Yoga

[PS19]

I haven't seen any topics on yoga. No one here practices this fine art?


I urge you all to try it. It's helped me.

[euphoniaa]

I haven't seen any topics on yoga. No one here practices this fine art?

Hello again, Paul. Yoga actually comes up here at TIMS quite often, but apparently not much in the Exercise & Physical Therapy Forum, for some reason. If you click on the "Search" button at the top of the screen and put in "yoga", you can find about 24 pages of posts on it.

But...not all of us are as succesful with yoga. I was able to take 2 semesters of it free where I work at a university, and it helped my strength and probably balance, but in my case we had to do tons of adaptations due to MS as well as my many other medical issues. Each MS patient is different, but I also have a hereditary peripheral neuropathy, that made my fingers go numb (carpal tunnel) from the first class to the end of each semester, then gradually left after I stopped yoga.

We had to position chairs all around me to catch me when I fell over from my MS balance issues. And I had to cut up mats to double the padding under hands, knees, hips (I recommend this!). And I had to avoid any moves that bent my c-spine backwards. I still thought it was worthwhile because it's also good brain exercise to learn new moves and I developed some brand new muscles, so I still throw a few yoga moves into my daily routines at home.

Interestingly, I just found an article that describes the same issue (HNPP/yoga) today. I'll have to post about that somewhere else.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2504259/

I think there are quite a few posters here who practice yoga succesfully, so maybe they'll stop in. I also want to agree with you that "yoga is a real workout!" I encourage strenuous exercise for MS, but take your time to adjust to any new exercises and listen to your body.

[AliceH]

I also like to practice yoga... i find it calming. Many of the yoga poses require concentration. This is relaxing for me.