FOR PAIN RELIEF

Main Manual

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Disclaimer

You must get your physician’s approval before beginning this exercise program. These recommendations are not medical guidelines but are for educational purposes only. You must consult your physician prior to starting this program or if you have any medical condition or injury that contraindicates this type of physical activity. This program is designed for individuals who are new to yoga or are experiencing chronic pain, stress, or emotional overwhelm.

The information in this report is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editors and publishers advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this book, be sure that your equipment (mat, straps, and blocks) is well-maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training and fitness.

The exercises and dietary programs in this book are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or treatment or dietary regimen that may have been prescribed by your physician.

Don’t perform any exercise unless you have been shown and understand the proper technique by a certified personal trainer or certified yoga instructor.

See your physician before starting any exercise or nutrition program. If you are taking any medications, you must talk to your physician before starting any exercise program. If you experience any lightheadedness, dizziness, or shortness of breath while exercising, stop the movement and consult a physician.

You must have a complete physical examination if you are sedentary, if you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, or if you are severely overweight. Please discuss all nutritional changes with your physician or a registered dietitian. If your physician recommends that you don’t use Yoga for Pain Relief, please follow your doctor’s orders.

Copyright © 2003-2015 CB Athletic Consulting, Inc.

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Namaste! Welcome to Yoga for Pain Relief! Congratulations on making a life changing decision that will relieve your chronic pain, reawaken your zest for life, and inspire you to dive into activities you love once again. My hope is that this program will serve as a guide for you to uncover the root of physical, mental, and emotional pain so that you can reduce your suffering and be free to enjoy every aspect of life.

I’m delighted and honored to be your guide as you embark on a journey toward freedom from pain and suffering. If you commit to exploring what yoga has to offer, you will change your understanding of and experience with physical and emotional pain. You will develop the personal power to shift out of patterns that keep you stuck in chronic pain and into your body’s natural healing responses.

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Common Mistakes Yoga is an incredible tool that can help alleviate myriad health issues but it must be done appropriately and mindfully or injuries can occur. The following are some basic guidelines to follow as you embark on your Yoga for Pain Relief journey.

• Always use your breath as your guide when moving in & out of postures or attempting to deepen a posture. The breath is your most intimate guide to what your practice will look like. Be mindful and respectful of breath rate and depth. Transitions from inhale to exhale should be seamless, like the ebb and flow of the ocean.

• Listen to cues your body gives you on how far to take a posture or whether to skip a posture all together. Pain should never be sharp or cause your breath to get caught or cut short. Always ease into postures and their deeper forms with respect for you body’s signals. Know that your practice will vary from day to day.

• Be mindful of your back in forward bends and forward folds. Gently pull your abdominal muscles in as you fold forward and make sure to hinge from the hips rather than the mid or upper vertebrae. To bend at the hips, you will tip your pelvis forward/reach your sitting bones back. This will feel like a stretch in the hamstrings.

• Backbends of any kind are meant to be a lifting and lengthening through the spine rather than a crunching down & back sensation. Always follow foundation cues for pelvic

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alignment and never go farther than you can keep your breath a steady rhythm.

• Upside down poses require precise alignment. Never look side to side when your hips are higher than your head while your head is on the ground. Examples are bridge, shoulder stand, headstand, plow pose, etc.

• Move into hamstring stretches slowly. Listen to the feedback your body is giving you and be mindful to warm up properly before attempting deeper poses that stretch the hamstrings. Bending or softening at the knees may be appropriate to protect your hamstrings and their tendons.

• Practice good alignment of the shoulders in all postures. Be sure to not allow the head of the upper arm bone to jut forward. Avoid any arm positions that cause pain.

• Sacroiliac Issues are common among individuals who are very flexible. The SI joint sits in between the surface of the sacrum and the ilium in the pelvic girdle. It is most often strained during wide leg poses or poses involving twists with the legs separated. If you have an SI joint issue please allow your pelvis to turn slightly in the direction of the twist so that the pelvis and sacrum move in unison to reduce torque on the SI joint.

• Never go into a pose that hurts your knees. Never place torque on your knees to get into a pose. Do not hyperextend your knees or lock the joint. Engage in a “micro-bend” to protect the knee joint in straight leg poses.

• When knees are bent as in lunges or warrior poses, align the

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knee over the two middle toes.

• Modify poses that place stress or strain on the ankle joint. Try to keep a long line of energy transitioning from the lower leg through the ankle and out the toes.

• Some poses can place a lot of pressure on the wrists such as Downward Facing Dog, Chatturanga, or Handstand. To avoid this, try not to collapse your wrists by letting the weight fall onto the heel of the hands. Rather, apply pressure through the knuckle pads and distribute that energy out each finger. Try pressing more firmly into the thumb and forefinger to shift the energy out of the wrists (but don’t lose the connection to the pinky).

