The Benefits Of Yoga For Managing Chronic Pain

In life, as we age, we all find ourselves dealing with more bumps, bruises, strains, and pains than we did in our youth. Unfortunately, this is part of life; most of the time, we simply get on with our day and manage the pain. When you suffer from chronic pain, though, it can feel like getting on with things is too much. If you have a condition that leaves you in chronic pain, the best you can hope for – in many cases – is to find a means of managing the pain. For many chronic pains, yoga offers some relief.

What Is Chronic Pain?

There is a difference, of course, between a typical pain and a chronic pain condition. John Hopkins Medicine defines chronic pain as “long-standing pain that persists beyond the usual recovery period or occurs along with a chronic health condition” – and is often either continuous or consistently on an on/off mode. You can have good days where you feel nimble and bad days where the pain leaves you feeling borderline bed-bound.

The causes of chronic pain are unique to each individual. Some started after the result of an injury sustained or an illness that provided lasting complications. Some illnesses leave us with chronic pain even after the condition has cleared up. It could also be caused by conditions such as arthritis. However, some of us suffer chronic pain without an obvious ‘starting point’ such as an injury or illness. It could be lifestyle-based, such as being overly sedentary due to your work and/or hobbies. 

Ultimately, according to Thomas Pontinen, MD, LCP-C, physician and co-founder with MAPS in Chicago, it’s important to remember that pain is a subjective experience. According to Pontinen, “Pain isn't just a physical sensation, but an emotional response to a physical sensation. Because every person is different, their personality, mood, stress level, and experiences will all impact how they interpret pain or whether they even consider it pain at all. If you don't care about a sensation–like the clothes against your skin right now–you won't consider it painful. It won't impact your life, nor will you seek out treatments to prevent that sensation from continuing. Even though the experience has a physical cause, the experience of pain is emotional.”

How Can Yoga Help Chronic Pain?

Most of us initially turn to medications like anti-pain and anti-inflammation medications to try and limit the onset of chronic pain. When the problem becomes clear that this is not a temporary issue, though, you need to look at lifestyle changes. While situations like changing your diet and/or lifestyle can help to limit some chronic pain, studies from The Journal Of Pain and the BMJ show the positive impact of trying out yoga for chronic pain.

Indeed, previous studies show that yoga can be impactful on everything from those with chronic pain via arthritis to those suffering from conditions ranging from migraines to irritable bowel syndrome and carpal tunnel syndrome and even conditions such as fibromyalgia.

To help you understand the benefits of using yoga for chronic pain, consider the following benefits:

Getting Active

When you suffer from chronic pain, it makes sense that you wish to limit movement. If you always feel a twinge or a sting whenever you move, it is only natural that you would look to limit such movement. However, avoiding moving around and being physically active can prolong the agony, if you will.

Given that yoga is an activity that we can even carry out sitting down, yoga is a great solution for boosting physical activity. The small but significant range of movements carried out in yoga not only makes you more flexible, potentially relieving some of the tension in your chronic pain, but it also helps you to keep active without the range of movement other exercise methods require.

According to Dr. Pontinen, he often mentions yoga when patients ask about the best ways to increase activity levels and improve their lifestyle. He shares, “Yoga is a great tool because it combines a lot of important aspects of physical movement while facilitating healing and better bodily awareness. When you’re doing yoga, you’re working on flexibility, strength, control, and a mind-body connection. Yoga is a powerful way to understand your body and become more empowered to heal it.” Furthermore, Pontinen shared that anyone recovering from an injury should consult with their doctor before trying yoga since it can put some stress on the joints and spine. Fortunately, though, he went on to say, “With yoga, you aren't loading your spine and joints with additional weight, as with resistance training, so yoga is easier on the body with a lower risk of injury, same with other low-impact bodyweight exercises.”

For many of us, simply being a touch more active can be enough to help alleviate some of the strain of chronic pain suffering.

Improving Body Shape

Chronic pain can be reduced in many cases by simply being in better physical condition. While the pain you suffer from does justifiably preclude the ability to be overly active, yoga avoids excessive movement, as mentioned above. Therefore, yoga can be a great low-stress way to lose weight, taking some of the pressure off the part(s) of your body that produce the sensations of chronic pain.

However, yoga is also great for making you more flexible. In many cases, those with chronic pain allow the pain to limit their movement range. As such, their bodies become more inflexible and thus more likely to enter into episodes where chronic pain wins out. By improving your flexibility, you make it easier for your body to stretch beyond these typical pain points. Yoga also helps to improve bone strength and posture, which can stop you from sitting or angling your body in ways that cause pain.

Clearing The Mind

Another important benefit of using yoga for chronic pain comes down to the fact it can help change how our minds operate. Chronic pain, while most often physically based, can stem from mental challenges. As we suffer from chronic pain, parts of our brain, such as our prefrontal cortex, adjust accordingly. As you likely already know, chronic pain can leave you feeling miserable!

Not only does yoga help the body become more adept at fighting off the physical impact of chronic pain, but it can also manage the mental side of matters. Yoga is a mindfulness practice at its core, and practicing mindfulness activities can make our brains' grey matter denser, making our bodies more robust to managing stress responses.

A healthier mind is just as important as having a healthier body when it comes to combatting and hopefully overcoming chronic pain. The conditions that yoga creates, therefore, make it ideal for creating a mind more prepared for the impact of chronic pain in the first place.

Continual Benefits

Another benefit of yoga is that, with so many different poses and shapes to take, the results rarely plateau. If you rely on opiate medications for pain management, you will, like anyone else, find that the results begin to lessen gradually. You then either need to up your dosage, which can be a risk for addiction, or do without the opiates, which results in living with chronic pain without support.

Yoga, by contrast, allows you to work on so many parts of the body that results remain consistent. You can carry out the same stretches and poses and feel that same relief and benefit. As you continue to participate, you will find that your body grows more flexible and resilient, reducing the onset of chronic pain conditions.

While yoga might never fully cure your chronic pain, it can create a better quality of life. You can find yourself capable of greater physical feats but also feel less under pressure mentally. Given the mental impact of chronic pain, knowing that you have solutions in place that can help you limit the stress can be a great feeling. So, too, can change typical aggravators of chronic pain, such as poor posture, lack of physical activity, and a sense of defeat.

Try it out for yourself; like many, you could find that yoga offers a gateway into a more comfortable, peaceful experience moving forward. You might still have chronic pain, but with yoga, you can make both the physical sensations and the mental stress less intense.