Easy Yoga Poses for Arthritis

Woody Short

6 years ago

Your pain and discomfort can be managed with the right form of exercise – these easy yoga poses for arthritis can help you right away!

Understanding the pain that comes with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is almost impossible if you haven’t gone through it yourself. These painful episodes can leave you feeling fatigued and uncomfortable for days. Thankfully, with these easy yoga poses for arthritis you can manage your pain and regain balance after a painful day.

Because many, many patients struggle with RA, fitness experts, yogis and trainers have worked hard to develop many tools and methods that can help with pain management, and that will also strengthen your body so your pain becomes almost non-existent with time.

Using chair yoga for arthritis, for example, is one of the best ways to manage RA pain. The movements – which are executed while sitting down on a chair – serve to improve flexibility, help you develop the strength of your core, and support the health of your joints.

This is just one of the many ways through which yoga poses for rheumatoid arthritis work. Fitness experts have a theory called “working through the pain”, which essentially means that you can actually manage and improve your condition if you keep exercising through it.

That is how yoga poses for rheumatoid arthritis work, by reliving the pain from your back, neck, joints and extremities thought the careful execution of slow, controlled movements that are non-impact and produce little to no discomfort.

In the case of chair yoga for arthritis, those that cannot do a full standing and bending down class, or a regular yoga session, still recreate the movements while sitting on a chair. This provides a much needed stability and still brings with it the same, great results as standing yoga.

This technique has been proven to increase oxygenation, circulation, the amount of flexibility and balance a patient can have. In addition to improving the posture, these movements help your muscle and joints regain their strength while reliving the pressure, and the sensation of pain.

Other great benefits of using yoga poses for arthritis is the fact that with the repetition of movement, we are actually reducing the inflammation throughout the body, while also helping our brain release stress and relax.

This combination of factors is a great form of therapy for those seeking pain relief from RA. If you are ready to give these methods a try, we have rounded up a few of our favorite poses and will sure help you manage your pain and strengthen your body:

Child’s Pose: this movement is a great method for stretching your lower back and increasing the flexibility throughout your body.
Supine Twisting: when executing this movement you are basically providing your body with a pain-reducing massage. Engaging your back, hip, arms and legs yow work on the strength of your core and extremities.
Crescent Lunge: while this pose may seem great for balance, it is also a great tool for improving your flexibility and stretching the flexor muscles around your hip and lower back.
Supine Leg Openers: this pose is a great stretcher! Your lower extremities will feel the release of pressure from the movement, while your muscles of inner and outer thigh “open up” to let go of any discomfort in the area.
Trikonasana: this movement is fantastic for those patients that are trying to release the tension and pain around their necks and shoulders. But it also completes enough to target your legs, knees and ankles.

As always, these yoga poses for arthritis should be executed carefully and after trying them out with an instructor or teacher. In many cases, if the pain is severe, a patient will require the constant pretense of a guide or someone to help them in order to prevent injuries.

RA is a serious condition that can compromise the well being of patients. But, with the right support and exercise, learning these techniques can be a fantastic tool to manage the pain and actually feel better after one of the episodes.