“This book contains so much – I now know how much more there is to learn.”“I will recommend other teachers attend your training course, as this is so good for yoga and allows people with back pain to feel confident to take that first step on the road to long-term health. Thanks for sharing this invaluable information.”
Welcome and thank you for your interest in this social enterprise website.
As a yoga teacher you will undoubtedly want to find out about our exciting research.
As yoga teachers on the trial team, we want to make sure that you are informed about exactly what we did during this yoga trial. We hope that you share our vision of allowing as many people to benefit from the opportunities that this research has given – e.g. raising public awareness of yoga, acceptance within medical and scientific circles, sharing of the resources designed for the research. This is not just exciting research, but research that can make a difference to those with back pain, yoga teachers and yoga in general.
- Our Research Findings and other research into yoga as a treatment of and preventative against low back pain. (See r.hand menu)
- Our educational resources designed , developed and used successfully within our trial. The ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ book (Lotus Publishing) and the ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs – Relaxations’ CD are documentary evidence of what we gave to the yoga participating students on our trial. (Access via this site.)
- Buy the CD and recommend it to your students. CD Sales help fund this social enterprise website.
- Train in how to deliver research-proven, 12-week ’Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ courses, along with the support of the trial educational resources, such as Home Practice sequences, the book and the Relaxations CD. The ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs – Teachers’ Manual’, also produced for the trial, is available only to teachers attending one of our courses – this manual contains the 12 differing class plans allowing the poses and sequences to be introduced appropriately to newcomers to yoga (enabling them to learn to practise effectively at home). If the general public, health providers and GPs are seeking out this yoga, they will want to know that it is the same research-proven yoga course taught by trained yoga teachers in the same way as in our trial (and not something different). We need more experienced teachers throughout the UK to train in this programme. We are currently actively pursuing the possibility of provision of ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ under NHS (possibly via a Community Interest Company CIC) and we will need teams of trained teachers to teach the programme. Our August 2012 published cost-effectiveness paper provides more evidence that it will be cost-saving for the NHS and society. (See our Courses for Qualified Yoga Teachers page).
- Please contact us if you think there would be a demand for training of teachers in your locality; also if you have a real interest, along with relevant expertise, in working with us to set up and run a social enterprise company to offer NHS provision.
- Read Testimonials from other teachers attending the YHLB Teacher Training course with Alison Trewhela in 2012. See our Testimonials Page.
We appreciate your support for this project and its future developments.
We are very grateful to Arthritis Research UK and York Trials Unit for this generous gift of ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’, allowing us to take yoga to a new level of standards and recognition. We all need to share this with others.
STOP PRESS. EXPERIENCED YOGA TEACHERS SOUGHT FOR TRAINING IN AND OFFERING ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’.
In order to have the beneficial impact deserved of the large, high-profile, University of York 2005-2011 yoga research project, experienced (minimum of 4 years) yoga teachers interested in training in how to deliver the ‘Yoga for Healthy Lower Backs’ programme are sought. This research was published in one of the top international medical journals (Nov 1st 2011) and showed the gentle Beginners’ 12-week yoga course to be safe and effective giving both short- and long-term improvements for those with non-specific chronic low back pain. Comparing it to other equally rigorously-tested treatment options for this prevalent condition (80% of people), the RCT research showed that this yoga programme was one of the most effective currently available and one that physicians should be comfortable to recommend as a first-line treatment option.
Furthermore, in another cost-evaluation published research paper (Aug 15th 2012), it showed that this yoga programme would be cost-effective for the NHS and the economy/society compared to other options. This did not take into account the probable life-long additional health promotional benefits that a self-management yoga programme such as this is likely to offer. Over the 12 months studied, those in the yoga group had an average of only 3.83 days off work compared to 12.29 in the usual care control group. The majority of the yoga group participants were still practising yoga twice a week even 9 months after completing the 12-week yoga intervention.
The value of the research for yoga will be heightened and maintained if we preserve the evidence-based programme in the way that the funding charity Arthritis Research UK envisaged. The fully-resourced 12-week yoga programme taught now in the same way as in the research is what is being looked for by the general public, health professionals and commissioners. Remaining true to the research will help to raise the profile of yoga and yoga teachers. The eventual aim is to have teams of yoga teachers working within the NHS under contracts via a central administration, meaning quality and standards will be key.
There are currently approx. 175 teachers trained in YHLB, but we need more of us. Please help by sharing with us in this continuing exciting project. If you wish to train, or know someone you think should train, then teachers should apply for full details by visiting the social enterprise website www.yogaforbacks.co.uk. Thank you for passing this on.
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