yoga

Gentle exercise and keeping active are very important parts of keeping your body strong and as flexible as possible and when you have RA. Stress and anxiety can affect your ability to cope with your disease and meditation is often recommended, as well. There are different kinds of exercise that help you build strength, as well as deal with stress. Tai chi is one and yoga is another. Both are a sort of meditation in motion, so you get two for the price of one!

One of the great things about yoga for a person with RA is how it allows you to build strength and flexibility while staying within your limits. More traditional forms of exercise has a tendency to build strength by pushing you past your limits and when you have RA, this will likely result in you spending several days being in a lot of pain. There are many varieties of yoga and some are quite strenuous, so it's a good idea to do a bit of research, maybe on the Internet first or go to your local yoga studio (if there's one in your city or town) and discuss your situation with the staff so they can recommend a class that will suit your needs and not be too intense. Depending on how active your RA is, you may also want to run it by your rheumatologist, although I suspect that they will recommend exercise and physiotherapy to keep you joints mobile.

When you're doing yoga, whether it's in a class or from a DVD you're watching in your home, keep in mind that depending on the damage to your joints or how bad your RA is on that particular day, you should adjust your yoga practice to the state of your body. Your limits will likely vary from day to day and it's a good idea to stay within those limits, even if it means you are able to do less on Wednesday than you were on Monday. Think long term, not short-term - you're looking to slowly build strength and flexibility over time and definitely not looking to be able to lift a minivan by the weekend. Also, keep in mind that yoga often feels so good that it's easy to get carried away and push past your limits, so be conservative until you discover how much a body can handle.

Thanks to Anu's sharepost about exercising when you can, I went out an got Wii Fit for my Nintendo Wii.  Ok, truth here.  My lovely husband went to Toys R Us and waited in line to get Wii Fit for my Nintento Wii.  It makes me go, "WHEEEEEE!".  It has yoga and strength exercises, even games to improve balance.  It's not as rigorous as a membership at the gym, but I think that's also why I like it.  On my "meth" day my dosage had just been ramped up.  No way would I ever have dragged my butt to the gym, BUT (other kind of but..hee hee!) I certainly couldn't excuse myself from doing some stretching.  I mean it's RIGHT THERE!  Plus I love video games (I'm a total geek if you must know), and I'm more than a hair competitive.  So If my ten year old beats my ski jump score I am EXTREMELY motivated to CRUSH HIM!!!! .....*sigh*...my poor children.  The yoga stuff is my fav.  It really feels wonderful.  ....just my two cents.  ; )

I've been doing yoga for eight years.  I'm 59, and just got slammed with Lyme arthritis or seronegative RA (depending on which doc you talk to) in March.  At first I stopped going to class and stopped home yoga practice.  Then I realized what a mistake it was.  I know enough now to adjust my routines to my needs, although it took me a little while to understand my new limits - where I could push a little, and where I couldn't.

I'd suggest finding a class, particularly in Iyengar yoga if you have an Iyengar studio near you.  I'm taking a class called Ageless Yoga, where pretty much everyone is over 50 and has some kind of physical issues.  So the teacher might give the class a pose to do, but if one of us can't do it she tailors the pose differently or recommends an alternative.

Iyengar yoga is just one of several branches in the yoga tradition.  It's predominately focused on alignment. This means that your teacher helps you get in the position that is healthiest for your body.  Some forms of yoga are focused on flow, or heat, and I don't recommend them if you are stiff in any way.  I've been stiff all my life, and am just much more so now, and I find that if we are moving quickly from one pose to another I can't keep up and am likely to hurt myself.

There's a new book out called Yoga for Arthritis, but I haven't used it enough to know how helpful it is.  Another wonderful book is Recovery Yoga, by Sam Dworkis.  But I'd suggest finding a teacher before working from a book or video.

I have a home yoga practice blog, but I'm new to the site and don't know if it's OK to post the URL.  I'll post this (way too long, sorry!) now, and then check into it.