Yoga for Pain Management
A Holistic Approach to Chronic Pain Relief By Dennis Bluthardt
Increasing numbers of people are looking for a variety of techniques to manage the physical, emotional, and psychological side effects of pain. We want to take the edge off traditional medicine’s reliance on opioids and NSAIDs.
This interest in more holistic options might explain why practices like yoga are gaining popularity. Yoga, a blend of moving meditation practices, improves the mind-body response to the physical aspects of chronic pain.
Yoga can and should be a fresh addition to your pain care routine.
The top benefits of yoga include stress relief, enhanced flexibility, relaxation, and improved mobility. Many common yoga poses also help to realign your body’s key muscle groups. Better posture can help bring more mindfulness to your movement and reduce the stress, tension, and physical discomfort from musculoskeletal conditions.
In addition, the meditative qualities of yoga can have a chilling effect on a painful mood, which is another dimension of chronic pain, like what exercise can do for you, combining movement with a self-reflective practice can have a positive impact on your condition outlook.
Understanding Pain Management
In healthcare, “medicine” can refer to traditional or alternative practices, which have different ideas about treatment and care. Conventional medicine is typically based on scientific research and aims to treat diseases with drugs and surgery. Alternative medicine can mean anything from acupuncture to herbal tea to multi-week, holistic rejuvenation experiences. Still, generally, all types of alternative practices emphasize the body’s natural ability to heal and to care for the whole person, not just the diseased or painful parts.
Chronic pain is a condition that many people all over the world live with every single day. This type of pain is not the result of an injury or a disease the way a short bout of pain is (ouch, I stubbed my toe!); no, chronic pain likes to linger. Pain that is labeled “chronic” usually affects the sufferer for many months or years. This pain may not physically limit people, but the consistency of this type of pain will eventually make the sufferer feel debilitated emotionally.
A figure that is commonly thrown around is that 20% of adults live with chronic pain, but about 8% of adults experience high-impact chronic pain. This is a pain that significantly impacts your daily ability to function optimally.
The Benefits of Yoga for Pain Management
Yoga is increasingly being used as a form of alternative medicine. It is a holistic approach to health: you can’t separate the mind from the body. Instead of treating physical symptoms, as Western medicine tends to do, yoga uses asanas, pranayama, and meditation techniques to create a harmonious whole. This has an intriguing appeal for health professionals, so yoga has been used in countless studies about pain.
Studies show that yoga can be used for pain relief in chronic lower back pain, arthritic conditions, and even for patients with migraines, as well as in many other cases. Given the many studies that have been conducted, there can be no doubt that having a regular and consistent yoga routine can significantly reduce pain and improve physical function. A reputable medical journal submitted a study of studies (significant research or meta-analysis) and found that yoga significantly improved pain in patients with a base level of “regular” care. Further, these patients were much happier.
The power of mindfulness generally achieves this. Mindfulness is the technique of being present and knowing that, far from attaining future goals, we are doing our best here and now.
Mindfulness practices develop this metacognition: thinking about how you feel and gaming the system. Once you know the limit to what is possible, it becomes easier to be less disappointed with what is. So, reframing pain in this way may be an essential first step along the path toward psychological and emotional acceptance of a specific chronic pain condition.
Yoga Techniques for Chronic Pain Relief
Chronic pain can devastate one’s life. Yoga can help. The poses below relieve pain and impart a relaxation response.
Child’s Pose relieves back and shoulder tension and benefits those with various types of pain.
Cat-Cow sequence: This Pose creates suppleness in the spine, which could benefit those with back stiffness.
The Corpse Pose provides the body with “rest” and integration, following a yoga routine.
In posing, be sure to take modification steps to accommodate pain:
Child’s Pose modifications could entail props such as a bolster or blanket.
If you are performing the Cat-Cow sequence, go slowly and breathe deeply as you arch your back downward and exhale as you round your back like a cat.
You can perform Corpse Pose with your knees bent or propped up on a low chair or yoga bolster.
Personal Testimonials and Success Stories
There is little doubt that yoga is a popular treatment for pain as we have received many testimonials describing its benefits for almost every condition: “I have struggled with chronic back pain for years. My chiropractor encouraged me to take up yoga, and over time, my stretches of 3-5 poses turned into full, pain-free routines. Certain moves and twists needed modification, but now I do them without issues. Yoga has done more than relieve back pain. It has also increased my overall mobility. Yoga has helped so much!”
“You can’t just magically get rid of arthritis, I wish, but incorporating the right yoga poses into a fitness routine will help stretch out your body and relieve that stiffness; it just does. It helps with joint movement, too. The mindfulness part helps a ton with maintaining a better mental state.
Coping with pain every day is difficult, so I like to meditate/pray. It doesn’t take away the pain but makes it more bearable.”
“I’ve had positive results from incorporating restorative yoga and light stretching into my nightly wind-down routine. 5/5 would recommend for people with fibromyalgia or other causes of chronic pain.” If you are like many of our readers, you struggle with pain every day and are looking for a solution.
Getting Started with Yoga for Pain Management
If you’re considering starting a yoga practice to manage pain, use these tips to find the right class. Many yoga studios and fitness centers offer “therapeutic” or “restorative” versions of yoga classes, which deal explicitly with bodily pain and emphasize postures that promote healing.
A well-trained instructor can guide you through a safe and effective practice. Look for certified teachers, and check that the certification is from an accredited school of therapeutic yoga and that they have a few years of professional-level experience. These classes are relatively gentle and should fall within the limits of what you can do.
Performing some poses at home, on your own time, is recommended. Doing a few relaxing stretches each day or concentrating your practice to target areas where you have bad pain is also recommended. This may also be a good way to start a home practice (which is an excellent way for beginners to start learning yoga).
There are many instructional videos and learning apps if you need a visual guide to start a home practice. Some enjoy familiarizing themselves with breathing techniques and basic asanas before trying out more complex, live classes. Others may live too far from a yoga studio or fitness center or be unable to attend any of the courses on the therapeutic class schedule.
Yoga is the Swiss army knife of pain management. It’s a gentle exercise incorporating stretching, deliberate movement, and breathwork to prevent and/or relieve chronic pain. By promoting flexibility and strengthening weak areas, yoga has been shown to help reduce aches in those suffering from arthritis, lower back pain, and migraines. As a non-drug-related, non-surgical solution, yoga offers a convincing rebuttal to the medical establishment’s approach to pain management.
But it doesn’t stop there. Yoga is also a meditation that trains people to handle negative experiences like physical pain better. It strongly emphasizes the connection between the mind and body, helping yoga practitioners better understand their pain threshold by taking them to and from a hostile place. Like many exercises, yoga also produces pain-killing endorphins and other mood-enhancing chemicals. Overall, yoga plays nicely with the self-help and natural remedies many seek.
The best way to get started and stay on top of your yoga game is to subscribe to an online class. Set it up as an auto-payment, and you’re more likely to get involved. The same goes for pain management newsletters, local community-run courses, and social media accounts. Follow Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook for expert tips and advice. Channels on mindfulness, wellness, and pain management will undoubtedly be a big help.
