Do You Need to Sweat in Yoga to Get the Benefits?
I used to stand on my head everyday as a part of my yoga practice. I attempted arm balances like crow pose, backbends like full wheel, and worked up a sweat as a regular part of my yoga practice. I came to yoga to help calm my anxiety…but some of the yoga practices I was doing were exacerbating my anxiety, especially as I got older. I had carpal tunnel syndrome and an injured shoulder that, while they may not have been caused by my yoga practice, they were definitely not being helped by repetitive sun salutations and long holds in plank pose.
Instead of giving up on yoga, I found restorative yoga and gentle yoga and eventually found my way to therapeutic yoga. Sometimes people assume that a more advanced yoga practice is one that involves contortions, extreme flexibility, strength and stamina. I have found the opposite to be true. I have found in myself, as well as others further along the yoga journey, that yoga practice stills and quiets as it advances. There is less desire to contort the body and more acceptance for the body as it is, and a desire to nurture the body with loving practices.
Coincidentally, the folks I work with also tend to benefit the most from a gentle yoga practice. Here’s what we know from multiple studies on yoga, the nervous system, and chronic health conditions including pain and anxiety:
Gentle yoga, mindful movement, breath practices and meditation engage the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, also known as our relaxation response.
Chronic pain and anxiety are lessened when we move out of the chronic fight/flight/freeze part of our nervous system, the sympathetic branch, and move into our parasympathetic branch.
Almost all chronic health conditions are improved by a reduction of pain and anxiety.
You do not need to sweat or contort your body into fancy shapes to get the benefits of yoga. (You don’t even have to get out of bed!)
If you’ve been struggling with a chronic health condition, anxiety, pain and/or overwhelm, gentle yoga may be exactly what you need to start feeling better!