Simple and Easy Exercises for Healthy Joints

Often people assume that yoga is about cultivating extreme flexibility. This assumption may be related to the media’s tendency to favor images of extremely flexible people in highly dramatic postures. However, it is more accurate, appropriate and useful to understand Yoga as a complete and integrated practice for cultivating balance in body, mind, breathing and emotions.

Since our body is constantly monitoring what we do, it takes note also of what we are not doing. So, if we choose not to move much, our body adapts according to our patterns of movement as well as our lack of movement.

When we consider the health of our joints we can keep in mind that each joint has a specific range of movement that can vary according to how much we use that joint. Here is where yoga as balancing may be useful. There may be some joints that we tend to use a lot, they may stay mobile and, if we overuse them, they may deteriorate a bit faster. Conversely, those joints we do not use much will tend to lose some of their mobility.

This video offers a very easy and simple sequence of movements to help us keep our joints healthy by maintaining the natural range of movement in our joints. You can see this brief, 10 minute sequence as a way to remind our body that we want to keep our normal range of movement. It is important to keep in mind that it is not necessary to make these movements extreme. On the contrary, by enlisting our attention and awareness, we may use this practice as a journey of exploration into healthy movement patterns. Explore these actions with ease and curiosity and please remember to keep your breath steady, smooth and continuous.

As usual, you can interpret any sign of pain as a message from your body indicating that that type of movement may not be appropriate for you at this time. As usual, after you practice it is a good idea to hydrate well and also to pay attention to the effects that you notice in body, mind and attitude.

I hope that you enjoy this practice with a gentle smile.

Namaste,
rubén