Pain in the back of your leg is typically caused by a strained hamstring muscle or pinched sciatic nerve, which branches through your back and down the back of your legs. The postures, or asanas, of yoga can help calm your mind and relieve tension in your body, thus creating a better healing environment for pain management and relief. Treating the pain in the back of your leg with yoga practice will also increase your knee and hip mobility.
Exercises
Yoga is filled with asanas that elongate and strengthen your hamstring and lower back muscles. One of the most common poses in yoga is the adho mukha svanasana, or downward-facing dog. To perform this pose, you plant your hands at the top of your mat and raise your buttocks in the air while keeping your feet flat on the mat at the bottom. When your heels are pressed against the floor in the downward-facing dog, your hamstring muscles are greatly stretched between their connecting points on your sitting bone and just below the knee. Other poses that stretch your hamstring muscles and can bring relief to mild leg pain are the high lunge, reclining big toe pose and the triangle pose.
Overstretching
Yoga students often make the mistake of thinking that more stretching is the solution to any pain they feel in the back of their legs. Unfortunately, when you overstretch these muscles without strengthening them they become more susceptible to strain during heavy lifting. Overstretching your hamstrings also creates microscopic tears in the muscle tissue that lead to inflammation and chronic pain for weeks. You must pay attention to your body and stop a stretch immediately if you feel pain during it.
Strengthening Exercises
Rather than overstretching the backs of your legs during yoga practice, include some leg strengthening asanas. Postures such as the noose pose require you to hold up your body weight while standing with a light flex in your knees. To perform the noose pose, assume a squat position with your back near a wall. Turn your knees to the left and your torso to the right. Thread your left arm down between your legs and your right arm around your back. Clasp your hands near your left hip and bring your left shoulder toward your right knee.
Balancing Exercises
Balancing exercises like the eagle pose help to strengthen your leg muscles without requiring you to stretch much. To perform this pose, begin in a standing position and then bend your knees slightly. Cross your left thigh over the top of your right thigh, then wrap the top of your left foot around your right calf muscle. Extend your arms straight out in front of you and raise your hands vertically so your elbows form a 90-degree angle. Place your right elbow in the crux of your left elbow and wrap your forearms around each other so you can place your palms flat against one another. Increase or decrease the intensity of the exercise by how much you squat down on your right leg.
Mind-Muscle Connection
Yoga creates a connection between your mind and body that can reduce your stress, anxiety and body tension. Focusing on your breathing during yoga practice relieves you of your stress and can help you feel in control of the sensations you experience in your body, including pain. By mentally focusing on relieving your leg pain, you can trigger your body's natural pain-suppression system, which can expedite your body's healing process.
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