Friday Practical Pointers: Applying Muscular/Skeletal Health Techniques to Medical Conditions

by Baxter and Nina

Richard Rosen by Melina Meza

Many medical problems, such as arthritis or Parkinson’s disease, have an impact on your muscles and/or bones. By working on strength, flexibility, balance, and agility, you can use the asana practice to improve or maintain the health of your musculoskeletal system. Using these techniques qualify as rehabilitative and/or maintenance treatments (see 5 Ways Yoga Can Affect Your Health).

Strength. Improving muscle strength can help with any condition that causes weakness, such as age-related muscle atrophy, chronic fatigue syndrome, post-broken bone recovery with secondary weakness from disuse, or having been bedridden as a result of illness or surgery. Improving bone strength can help with osteoporosis and osteopenia. 

Because so many conditions that affect muscles and bones lead to early weakness of the musculoskeletal system, strength building is generally the most effective technique to use at the start of rehabilitation. So we recommend that you ease in by beginning with dynamic strength poses and sequences, and then work up to static holds as your endurance improves. 

Flexibility. Improving flexibility can help with any condition that causes stiffness, such as osteoarthritis or Parkinson’s disease. Because some of your joints have limited range of motion, start rehabilitation with dynamic poses to gently release stiffness. Next, add in short static holds of stretching poses, and gradually work your way up to 90-second holds, which can lead to improved overall flexibility. 

Balance. Improving balance can help with any condition that negatively affects you steadiness on your feet, including frailty from aging and inactivity, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathy from diabetes, and poor eyesight. For rehabilitation, start by practicing the versions of balance poses that use the wall and/or props to keep you steady, and work up to more challenging balance poses as your balance improves. 

Agility. Improving agility can help with any condition that affects nimbleness and response time, such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke, as well as age-related slowing of brain-body nerve conduction. For rehabilitation, we recommend you start with slow, precise changes of position in your asana practices, such a slow Sun Salutation, and gradually increase the pace as you notice your agility improving. 

Balanced Practice. Overall a balanced yoga practice, including vertically oriented standing poses, such as Mountain pose (Tadasana), Warrior 1 and 2 (Virabradrasana 1 and 2), Arms Overhead Pose (Urdva Hastasana), in addition to a selection of forward bends, back bends, side bends, and twists, can improve your posture. This helps problems caused by poor physical alignment, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritic joints in the lower extremities, and back pain in all areas of the spine.

Caution: Make sure that the poses you choose are compatible with the medical problem that you have. See the following posts for details on the poses and movements that you should not practice if you are suffering from a particular medical condition. 

Who Should Avoid Certain Wrist Movements?

Who Should Avoid Certain Knee Movements?

Who Should Avoid Certain Shoulder Movements?

Who Should Avoid Certain Hip Movements?

Side Bending the Spine

Who Should Avoid Backbends?

Forward Bending of the Spine

Spinal Rotation

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