Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - Community Healthcare - (Page 49)

Stretch It Out Gentle yoga proves to be a prescription for pain relief I by ElisE sims eliminate repetitive stress, [and] manage arthritis, age-related stiffness and various traumas. Regular practice of various yoga techniques provides increasing distance between pain events with decreased intensity.” Through the yoga and pain management classes, participants come away with a new understanding of pain and how to manage it, learning how stretching, movement and strengthening can help to resolve discomfort, Wichlinski says. f you’ve ever watched someone walk across a bed of hot coals or lie down on a bed of nails, you have seen yoga techniques working to counteract pain. Living with chronic pain, the kind that comes along with arthritic joints, fibromyalgia, nerve or back conditions, can be debilitating, zapping your strength, energy and overall feeling of well-being. Yoga exercises and concentrative techniques—originally designed to enable a person to meditate and stay in one position for long periods without discomfort—are being used to minimize medication usage and help those with this type of pain lead happier, fuller lives. “We use a Yoga for Pain Management program to address individual concerns, aches and pains,” says Andy Wichlinski, yoga instructor at Community Hospital Fitness Pointe®. “We explain how the regular practice of yoga can reduce and/or Just say ‘Om’ Yoga techniques that work to help control and manage pain are meditation, breathing and relaxation. The three aspects work to distract the mind from pain, reduce the body’s tension and provide an outlet to move through pain instead of resisting it so it loses full impact. Breathing exercises help to relax muscles while you exhale, and lengthening the time that you exhale can expedite relaxation and reduce tension. Awareness of breathing helps to achieve calmer, slower respiration, which also provides a calming effect. Relaxation training is a step-by-step process of relaxing each of your body’s muscles, counteracting the body’s natural tendency to increase muscle tension in an unconscious effort to push away pain—which usually causes pain to intensify. Meditation training is a conscious effort to reduce the mind’s continuous thoughts and to focus in on a single-point of reference. Regular practice of meditation can help to build a strong mind-body connection or self-awareness and reduce sensory input through concentration. Online Andy Wichlinski, yoga instructor for Yoga and Pain Management at Community Hospital Fitness Pointe ®, helps George Crist position and hold a back stretch. For times and dates of upcoming Yoga and Pain Management classes at Community Hospital Fitness Pointe ®, visit www.comhs.org/community/classes.asp. Strike a Pose, Ease the Pain Vim & Vigor • FAL L 2012 49 http://www.comhs.org/community/classes.asp

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Care Packages
Going for the Gold
When Less Is More
30 Days to Better Sleep
I Can’t Ask My Doctor That!ers
He Said, She Said
Hold On to Your Health
Still A Screening Star
Your Joints: An Owner’s Manual
Weighing Your Options
No Greater Gift
Weather Alert
Virtual Health
Stretch It Out
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Mary Medical Center
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Catherine Hospital
SPOTLIGHT ON: Community Hospital
Finding a Dream Job

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2012 - Community Healthcare