ease in their back afterward. You also learn a few movements you can repeat at your desk or before bed.
It suits you if
- you sit at a desk all day
- your lower back often feels stiff or tired
- you want simple movements to take home
- you prefer a slow, careful class
Read the full guide to BackWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes run 45 to 90 minutes at a calm pace. Expect cat and cow, gentle twists, bridges and supported backbends, with attention to breathing and posture, often combined with work for the belly and glutes. Props are common: blocks, bolsters, straps, sometimes a chair or a wall. Facilitators give clear cues and plenty of options, and many ask about your back before class. Some run as multi-week courses.
Your first time
- Wear comfortable clothes that let you bend forward and lie on your back.
- Arrive early to tell the facilitator about your back and any history of injury.
- Take the smaller version of every movement in your first class and notice how you feel the next day.
Good to know
- If you have back pain, a recent injury, a disc problem or past surgery, check with your doctor or physiotherapist before joining and tell the facilitator.
- Stop any movement that causes sharp, shooting or radiating pain, and mention numbness or tingling to a doctor.
- These classes are movement practice, not therapy; they do not replace a diagnosis or a physiotherapy plan.
Where it comes from
Back care as a group class goes back to the back school: courses that mix education about posture and lifting with exercise, run since 1969 and starting with what became known as the Swedish back school. The format spread across Europe, and in Germany Rückenschule (back school) courses became a familiar offer, many of them subsidized by statutory insurers (Krankenkassen).
Yoga and Pilates added their own approaches. B.K.S. Iyengar used props such as ropes, benches, blocks and the wall so that people with stiff or sensitive backs could hold poses with support, and many back-focused yoga classes borrow from his method. Pilates, developed by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century, put control of the trunk at the center.
Thinking about back care has shifted over time. Earlier approaches centered on ideal posture and on bracing particular muscles; many physiotherapists today emphasize regular, varied movement at a comfortable level. In Berlin, back classes run in yoga and Pilates studios, at Volkshochschulen and as insurer-subsidized courses, often at lunchtime or after work.
Words you will hear
- Cat and cow
- Rounding and arching the spine on hands and knees, in time with the breath.
- Neutral spine
- The natural curves of your back, neither flattened nor exaggerated.
- Setu bandha
- Bridge pose: lifting the hips while lying on your back with feet on the floor.
- Twist
- Turning the spine gently around its own axis.
- Rückenschule
- German for back school: a course combining movement and everyday posture tips.