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Contraindicat ions for Yoga Pract ice

Permanent Contraindications for Yoga Practice

• The unstable mind, mental disorders, and epilepsy

• Congenital Heart Disease

• Malignant Tumors

• Hematopathy

• Infections of the Musculoskeletal System

• Severe spinal injuries and recent head injuries

Temporary Contraindications for Yoga Practice

• Flare up periods for chronic diseases

• Body overheating or over-cooling

• During heavy medication or drug use

• Post-operative time period (until cleared by doctor and physical therapist)

• Severe fatigue

• Increased intraocular and intracranial pressure (head

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colds, severe migraines)

• Neuro-infection

• Ear infections or vestibular issues

• Inversions during menstruation

• Chronic Hypertension: please avoid inversions

• Spine Diseases (osteochondrosis, scoliosis) avoid forward bends from standing or seated postures—or modify with props

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Program Contents

Daily Asana: 4-week Programs

Each week includes 4 daily poses with 1 weekly mini-sequence composed of that week’s daily poses

• Daily Asana: Building a Foundation

• Daily Asana: Building Balance

This is a quick and effective way to understand in greater depth each posture including alignment, weight distribution, muscle engagement, and breathing cues. This simple program can be used as a jump-start and will support your journey through the 12-week Yoga for Pain Relief program

Align & Alleviate

Restore & Rebuild

Flexibility & Flow

Strengthen & Stabilize

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12-Week Yoga for Pain Relief Program

Each Phase Includes 3 corresponding sequences

• Weeks 1-3: Align & Alleviate

• Weeks 4-6: Restore & Rebuild

• Weeks 7-9: Flexibility & Flow

• Weeks 10-12: Strengthen & Stabilize

The 12-week yoga program features 4 progressive phases of yoga sequencing that methodically take you on a journey of total restoration. Phase 1: Align & Alleviate introduces healthy alignment in order to reduce stiffness and begin to alleviate pain immediately. The second phase, Restore & Rebuild focuses on reawakening musculoskeletal function, proprioception, and aids in rebuilding healthy movement patterns. During Phase 3: Flexibility & Flow invites you to begin to move more fluidly, unifying breath and movement allowing for a deeper connection with yourself and your environment. The final phase, Strengthen & Stabilize combines strength and balance into an energizing and rejuvenating experience to create a strong and stable mind and body.

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Calendar of How to Proceed with Yoga for Pain Rel ief

If you are brand new to yoga, I encourage you to take some time to learn each posture by starting with the Daily Asana Series. They are quick and effectively teach you how to perform each pose with maximum alignment and engagement to keep you safe and pain free! Even if you’ve practiced yoga in the past, the Daily Asanas are a great refresher, introducing you to transformative details you may have never even known about!

This program has many options for implementation. You can tailor it to meet your needs and align with your schedule, goals, and even the rate with which you progress. You may wish to stay on a particular series longer than the suggested 3-weeks. I encourage you to listen to your body and proceed as you are ready!

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If you’re ready to dive into the 12-week program here are two examples of how to implement each phase:

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

Align & Alleviate

Sequence 1

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Align & Alleviate

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Sequence 3

Restore & Rebuild

Sequence 1

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Restore & Rebuild

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Sequence 3

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY

Align & Alleviate

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Align & Alleviate

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Restore & Rebuild

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

Restore & Rebuild

Sequence 1

Sequence 2

Sequence 3

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Mindset Guide

Purpose

The purpose of Yoga for Pain Relief is to teach you a new way of thinking about the pain and suffering you may struggle with on a daily basis. Yoga provides an opportunity for you to learn how past trauma, illness, and stress can alter the way your mind and body communicate. By developing a new language using breath work, visualizations, specific yoga postures, and thoughtful sequences you will be able to change how you relate to pain and chronic suffering.

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From this new understanding you will be able to use Yoga for Pain Relief as a launch pad to a life free from miserable aches, pains, and daily suffering. You will have the tools to relieve daily stresses, relax tired muscles, and restore your emotional vitality. In addition to the 12-week program you will also be guided on a nutritional approach, Foods for Restoration, designed to decrease inflammation in the body. Often, inflammation of the digestive system contributes to and exacerbates chronic pain, anxiety, gastrointestinal issues, and depression. By consistently choosing anti-inflammatory foods, avoiding pro-inflammatory foods, and boosting water intake you can take control of your health from the inside. You will be removing toxins, supplying your body with vital nutrients for tissue repair, and restoring the gut to full function. Your energy will skyrocket and you’ll feel like participating in life.

Life Improvement Expectations/Benefits

Yoga has been integral in improving numerous forms of pain including back and hip pain, knee pain, headaches, some forms of arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, emotional grief, stress, overwhelm and depression, to name a few.

The Yoga for Pain Relief program is designed to teach you the basics of a yoga practice rooted in developing a connection between physical movement and synchronized breath work. This simple act of timing breath and movement is a powerful tool that ultimately teaches you to listen to your body, take care of your needs, and restore your health so that you can participate in the life you desire.

