Does yoga for arthritis work? Is it just a modern fad to get people to start enjoying yoga? The reality is that yoga has been clinically proven to work for arthritic patients, undoing the stiffness, reducing inflammation and helping to prevent pain. It enables sufferers to build up the strength around their joints in their muscles to better support their own weight on damaged joints. Best of all, though forty percent of many Americans between ages forty-five to sixty-four suffer from arthritis, the majority of people are doing yoga as a normal thing, just as aerobics was back in the 1980s. As such, going to yoga is not a big deal, even if you have arthritis, partially because it has a five thousand year history of proven results. What more could you ask for?
Putting aside the fallacies about arthritis being an old person’s condition, yoga can be done by anyone of any age, but for those with arthritis, it greatly enhances a person’s life and physique in a safe and easy environment. People can strengthen their joints and even make their joints function better. Most importantly, yoga uses balance and that assists in regulating uric acid levels within your body. You can even reduce your weight and combat obesity to further improve your arthritis.
Yoga for arthritis consists of basic movements and positions, called asanas, which are done one by one and advanced on in more advanced levels of yoga when a person is good and ready. These asanas include:
- Sukhasana or the easy pose – used for classic types of meditation, it assists in straightening your spine, keeping the mind rested, slowing down your metabolism and promoting your inner Zen
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Single leg type raises – these are shoulder stretches which are helpful in relieving tension and stress on the shoulders, upper back and abdomen, where one leg is lifted off the ground whilst the other remains on the ground
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Shoulder stretching – help remove shoulder tensions and stress when done every day for 3 weeks
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Neck stretches – removes neck joint stiffness, corrects the posture, removes headaches from stress or pain and generally increases the muscle tone, joint flexibility and tensions associated with arthritis
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Side stretch standing pose – forms 2 areas of radiating energy, where your stretch the arms and belly, extending joints from your back to your legs
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Clenched hands – quite often osteoarthritis and other arthritis varieties can attack the joints in the wrists and the hands, but this one keep them working, creating better flexibility and better mobility
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Bended wrists – as mentioned before wrists can be damaged or suffer from arthritis, including rheumatoid and osteoarthritis, but by bending and stretching them through yoga, the wrist motion, flexibility and strength improves dramatically
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Final corpse – benefits the entire body and joints by relaxing it, a good pose after stretches and bends
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Bended ankles – after years of damage, strain and the like, arthritis can set in the ankles, but this helps you to keep the ankles in reasonably good condition, whilst keeping them flexible and strong
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Rotating ankles – tendons can be strained, torn and damaged, affecting your muscles and joints, eventually leading to arthritis, but this pose keeps them flexible and the healing process on-going
- Pose for relaxation – after every yoga session, relaxation and gentle stretching of the body to wind down is important and as such this one allows the joints, muscles and tendons to relax without returning instantly to their stiff, sore or inflexible selves
