Squats have been a part of my exercise routine for years. I noticed over time, however, that I was experiencing lower back pain.
While I knew this could be a minor side effect of squats, the pain was excruciating. It was beginning to affect my ability to participate in everyday activities.
I experienced trouble sleeping as I couldn’t get comfortable. If I wanted to maintain my healthy lifestyle, I knew I would need to find a solution.
Read on why I recommend a Yoga Wheel to fix any lower back pain you’re experiencing from squats, as well as my #1 recommendation for the best yoga wheel.
Squats and Lower Back Pain
If you are just starting your fitness journey, you may not be aware of how certain exercise routines impact the body.
Squatting, in particular, provides whole-body benefits. The exercise targets upper and lower torso and back muscles that are used in a variety of everyday activities, such as:
- Walking.
- Climbing stairs.
- Running.
- Bending and lifting.
- Other athletic performances.
Ultimately, they can be especially beneficial in helping enhance and maintain a healthy body.
Each of the core muscles, along with the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors, and calves benefit.
When squatting, your lower back, however, is required to carry the majority of the weight.
Exercising these muscles has been proven to be beneficial and is a staple in most exercise routines.
Some individuals, such as myself, expected some discomfort and soreness after squatting. A painful lower back, however, is a relatively common side effect of squatting.
Often, it stems from weakened lower back muscles, prior injury, incorrect form, or even something as simple as ill-fitting shoes.
For most people, lower back pain often is the result of traditional soreness that we all expect.
If you are attempting to strengthen your muscles and are not progressing through weight loads too quickly, you’re not likely to be injuring yourself.
Frequent squatting can often lead to chronic soreness when you primarily target the muscles in your lower back.
Naturally, you’ll want to check with your physician to ensure you are not running the risk of injury when exercising.
For many people, however, this centralized pain is a result of a regular workout routine. It’s a byproduct of exercising, building, and stretching the muscles in the lower back.
If your pain begins to become a deterrent, however, you’ll want to investigate ways to help reduce your overall soreness.
This way, you can continue to exercise and develop your lower back muscles.
If you’ve consulted your doctor or physical physician and confirmed you are not at risk for injury, you’ll want to explore the best ways to improve lower back pain.
In my case, I found that my chronic soreness was keeping me from exercising regularly, as I would need additional rest days to recover.
It also seemed that something as simple as an incorrect movement could cause my pain to flare, setting me back even further.
I knew, therefore, that I needed to find a way to relieve this soreness so that I could get back to meeting my goals regularly.
For many, simply altering your workout routine doesn’t provide adequate relief. It can be frustrating to want to make progress at the gym but have pain hold you back.
I struggled with this for months before I finally found a solution that worked for me – the yoga wheel.
I’ve taken the time to outline what the yoga wheel is, how it works and why it’s effective.
This way, you can make an educated decision on if using yoga wheels will help you get back to your regular fitness routine.
What Is a Yoga Wheel?
Yoga, traditionally speaking, consists of flexibility and core toning exercises. It consists of stretching muscles – including the muscles in the lower back – in a gentle and accessible way.
If you’ve ever attended a yoga class, you know multiple yoga propers are available for use during your practice.
These fitness accessories help both new and experienced yogis in deepening their stretches and supporting them during poses.
A relatively new piece of fitness equipment, the yoga wheel is excellent for providing deep and fulfilling back stretches.
There are a variety of poses professionals recommend for individuals who use it in their practice.
Typically these wheels are approximately 12 inches in diameter and are made from a variety of materials.
Most traditionally, yoga wheels are composed of wood or plastic. The design allows them to be malleable while also providing support for stretches.
Walls of the yoga wheel are often relatively thin to provide maximum stretching benefits. However, the wheel itself will likely be wide to ensure adequate support while you use it.
Since this piece of fitness equipment was created a few years ago, there have been plenty of ways to use it.
How Do Yoga Wheels Work?
Yoga wheels have a variety of practical uses. How it works for you, ultimately, will depend upon how you decide to use it.