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Breath is so powerful it can be used in any circumstance to create a sense of safety and relief during moments of acute pain or fear. Combined with the physical postures and stretches of Yoga for Pain Relief you will improve your ability to move through daily life with ease and confidence.

During the Yoga for Pain Relief program you will also learn how to listen to your body, develop intuition about its needs, and experience deep relaxation so that you can understand your body’s physical limitations, understand how to develop peace around the sensations you’re observing and identify situations that contribute to pain and stress. You will know how to relieve chronic muscle tension, pain, sensitivity, and anxiety.

In addition, you will experience greater flexibility, range of motion, and strength in your body. You will regain your sense of balance and control over your body’s movement patterns giving you confidence to engage in everyday activities with ease. You may even find yourself returning to hobbies and pastimes you thought were to be left in the past.

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Understanding Pain & Core Science

Our understanding of chronic pain has evolved over the years through research rooted in neuroscience, psychology, and medicine. Initially, there was recognition that pain is a mind-body process involving not just physical injury or illness, but also thoughts, emotions, stress, and learning. As research progressed, we learned that chronic pain is processed differently than an acute pain response. Finally, advancements in our comprehension of how to access the mind and body’s natural pain-suppressing systems through breathing, relaxation, meditation, and movement have become commonly accepted in the medical field and thus, opened up a whole new vein of therapeutic protocols.

Pain is vital to our survival. It lets us know when our safety is at risk; it motivates us to protect ourselves; it helps us learn to avoid things that could be harmful in the future. Pain is a coordinated mind-body response that directs attention and energy to the most important task at hand: protect yourself!

This diagram from Yoga for Pain Relief, by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., is a simple way of understanding this process:

The cognitive appraisal that occurs when you experience pain not only allows you to identify what’s happening in the body but also

Injury or Illness Trigger

Threat of Signal sent

to Brain

Pain Response:

sensation,

thoughts, emotions,

stress, and coping

Learning

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triggers a part of the brain that keeps track of goals and conflicts. This will focus your attention on what needs to be done next in order to solve the problem of pain. At the same time, emotion-processing areas receive the message triggering a wide range of possible emotions, from fear to anger, which motivate you to protect yourself. Combined, your thoughts and emotions about your physical sensations of pain make up suffering. This is where stress gets tied into the picture. Stress, in its highest good, motivates you to take action against a perceived threat. Coping mechanisms are set in place—some of which are innate responses by the body and some that are created by you as a way of feeling safe. Even once a threat is gone the pain response does not end. The mind and body are still committed to making sure this experience is not repeated so the nervous system begins the process of learning from this experience.

The protective pain response is truly an incredible system coordinated to perpetuate survival during acute emergencies and for handling short-term pain.

Unfortunately, this very system can work against you in chronic pain situations. Understanding the difference between acute pain and chronic pain will be critical to your ability to reduce and manage your pain immediately and long term. 1

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Acute Pain is an immediate & temporary response to some kind of injury, illness, or trauma

Chronic Pain is a misunderstanding by

the brain about what is happening in the body

ACUTE PAIN vs CHRONIC PAIN

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The assumption is that chronic pain follows the same response patterns as acute pain—that if you have chronic pain you must have a chronic threat and if pain gets worse it must mean the threat in the body has gotten worse. Rarely is this the case. The difference between acute and chronic pain responses is threefold. First, the body has become more sensitive to threats, sending signals to the brain even when the threat in reality is minor or nonexistent (recall coping mechanisms you create to feel safe). Second, the brain becomes more likely to interpret situations as more threatening and sensations as more painful than they really are thus, producing a pain response out of proportion to any real danger which increase the feelings of stress. Finally, with these repeated experiences the boundaries between sensation, suffering, and stress get blurred so that at any given moment any one of these aspects of the pain response can trigger a full-blown protective pain response whether necessary or not.

What this means is chronic pain is a far less reliable signal about what is actually happening in the body. The pain you feel may reflect a genuine threat to the body or it may be procured by the fears in your mind. Just as easily, a traffic jam, spilled coffee, or a fight with a loved one can bring it on. This habitual, autopilot pain response reflects an overprotective mind-body reaction that results in chronic physical or emotional pain.

The good news is that just as these habits are created they can be undone. Neuroplasticity is the nervous system’s ability to learn in response to an experience and is vital to learning of all kinds. Just like the ability to improve skills like your sense of balance or performance in a sporting activity through repeated practice so too, does the body become better at “being in pain” through repetitive triggers to

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the pain response.

Undoing the historical reaction of chronic pain using the notion of neuroplasticity is a beacon of hope to millions of people suffering daily. Neuroplasticity makes any response you practice more likely including the healing response during activities such as relaxation, breath work, self-acceptance, and gratitude. Yoga for Pain Relief will be a guiding light to healing as you navigate a new way of being in relationship to the pain and suffering you have been experiencing.

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