Yoga and Physical Therapy: Do They Go Hand in Hand?

Have you ever suffered from muscle tightness, back pain, or just felt “stiff” after an injury? If you’ve found yourself reading this blog, I’m betting you have.

When you engage in physical therapy after an injury, a large part of your rehabilitation is maintenance of joint stability, strengthening the ligament function in the injured area, and working to equalize the pressure distribution at the articular surface.³ A great way to improve in all of these areas? One of the oldest activities around, yoga. Today, I want to introduce you to a few common injuries and the yoga poses that can help you along the road to recovery.

Restoring stability to a joint allows for you to regain control of the injured extremity, not only promoting healing from the previous injury, but preventing further injury later on.⁴ For example, one of the most common knee injuries that athletes suffer is a valgus collapse.¹ This type of injury stems from knee instability, an ailment that can be remedied through physical therapy and aided by yoga poses such as the Half Moon Pose. The Half Moon Pose or “Ardha Chandrasana”, strengthens the thighs and ankles, helping to improve your overall balance and knee stability by strengthening the muscles surrounding the knee joint. Here is a quick video demonstrating Half Moon Pose.

While stability is important for joints such as the knee or ankle joint, flexibility is another aspect of overall health and well-being that shouldn’t be ignored. Restoring flexibility after an injury, especially if the injured extremity was immobilized at any time, is an extremely important aspect of rehabilitation.³ Flexibility allows for a joint to undergo a certain amount of stress without causing damage to the surrounding tissues. An example of a joint where flexibility and a good range of motion is a must is the hip joint. A great pose to improve hip flexibility is the Pigeon pose.² Pigeon Pose, or Eka Pada Rajakapotasana, stretches the hip rotators and hip flexors, opening up the hips and allowing for better posture, alignment and of course increased flexibility.⁵ Take a quick look at this video to learn proper Pigeon Pose form.

Overall, incorporating yoga and stretching into your physical therapy routine can lead to stronger joints, more flexibility and most importantly, injury prevention in the future. If you think that this practice could help you in your healing, talk to your physical therapist about how you can fit in some yoga into your daily rehabilitation!

References:

¹Contreras, B. (2013, June 14). Knee Valgus (Valgus Collapse), Glute Medius Strengthening, Band Hip Abduction Exercises, and Ankle Dorsiflexion Drills. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://bretcontreras.com/knee-valgus-valgus-collapse-glute-medius-strengthening-band-hip-abduction-exercises-and-ankle-dorsiflexion-drills/

²Crandell, J. (2014, June 18). Yoga Sequence | Hip Openers | Yoga Poses for Flexibility in the Hips. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://www.yogajournal.com/article/practice-section/hip-to-it/

³Davis, K. (2015, September 30). Flexibility, Mobility, and Stability: What's the Difference and Why are They Important? Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://www.fix.com/blog/flexibility-mobility-stability/

⁴Hamilton, A. (2017, March 07). Flexibility and stretching: preventing sports injuries. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from https://www.pponline.co.uk/endurance-training/strength-conditioning-and-flexibility/flexibility-stretching-preventing-sports-injuries/

⁵Lawrence, G. (n.d.). Pose of the Month: Pigeon Pose. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://www.active.com/health/articles/pose-of-the-month-pigeon-pose

⁶Tarma, J. (2015, July 09). 4 Ways to Build Hip Stability and Strength from Yoga. Retrieved March 30, 2017, from http://www.yogajournal.com/slideshow/4-ways-build-hip-stability/#1

Video Credit:
-YogaJournal.com
-Yoga with Adriene