Keep in mind, though, that if you are not familiar with yoga practices, you should likely avoid some of the more difficult techniques you see online.
Attempting to perform something with yoga wheels that you are not ready for can result in you injuring yourself, which will only add to your pain instead of reducing it.
For the most basic of users, yoga wheels are essentially an assisted stretching device. When first starting yoga practices, many individuals struggle to maintain specific postures that are beneficial to stretching.
Developing that sort of flexibility takes time, and it can be difficult to do. This is especially true when you’re practicing individually and not under the guidance of a professional, who can correct postures and provide assistance and support.
When using the wheel for simple stretching purposes, you can effectively stretch the entire front side of your body.
This includes your hip flexors, abdomen, chest, and shoulders. Additionally, it allows you to stretch your back and perform back-bends that may otherwise be difficult.
Yoga wheels provide this kind of assistance in a variety of ways. When first practicing yoga or even performing simple stretches, the body is not yet used to, or prepared for, holding itself in certain positions.
Specific muscles must first be developed and toned prior to effective stretching.
Using yoga wheels, however, your body receives the support it needs to stay upright while performing these stretching motions.
It’s a great way to help stretch sore muscles. Additionally, by simply rolling on the wheel, you’re able to massage the spine in a way that reaches deep tissues and provides relief from stressed joints.
It does so, however, without the potential for pain, discomfort or risk of injury.
Yogis worldwide have attested to the effectiveness of yoga wheels, stating that it helps them in their daily practice.
Casual practicers can practice deep stretching and benefit from the building of core muscles during these exercises.
Ultimately, yoga wheels have a variety of uses that give you the ability to utilize the most effective yoga practices with relative ease.
Why Are Yoga Wheels Effective For Lower Back Pain?
Believe it or not, thousands of people suffer from lower back pain across the world. There’s a wide variety of reasons that you or someone you know may be experiencing this discomfort.
As we previously stated, you may be experiencing it due to squats or other parts of your regular workout routine.
Alternatively, many individuals experience this type of pain after sitting at a desk throughout the course of their workday.
Whatever your reason may be, there are multiple ways that yoga wheels help relieve pain and discomfort in the lower back.
To make it easier to understand, we’ve broken down the ways it assists below.
It’s Designed To Massage The Spine
It may sound a bit ridiculous at first, but the yoga wheel massages the spine as you roll across it.
Putting pressure on the wheel, it presses against the vertebrae of your back, relieving pressure on the joints.
It’s similar to the type of pressure a professional would use during a massage, and often helps to relieve back pain.
Additionally, if a simple wheel doesn’t cut it for you, they actually specifically design yoga wheels with massaging nubs attached.
These nubs press into the back, massaging the muscles as you roll back and forth. It helps relieve pressure and work out knotted muscles, allowing your body to relax.
For the best massage results, we suggest following along with some guided breathing exercises as you use your wheel.
This will help you relax into the exercise, making the massaging aspect of the wheel even more effective.
It Helps Stretch The Back Muscles
While you naturally have the ability to do basic back stretches on your own, you may struggle to complete more complicated yoga poses that individuals suggest for relieving back pain.
While these poses are often highly beneficial, they can be harmful when you are still new and have not yet developed the strength needed to maintain those poses.
With the support of yoga wheels, however, you’re able to perform more advanced stretches that target the muscles in your lower back.
As these muscles must carry the weight of your squat routine, they often tense up over time and under the strain of performing the squat.
As with any workout routine, you should stretch both before your workout and after your workout.
This helps prevent cramping and muscle soreness. Stretching your lower back in a way that is beneficial and helps relieve the tension in that area, however, can be somewhat difficult to do effectively without advanced yoga practices.
Because of the way yoga wheels provide support for the back as you roll across them, you’re able to further and more deeply stretch the lower back.
Bending at an angle, for instance, allows the muscles in the lower back region to expand, releasing the hold of the tension. This provides extended relief as muscles expand and move more easily.
Additionally, there are other lower back pain stretches that you can do using yoga wheels that do not require a backward back.
For instance, a child pose is a great way to stretch muscles all along the back, but especially in the lower back region.
