Lower Back Pain After 40: Why Doing “All the Right Things” Still Isn’t Enough

Good morning!

As I sip my coffee on this chilly Sunday morning, my back is hurting!

Last week was a big one at the studio. We’ve been cleaning, organizing, rearranging, putting up shelves, and moving all of our weight equipment into Studio D. Lots of lifting. Lots of twisting.

And today, my back is letting me know exactly how it feels about all of that.

Moments like this always remind me how much I used to believe that bodies work like simple equations.

 If I do the work, I get the grade.
If I follow the plan, I get the result.
If I check all the boxes, I'll get my desired outcome.

That mindset served me well for a long time. School. Career. Even fitness, to a point.

But bodies? Bodies don’t always play by those rules.

I’ve lived with lower back pain for 25 years. It started after the birth of my son in August 2000, thanks to an epidural gone wrong that left me with herniated discs in my lumbar spine. I did everything I was told to do. Physical therapy. Steroid injections. Medication. Rest when prescribed, movement when prescribed. I followed instructions carefully.

I also studied anatomy and physiology. I taught Yoga for Back Health for over a decade. I knew the muscles. I knew the biomechanics. I knew the “right” stretches and strengthening exercises.

And yet, the pain never fully resolved.

It improved at times. It flared at others. Sometimes there was a clear reason. Sometimes there wasn’t. That was deeply frustrating for someone who likes logic and clean cause-and-effect.

Then last November, I was introduced to a very different way of thinking about pain. Not in a woo-woo way. In a “wait… that actually makes sense” way.

Here’s the big shift: your body is not a math equation!

Lower back pain is rarely just about weak muscles, tight muscles, or one misbehaving joint. Your low back does not exist in isolation. It lives in relationship with your pelvis, hips, legs, and feet. It also lives in relationship with your rib cage, shoulders, neck, and breath.

What happens upstream and downstream matters.

So do your habits. How you sit. How you stand. How you breathe. How you move when you are stressed, tired, rushed, or overwhelmed. Even how you relate to discomfort itself.

This is where yoga therapy, specifically the Viniyoga approach taught by Sandi Tindal, is fundamentally different from the typical “here are three exercises, do them twice a day” model.

In yoga therapy, the starting point is YOU. Your structure. Your patterns. Your life circumstances. Your nervous system. Your history. 

One of the most powerful tools you have is something most of us rarely use intentionally: conscious attention. The ability to notice how you move, where you hold tension, how your breath interacts with your spine, and which patterns support you versus quietly sabotage you.

Instead of assuming the low back is “the problem,” yoga therapy looks at how different parts of the body may be working at odds with each other. Instead of forcing a correction, it guides you to explore movement in a way that brings those relationships back into balance.

This is not about chasing a quick fix. It’s about building a relationship with your spine.

Think about your teeth. You don’t brush once and call it done. You have an ongoing dental hygiene practice. Daily attention. Periodic check-ins. Accountability.

Your musculoskeletal system deserves the same respect. 

In our Yoga for Lower Back Pain series, the goal is not to hand you a generic set of stretches and send you on your way. The goal is to help you discover your own “Goldilocks” movements. Not too much. Not too little. Just right for YOUR body.

You’ll explore how to distribute movement more evenly through your entire spine, paired with breath. Many of us have lost that ability over time, especially after years of sitting, repetitive movement, stress, or injury. When certain areas do all the work and others opt out, pain often shows up as the messenger.

This work takes patience. It takes curiosity. It takes a willingness to let go of the idea that checking a box guarantees an outcome. And honestly? That has been one of the most humbling and freeing lessons of aging for me.

If you’ve tried the traditional route and still feel stuck, or if you’re tired of feeling like your back is something that needs to be “fixed,” this series offers a different path. One rooted in awareness, intelligence, and long-term support.

Yoga for Lower Back Pain is a 4-week course beginning this Thursday, January 22. Space is intentionally limited so Sandi can work with each participant individually.

Sometimes the answer isn’t doing more.
Sometimes it’s learning how to relate differently.

Keep warm,

Candace ♥️