Ancient practice helps reduce pain and stiffness
The 52.5 million U.S. adults with arthritis endure pain and stiffness their condition causes in joints throughout the body. Exercise helps reduce those symptoms and improves mobility, research shows. One good option is gentle yoga, a less physically challenging version of the discipline that can help people with arthritis manage their condition. Gentle yoga “is a form of yoga that can be adapted to any population, from those with limited mobility, including people with arthritis, Parkinson’s [and] those with snappy and poppy joints,” says Hansa Knox, director of a yoga studio in Denver, Colorado.
A slower, gentler type of yoga
Keep in mind that gentle yoga is not a specific type of yoga, such as Kundalini or Bikram yoga, which are physically challenging and would likely be inappropriate for people suffering from chronic conditions like arthritis or Parkinson’s, which can cause stiffness and limit movement. Gentle yoga can help alleviate both symptoms; it resembles a slower-paced beginner’s or intermediate class. “Gentle yoga has many forms, yet the heart of a gentle yoga class is slow, conscious, breath-guided yoga movements done with awareness,” Knox says. “The goal of gentle yoga is to listen to your body and honor your body by allowing time to adapt each movement.” Here are expert tips on how to practice it:
Diversity is crucial.
To manage arthritis and other chronic conditions, it’s important to build strength, flexibility, balance and endurance, says Steffany Moonaz, a certified yoga therapist based in Baltimore and assistant director of academic research at Maryland University of Integrative Health. “If you have a practice focused only on strength, you’ll lose mobility,” she says. “If you have a practice focused only on gaining flexibility through stretching, you won’t maintain cardiovascular fitness.” People with arthritis and other chronic conditions should develop a comprehensive and diverse practice. You can work on endurance, for example, using “flowing sequence” poses, such as a sun salutation.
Find an experienced instructor.
Call local yoga studios and community recreation and health centers that offer yoga classes to find an instructor experienced in teaching gentle yoga or working with people with arthritis. The International Association of Yoga Therapists’ website, which lists more than 700 certified yoga therapists, most of whom teach gentle yoga, is also a good option.
Talk to your teacher about your condition.
Before you launch your yoga practice, talk to your instructor about your physical condition. He or she needs to know which of your joints are affected and how much pain they can cause when your arthritis flares, Moonaz says. A good instructor will help you figure out how to modify specific poses that will work for you, plus keep an eye on you in class to make sure you’re not in distress.
Know and respect your limitations.
If you feel pain while practicing yoga, stop. The “no pain, no gain” philosophy some sports trainers promote does not apply to yoga. Stretching or exercising through pain could exacerbate your discomfort. Every individual is different, so people with milder forms of arthritis, Parkinson’s or other chronic conditions may be able to engage in a more vigorous yoga practice, holding poses for longer than people with severe stiffness and discomfort.
Get comfortable with props.
Most yoga studios have props, such as blocks and cushions made of foam, cork, wood or straps. These can help people with arthritis or other chronic conditions that limit their flexibility modify their yoga poses, Moonaz says: “Props allow people to get into proper alignment given the uniqueness of their structure.” For example, you can use foam cushions to provide support for your wrists for certain poses. You can use a strap for other poses; for example, in a reclining leg stretch, lay flat on your back and lift one leg, holding a strap that’s placed on the ball of your foot. While holding the strap, you can slowly lift your foot toward the ceiling as you slowly straighten your leg.
Utilize chairs.
Chairs can help you modify poses and take pressure off your joints. For instance, for a downward-facing dog pose, you’d typically have your hands flat on the ground in front of your head, hips lifted and feet on the ground behind you, in an inverted “V” position. Instead of putting your hands on the floor, you can place them on a chair for balance and support. “Using a surface other than a floor for support allows you to change the relationship between gravity and your joints,” Moonaz says.
Walls are another asset.
Some yoga poses can be easily modified by using a wall. For example, you can lie on your back with your legs straight and up a flat wall, the end of your back meeting the wall. You can place a pillow under your lower back for support. If you feel tingling in your legs, move them down the wall and pull your knees to your chest for a nice stretch, then move your legs back up the wall.
Develop a home practice.
Whether you go to a yoga studio or a community health center, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get to a yoga class daily or even most days of the week, so it’s important to develop a home practice, Moonaz says. Streaming yoga programs on your computer and watching videos can help you build a home routine. There are plenty of good options. For example, Moonaz helped create the video “Arthritis-Friendly Yoga” for the Arthritis Foundation.
Include meditation.
People with arthritis and Parkinson’s often feel stress related to the management of their conditions, and the meditative aspect of yoga can help reduce that anxiety. “Meditation is not the icing on top of a physical yoga practice — it is the cake,” Moonaz says. “Meditation may actually have more of an impact on pain than the yoga poses themselves. While the experience of chronic pain deteriorates grey matter in the brain and decreases pain tolerance, meditation builds the brain’s grey matter and improves our ability to move through pain with more ease. As such, we might think of meditation as the perfect antidote to some of the long-term effects of chronic pain.”
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How to Practice Yoga When You Have Arthritis or Another Chronic Condition originally appeared on usnews.com