You can hold the yoga wheel in front of you, and it will allow you to further stretch the muscles at the base of your back.
This can provide immense relief for muscles still sore from squatting. Moreover, it can help strengthens in that area, which, in turn, can reduce any future potential for additional back pain.
How far you stretch and what poses you choose to do while practicing with yoga wheels should depend on your familiarity with yoga as a practice.
Individuals who do not practice yoga frequently and therefore are not used to extensive stretching should not try to perform extreme stretches and bends, as they do run the risk of hurting themselves.
If you have questions about how you can stretch and what is safe for you to do on your yoga wheel, we suggest you ask your doctor, physician, trainer, or a yoga instructor for guidance.
Yoga Wheels Help Realign The Spine
One of the reasons you may be experiencing lower back pain after performing squats is due in part to your posture and stance.
Many individuals who experience pain in their lower back feel this way due to poor posture. This may come from standing or sitting incorrectly for extended periods of time.
Unfortunately, many people do this throughout the course of their workday, which can lead to excessive back pain in the days to come.
When you factor in basic soreness from squats, extenuating circumstances such as poor posture or bad form can exaggerate the issue.
As the lower back often is required to provide the primary support for the body when doing squats, it’s under quite a lot of pressure.
Combining this back pressure with the standard back pressure that comes with poor posture, it’s not surprising why so many suffer from this kind of pain.
Yoga wheels are able to solve this problem, however, by allowing you to stretch and realign the spine by performing basic yoga backbends.
As the spin attempts to compress and the muscles around it tighten to provide additional support, your spine may often become somewhat misaligned, causing pressure and pain – especially in the lower back.
By doing simple backward rolls with the support of yoga wheels, however, you’re able to provide your back with the support it needs to realign itself.
If you’ve ever noticed that after a good yoga session or a deep stretch, you feel instantaneously better, it’s likely due to your spinal alignment.
When the pressure is relieved through stretching the back in its natural s-curve, the spine can realign, better supporting you.
You’ll relieve pressure and have the ability to move more freely once you’ve assisted your back in realignment.
Recommended Yoga Wheel: Chirp Wheel
If you’re looking to strengthen the muscles around the spine and fix your lower back pain, we really can’t say enough about the Chirp Wheel.
Supporting up to 500 lbs, it has a patented spinal canal and is the only yoga wheel on the market that is FDA-registered as a 510(k) medical device.
The patented spinal canal gives you a deeper stretch lengthwise and widthwise than many other yoga wheels, and comes in different sizes based on how targets you want your stretches to be.
For a more detailed review of our #1 recommendation, check out our yoga wheel review.
Summary
As we stated previously, there are many different reasons you may be experiencing lower back pain after performing squats.
You want to make sure, naturally, that the problem is not due to an underlying injury prior to finding your own solution, however.
If it is due to an injury, you may find this only makes the injury worse and can cause extenuating damage. For basic discomfort, however, there are many ways to solve the issue.
Ultimately, using a yoga wheel to help relieve back pain and restore alignment can be highly beneficial in the long run. While yoga wheels can be a bit pricey, using yoga wheels has many benefits.
They’re a powerful tool that can allow you to become more flexible. Additionally, they can help you prepare for exercises and wind down afterward.
You should remember that while this worked for me, and I personally know many individuals who used a wheel and saw a positive effect on their back pain, it may not be the right solution for you.
However, when used correctly and for the right type of pain, you may find it to be very effective. While using yoga wheels, if you find that your back pain gets worse, reach out to a medical professional.
They will be able to ensure there are no other underlying problems causing you discomfort.
We hope this helps! I know the yoga wheels have been a lifesaver for me. I use it daily simply to unwind and relieve the pressure from sitting at a desk or walking throughout the course of the day.
When it comes to squatting, I feel like I rarely have problems with pain anymore. The wheel has given me the ability to frequently exercise without risking my livelihood.
I no longer struggle with excessive pain or discomfort from working out, and, honestly, I think I feel better every day. It’s benefited me in so many ways, and we hope it benefits you, too.
