So many people suffer with joint pain and there are many different causes. There can be medication treatment options, that often just barely give relief, supplements can help, exercise, weight training, Pilates and of course my favorite...yoga. But of course we are all different, so what works for one person won't be a sure fire solution for someone else. If you are suffering joint pain you should see a doctor to determine a diagnosis (which you may or may not get), that way you can do your best protect yourself from injury when moving. One thing that is in no doubt is that exercise is a really important tool in promoting healthy joints, but if you're not careful you can do a whole lot of damage to.
Before we move onto our joint pain discussion, I just want to say thanks to those who have recently signed up to my newsletter. Here's the link to the latest Free Class, Beginners Sequence 4 Beginners Sequence 4 - Free Classes - Yoga Time Warrior .
If you haven't subscribed to the compete practice and you want to, here's the link for the current New Year promo of your FIRST MONTH FREE http://ondemand.yogatimewarrior.com/checkout?code=ytwnewyear2023&plan=monthly .The complete practice adheres to the Viniyoga foundations of movement of sequencing, read on to understand the benefits of this.
Keep your eye out for my upcoming blog post on medical conditions, medications, alternative treatment options and of course how yoga can benefit sufferers of poor health.
Joint pain is a personal issue for me, I'm not a doctor, just someone who researches the hell out of a topic when I have a problem. I've always been an "exerciser", I haven't been a long term dedicated yogi, but people have assumed I am so have said to me "oh you should try weight training, that'll solve your joint problems".... yeah been there done that for years, helped get me in the hole I found myself in.... The Dark Side of Exercise will be another blog post coming up :).
The Dynamics Of Joint Pain
I'm going to keep the anatomy lesson very simple here. The purpose of our joints is to allow our body to move, while still holding it together. They connect our bones to our skeletal muscles and utilize tendons, ligaments, cartilage and not to be forgotten... synovial fluid.
Our joints are not just, shoulders, knees, wrists & elbows, but also our pelvis, hips & every vertebrae in our spine, so don't underestimate the overwhelming nature of joint pain! Joint conditions can be a result of decreasing bone density, decreasing muscle strength, muscle conditions, inflammatory conditions, autoimmune diseases, injuries to bone or muscles or tendons or cartilage, blah blah. These things can also simply be a symptom of some other condition that effects some of these things, even diet related conditions which is why getting a diagnosis can be frustrating. Putting pressure on joints at the wrong angle, using excessive force & doing these things on an ongoing basis can cause inflammation, aggravation and worsen issues over time.
How Yoga Can Help
Just like any form of exercise yoga gets your body moving, quite simply it keeps all aspects of our body functioning, if we don't move our body becomes less and less mobile because all our moving parts start to stiffen up. Just imagine a rubber band that's been sitting in the sun unused for some time, it gets dry, brittle and breaks. The benefits of yoga for joint pain are significant and yoga differs from many other forms of exercise that can so easily overstress our body. In other forms of exercise we often overwork specific muscles because the range of movement tends to be more specific, many other activities tend to work the larger muscles rather than the smaller ones responsible for stabilization. If you've ever done an exercise workout and found you're sore for days afterwards, try and relate that to the concept of actually causing stress and tension in the body, rather than releasing it as we do in our yoga practice..... you can begin to understand the difference between conventional exercise methods and yoga, so better understanding how yoga can provide joint pain relief.
Please be aware that not all yoga classes are designed the same way so don't expect to walk into any yoga class and achieve the same level of benefit. In a Viniyoga style practice a key foundation is The Art and Science of Sequencing. This means that a class is designed in a very specific way to work through the whole body, giving a very wide range of dynamic movements combined with longer holds and balancing postures. Specifically for joint pain we're working very carefully into the stabilizing elements of our joints, we're encouraging the movement of synovial fluid which lubricates the joints and cartilage, it is weight bearing which encourages cell generation in our bones making them stronger. The movements in our yoga practice are designed in a way to release tension and stress in the body.
My previous blog Yoga's amazing power for natural pain relief covers pain in general, and how yoga can reduce stress, reduce inflammation and the negative effects of long term pain on our health. If you haven't you should read it now. Really important though is the use of our Parasympathetic Nervous system, how we connect to it using our breath as a tool for pain management.
King Dancer - Improve or Aggravate Joint Pain
King Dancer is a posture that we see so often online. It's a balancing posture that both improves overall strength and flexibility, but encourages the strengthening of the connections of our joints. We need to remember though that it is not how the pose looks that is important. There are two versions of King Dancer below, someone who has been a yogi, dancer or gymnast for years will achieve a different looking posture....that's me making an assumption of the right hand image below based on my experience.....some people are just more flexible than others.
I am the image on the left, the standing leg is building strength and stabilizing the knee joint, stretching through the lifted leg and right shoulder, while strengthening the back. The image on the right looks beautiful but pay attention to how straight the stabilizing leg is. To me the knee looks locked in, when we have a slight bend in that leg we can really use all the muscles of the leg, including the smaller connecting muscles and tissues surrounding the knee joint building strength, balance & joint stability, without the risk of locking our knee joint and so causing damage there.
A Closer Look At Twists
Twists can be so amazing for the spine, but if you have an inflammatory joint condition you need to take care not to twist too aggressively. A really important focus in our Viniyoga style practice though is really lengthening and opening through the vertebrae on our inhale before twisting, and then using our deep spinal muscles on an exhale to activate the twist, not using your arms as levers to pull you around. By using the deep spinal muscles to activate and control the twist your body is working within it's own range and developing that over time, making your spine supple, strong, flexible and stable all at the same time, this is a wonderful way to achieve joint pain relief of the spine. See the Twist Tutorial below.
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