Updated  January 7, 2025

Yoga props can be a beneficial way to support a healthier practice and a healthier spine–but only if you learn how to use them correctly! In this article, we share the benefits of yoga props, how to use them correctly, and techniques for including them in your (and your student's) daily yoga practice. 

Every yoga practitioner has been taught that props can elevate your practice in many ways – from improving your alignment to allowing your body to passively relax with ease. Using props during your practice can also reduce your risk of injury and strain as well. 

However, when it comes to utilizing props to nourish the spine, specific positioning and placement can make all the difference. While props can be beneficial, they can also place a practitioner at greater risk for injury if not utilized properly. It is important for yoga instructors and yoga practitioners to understand the effect each prop has on the area of the spine you are targeting. 

Yoga Props & Spinal Health: Everything You Need To Know

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Spinal Alignment Matters: A healthy spine enhances mobility, posture, and overall well-being by supporting the body and facilitating energy flow.
• Yoga Props Provide Support: Tools like bolsters, blocks, and straps help maintain proper alignment and reduce strain during poses.
• Reduce Tension and Compression: Props encourage the spine to lengthen naturally, relieving stress and promoting spinal decompression.
• Improve Accessibility: Props make yoga poses more accessible for all levels, allowing safe modifications that protect the back.
• Enhance Strength and Flexibility: Regular use of yoga props helps build spinal strength and flexibility, contributing to long-term spinal health.
• Encourage Mindful Practice: Props support a slower, more intentional practice, fostering deeper awareness of spinal alignment and overall body care.

How Yoga Props Help Spine Health & Why It Matters

Your spine is the core of your body’s vitality, supporting every movement, breath, and posture. It’s more than just the backbone of your physical being—it’s the pathway for your nervous system, affecting energy flow, balance, and overall well-being. 

A healthy spine enables flexibility, strength, and alignment, empowering you to move through life with ease and confidence. Whether you’re flowing through yoga poses, engaging in daily activities, or simply breathing deeply, your spinal health plays a pivotal role in how you feel and function.

By nurturing your spine, you create the foundation for a balanced, vibrant life.

Yoga Prop Support: How To Help Your Students With Spine Health 

Incorporating yoga props into your practice can be transformative for spinal health. Props like bolsters, blocks, and straps provide the support needed to ease tension, improve posture, and safely deepen stretches. 

For example, using a bolster during restorative poses encourages the spine to lengthen naturally, relieving compression and promoting alignment. Blocks and straps can help you modify poses, making them more accessible while reducing strain on the back.

These tools are essential for creating space in the spine, releasing stiffness, and building the strength and flexibility necessary for long-term spinal wellness. With the right props, your yoga practice becomes a gentle yet powerful way to honor and care for your spine.

The Dos & Don'ts Of Yoga Props In Your Yoga Practice 

Bolsters

• Do: Use for thoracic extension and gentle extension of the low lumbar. Use to stabilize the lumbar spine and optimize thoracic rotation during supine spinal twisting.
• Don’t: Use with posterior disc herniation or disc bulging as this will exacerbate symptoms. Opt for neutral positioning up to mild extension of the lumbar vertebra to counteract the direction of the bulge or herniation.

Blocks

• Do: Utilize a block behind the chest to passively stretch the pectorals, costal muscles and upper abdominals. Utilize under the sacrum to relieve lumbar hyperextension and spinal erector tension. 
• Don’t: Use with posterior disc herniation or disc bulging as this will exacerbate symptoms. Utilize behind the chest if cervical spine or nerve issues are present in the upper extremities.

Straps

• Do: Utilize straps to improve and maintain correct body mechanics by not straining to reach or contort the body to achieve poses or stretches. Straps can be used to create light over-pressure to increase stretching and also aid in improving mobility and end-range.

• Don’t: Use to force your body into postures or stretches or rely on straps heavily to stabilize your body. The nervous system is built to protect you from injury – pushing too far into stretches can actually cause more harm than good. To best protect your body, it’s best to create as much stability with your own musculature as opposed to consistent use of external support.

Towels

• Do: Always have on-hand in your yoga practices. Use towels to offer more grip while aiding in stretching (i.e. supine hamstrings stretch). Towels can be used to support the natural curves of the spine and placed behind the rib cage for gentle heart opening. With a towel you are able to gradually increase or decrease height for more options for support. During Savasana, roll a towel and place under your knees to ease pressure on the low back.

• Don’t: Not use towels! This is one of the easiest props to bring with you and offers multiple ways to use during your practices.  If using a towel to support the spine, avoid placing your body in positioning that creates pain, burning, tingling, or increased discomfort in your spine or limbs.

Dowels

• Do: Use to increase support and stability while balancing or in split leg postures such as lunges poses (Extended Angle Pose, Tree pose, Triangle Pose). Dowels are great for supporting the spine safely into a standing forward fold, especially for those who have chronic back pain and tightness with a tendency to spasm.
• Don’t: Consistently rely on a dowel for extra support. Utilize it as an aide to find your natural core support and balance. Think of it as “training wheels” for improving your balance and core control. Wean yourself off this prop as you progress in your practice and increase your strength, stability, and range of motion.

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