Aside from basic muscle strengthening and stretching, yoga can be extremely beneficial to people who deal with neck, back, or joint pain. In addition to regular visits to a chiropractor, yoga can alleviate pain in the back or neck while also working to prevent further injuries.
There are many different types of yoga available to target specific issues, and people with back, neck, or joint pain can greatly benefit from regular yoga practice. Yoga helps to relieve pain, it increases strength and flexibility, and it teaches relaxation and breathing methods. It is also a great stress reliever.
Yoga is proven to be a useful treatment plan for many medical conditions such as heart disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, epilepsy, asthma, addiction, and many neck and back problems. Yoga is also practiced as a healing method for injured back muscles and can speed up recovery time after an injury. Yoga is also great for preventing re-injury and helps to keep the body safer in general.
Yoga provides a wide variety of physical benefits, but it is also great for the mind as well. Yoga provides the following physical and mental benefits:
Strengthening from holding yoga positions. Yoga helps to increase strength in very specific muscles and muscle groups. Many yoga postures gently strengthen muscles in the back and abdominal muscles. This can help to build strength in the body while also helping to improve posture.
Stretching and relaxation. Yoga incorporates stretching and relaxation, which reduces tension in stress-carrying muscles. Yoga requires that the individual hold gentle poses anywhere from 10 to 60 seconds. Each pose takes concentration. Within the pose, certain muscles flex, while others stretch. This promotes relaxation and flexibility in muscles and joints. Stretching is very important in people with lower back pain.
Overall nourishment of the muscles. Stretching with yoga increases blood flow, with allows nutrients to flow in, toxins to flow out, and improves the overall nourishment of the muscles and soft tissues in the lower back.
Posture, balance, and body alignment. Yoga poses can help to train the body to be healthy and supple. Regular practice can improve posture and provide an increased sense of balance. Plus, yoga helps to stretch and strengthen both sides of the body equally which is very rare in other forms of exercise! Good posture and proper body alignment help to maintain the natural curvature of the spine, which is important in alleviating back pain!
Awareness of the body. When practicing yoga, people will develop an increased awareness of the body which will help them to understand their limitations and which types of motions should be avoided.
Improving the mental state of mind. Many people believe that suffering from back pain increases because of perception. Negative psychological and emotional factors may not necessarily change the physiology of the back, but may tend to magnify a problem that already exists. In reducing the perception of the pain through yoga and meditation, one can reduce the overall feeling of back pain.
Yoga is great for helping people concentrate their energy on breathing and maintaining posture. This can be great for alleviating stress and anxiety. In turn, yoga helps to relieve back pain which is caused by psychological and emotional factors. Yoga poses and routines can be an excellent addition to your daily workout routine, and many people find yoga to be enjoyable and nothing like the dreaded daily workout!
Work yoga into your daily exercise routine and see how yoga works for you.