It’s National Yoga Day! That means it’s the perfect time to reflect on the lessons I’ve learned from practicing yoga regularly and its impact on chronic pain. Over the past three months, I’ve done yoga for my chronic pain almost every day.
In case you missed it, you can read about my experiences during the first 30 days of regular yoga in this post.
Disclaimer: The information on this blog is based on personal experiences and should not be considered medical advice. The information on this blog is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Overall Thoughts
Having incorporated yoga into my daily routine, I’ve come to appreciate having an exercise that I look forward to each day. I actually kind of can’t believe I’m saying that. I have an exercise I’m excited to do every day! All 20 minutes of it.
Now don’t hear me wrong, I don’t mean that in a negative way. Doing yoga every other day, if not daily has been really good for my mental health, and I find it helps me ease some of the pain I experience first thing in the morning.
Four months ago my exercise routine was sporadic. Maybe working out once a month. I hadn’t been trying very hard or making time for it. The challenge was good for me in that it pushed me to reintroduce exercise into my daily routine, without making me feel like I had so much to do and too little time to do that. It was an easy transition to regular exercise and a pleasant addition.
I’ve really appreciated having a set amount of time for my exercise, without feeling pressured to engage in lengthy sessions. For now, I’m content with 10-20 minutes a day/every other day, but I remain open to increasing the duration in the future.
Pros and Cons:
Overall thoughts aside, I’ve found some pros and cons to exercising just this little bit every day. There are things I’ve noticed my chronic pain doesn’t seem to like about adding in this daily movement. There are also things about my overall sense of self-satisfaction that I’ve loved seeing come out these last few months.
Pros
- Sustainable:
- Unlike other exercises that had to be halted due to pain, I’ve found I’m able to maintain this (so far) long-term. Being able to be consistent with my exercise is something I’ve always struggled with because of pain and fatigue. I’m loving that I’m still able to do this not just regularly, multiple times a week, but we’re three months in!
- I took a brief break during month two due to a vacation and was able to pick right up where I left off. This blew me away! If I’ve ever had to stop in the past, for any reason, I’ve struggled to jump back into my exercise.
- Physical Toning:
- Interestingly, even with just 10-20 minutes of daily yoga, I have noticed improvements in toning my body.
Cons
- More Flare Days:
- I noticed I’ve been having more flare days. I’m uncertain whether yoga is causing them or if it feels like “more” because I have been keeping track of how I feel throughout the day.
- Daily I record my pain and thoughts about whether I liked a yoga session or if it caused discomfort and stuff like that. I’ve been keenly aware of just how many bad days I’ve had in a month.
- Too Much Hands:
- Frustrating to me, I find yoga sessions spend a great deal of the time on your hands and knees. The knees aren’t such a big deal to me, but I can’t handle all that weight on my hands. It hurts, and exercising on my hands daily is increasing the pain there. I’ve been trying to explore more routines that are hands-free.
Choose A Goal
My primary goal was to reintroduce regular exercise back into my life. The goal was never to achieve a certain body image or a number of reps. Simply to improve my health, both physical and mental, by moving my body somehow more regularly.
If you decide to try yoga for your chronic pain, I highly recommend you start with some kind of goal. You can see I wasn’t shooting for the stars here. Pick a short duration and a small goal.
Just get your body moving! Choose what’s best for you and respect your body’s needs.
Respect Your Body
I feel like I should address the elephant in the room, what do you do on flare days?
I’m going to reiterate the paragraph above. Respect your body. Respect what your body needs at that moment. This is going to be different for you than it is for me.
If you’re just starting out with trying yoga for pain, I would encourage you to push yourself a little and do some light, gentle yoga on a flare day. See if it makes a difference. If it’s a hard no, it’s okay to stop. Listen to your body. However, I’m not your doctor. You need to consult with your doctor about what is or isn’t good for you.
On my particularly challenging days, I either respect my body and where I’m at, skipping the workout. Or I find a short 10-minute yoga video and try to stretch the really painful areas. It doesn’t take the pain away but perhaps helps me to recover from a flare a little faster.
What’s best for me right now is an almost daily exercise for a short amount of time. I would say right now I’m probably exercising about five or six times a week, for 10-20 minutes a day. This is what works for me, find what works for you.
On a bad mental health day, I tend to lean less into the workout and more into things like in this post, 10 Techniques For Better Mental Health.
Just a reminder, it’s okay to go slow and be gentle with a yoga workout. That’s kind of the point, to do what feels best. Other exercises push you harder for results. We’re not trying to rush here.
Building A Routine
Personally, I’ve found that trying to fit my exercise routine in late at night causes me stress that I don’t need in my life. If I prioritize yoga within the first two hours after I get up, I’m happier and more capable of physically accomplishing the exercise.
If you’re going to give this a try, find what works best for you.
Sometimes I wake up and the pain is just horrible right from the start of my day, but usually, it gets worse the more the day goes on. Which makes sense, the more I get tired the more the pain sets in. To combat this I try to do the most important things first in my day. If that includes exercise, perhaps the most physically demanding thing that day, it needs to happen within the first two hours of my day for me to function at peak performance.
Doing yoga first thing in the morning also gives me a chance to slow down, breathe, and let go of any stress I may have.
Top Videos I Recommend
After doing yoga for chronic pain for the last three months, here are the top videos I’ve been loving lately. Hopefully one of them will vibe with you and you can give them a try.
- Best Yoga To Do At The Start Of Your Day – Yoga With Bird, this is probably my favorite video right now, I’ve repeated it so many times.
- Bedtime Yoga For Tension Relief and Relaxation – Yoga With Bird
- Hands-Free Yoga – Well With Hels
Also, a little tip, you can totally do a lot of yoga videos right in bed. As long as the video you choose doesn’t have you doing a lot of standing, it doesn’t have to be done on a mat. This is one of the best ways to get in exercise on a high-pain day.
I want to acknowledge that the correlation between yoga and chronic pain is complex. From my perspective alone there is no real way to determine whether yoga is truly good for chronic pain. To each his or her own interpretation.
The only definite thing I can say is whether I personally think it’s worth continuing for my own benefit. The answer there is yes. I feel like yoga has helped me to maintain regular exercise, and it helps me to calm down on a stressful day.
If you’re looking for an exercise that is gentle on the body, I encourage you to give yoga a try.
Let me know in the comments if you found this helpful! If you decide to start your own 30-day yoga challenge for pain be sure to let me know so I can be your biggest cheerleader!
P.S. If you’re looking for an activity you can do on a bad flare day and from bed or with your long-distance friends, download our free trivia here.
Playing trivia is a great way to still participate in fun activities with your friends and family without ever leaving the comfort of your bed. And it helps you keep your long-distance relationships growing!
Be sure to check out the free Trivia by clicking here!
