Yoga and Pain Relief

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

yoga poseNote: this is a guest post by yoga instructor, Lynn Shuck.

As a yoga instructor, I’m expected to say that yoga can relieve pain.  And I truly believe it can.  But I do urge caution when approaching yoga for pain relief because, in fact, a class that moves too fast, or an instructor who pushes you beyond your limits can actually cause pain rather than relieve it.  With good instruction and personal attention, yoga can most decidedly help with pain relief by bringing the muscles and skeleton into their natural balance.

It’s All About Skeletal Alignment

When the skeleton is aligned, the muscles work in tandem the way they are intended.  If some muscles get overworked through habitual movement patterns, other muscles will stop doing their jobs and weaken.  Those tight muscles can bring the skeleton out of alignment (picture the person who sits at a computer all day and becomes hunched over, chin thrust forward). If those patterns are repeated on the yoga mat, tight muscles will just continue to overwork and the skeleton will not be supported any differently than it already is.

Imbalance can also occur starting with the skeleton.  Shin bones that bow back affect everything above the legs, tipping the thighs and pelvis out of alignment, which then impacts the spine.  A broken bone that doesn’t heal correctly or an accident that impacts any part of the skeleton will invariably affect the way the muscles work as well.  If the skeleton isn’t upright, muscles will do their best to hold up the body any way they can.

Fixing Imbalances

As an Eischens Yoga instructor and yoga therapist, I look for imbalances such as:

  • Tight, overly developed muscles
  • Bones that don’t stack properly
  • Collapsed or locked joints
  • Constriction in the breath

When a student wants to use yoga for pain relief, my intention is to keep the body from going further out of balance.  Often, using simple, easily accessible asanas, we can bring the body back to better alignment – thus reducing pain and tension. 

Uttanasana

As an example, Uttanasana is a simple forward fold commonly taught in most classes.  Sometimes, hip and low back pain can be addressed using this pose.  If I observe thighbones that sit too far away from the mid-line of the body, I might have the client roll up a towel to about 2 or 3” wide.  They would place the roll between the legs at the top of the thighs near the groin.  Pressing firmly into the towel at the top of the thighs without rolling onto the inside edges of the feet, I will then have the client perform Uttanasana, moving down and up in a limited range of motion several times, continually pressing into the towel.  When finished, the legs will usually come into better positioning in the hip sockets reducing hip and back pain momentarily.  The more regularly these muscles are used to re-align the thighbones, the longer the body will maintain this new positioning.  I refer to this as using effort in the pose to create effortlessness after the pose.

Utilizing yoga for pain relief requires understanding the physical imbalances, and then using asana to bring the body back into balance.  Practicing yoga without awareness may well be counter-productive, so find a teacher who specializes in pain relief and then trust your own experience.  Yoga shouldn’t hurt; it should make you feel better.

Lynn ShuckAuthor Bio:

Lynn Shuck is a certified Eischens Yoga Instructor.  She has been practicing yoga for nearly 25 years, and has been teaching yoga since 1996.  Her training with Roger Eischens led her to work specifically with alignment as well as injury recovery/prevention. From 1998 to 2011, she led workshops and classes throughout the Detroit metro-area.  Lynn is known for her keen eye for individual movement patterns, as well as her ability to bring yoga to all kinds of people:  experienced and beginning yogis, athletes, weekend warriors, and those who think they are too stiff for yoga.  Lynn relocated to Minnesota in 2011.