The field of rehabilitation and physiotherapy is one of the most contemporary and dynamic of the medical sciences. Many physiotherapists have integrated yoga moves into their protocols to maximize the recovery of their patients..
Yoga aims to restore balance in the mind which then leads to overall body health. The mantra in yoga is “control the mind to control the disease! ”
In this article, we will discuss how yoga benefits your body and why it should be implemented into your orthopedic physiotherapy program.
What is yoga?
Yoga is a practice of uniting the spirit and body through breath control, meditation, and structured movements and postures.
.….and no, yoga is not for hippies and posers!
Roles of Yoga
- Yoga aims to rest and helps with mental health as well.
The stress following orthopedic surgery is both mental and physical and this has a direct effect on recovery.
Yoga helps regulate the level of stress-related hormones and does this by balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
- Yoga for pain management
In addition to that, meditative and breathing exercises in yoga have been shown to help with chronic pain associated with low back pain and different kinds of arthritis.
- Strength and balance
Yoga helps to strengthen muscles. In yoga, you do not use weights but employ your body weight. This tones the muscles.
That’s not all, as the muscles are strengthened, they help keep you balanced. As if that is not major on its own, during Yoga routines, there is an emphasis on keeping the right posture which in its way can be a cure for many diseases caused by poor posture.
- Yoga improves flexibility.
This is perhaps the most raved benefit of a yoga practice. During yoga, your body is forced to take the extremes of joint range of motion as you will see in postures like the pigeon pose, and the different warrior positions and all these thoroughly stretch all parts of the body making them flexible.
In conclusion, it could prove beneficial to add yoga to your physiotherapy program. This is worth discussing with your primary surgeon or physiotherapist to help you decide its safety.
