Three Ways To Use Yoga To Supplement Your Chiropractic Care
It's always exciting when you discover that two of your lifestyle habits can actually work together to keep you even healthier. Because chiropractic care and yoga have some of the same goals and even some similar techniques as well as both focusing on holistic whole-body wellness, there are several overlapping areas where using one will help the other and vice versa. Here are three ways it can supplement the success of your chiropractic care when you practice yoga.
1. De-stressing
Among the many negative health issues stress can cause are tension and poor posture. Your chiropractor will help you fight against these enemies and may even give you methods to help counter the effects of stress on your body. But you can improve your stress levels even more by incorporating yoga into your weekly routine. Yoga helps you to gently stretch and relax each muscle, no matter how large or small. This can be a comprehensive way to reduce overall stress in the body.
2. Awareness
A good yogi knows that the physical aspect of yoga is just one side of its many-faceted character. It has a spiritual side and a mental side as well. The mental aspect of yoga involves cultivating an awareness of your body and each muscle as you stretch it, a mindfulness of how your body feels as you perform the stretches, and a conscious letting go of stress. Paying attention to how your body feels is an important tool in your wellness toolbox. It helps you catch problems before they worsen and sometimes even allows you to catch potential problems before they're fully fledged. You can ask your chiropractor for advice anytime you notice that your muscles or joints feel like something's wrong.
3. Flexibility and strength
Not only does yoga help by increasing your range of motion (one of the goals it shares with chiropractic care), but it also helps strengthen muscles, joints, and tendons. This helps your body handle the day-to-day demands of life more effectively. It can also help you resist problems such as back injuries or repetitive strain injuries better. And if you do sustain an injury, yoga will make sure that your body will be stronger and more ready to heal. In addition to improving your chiropractic results, the flexibility and strength yoga helps you attain can give you an edge in almost any area of life.
These three points show how yoga can be used effectively as a supplement to chiropractic care. Ask your chiropractor how often to practice yoga for best results, and remember: if your chiropractor has assigned other exercises, don't neglect them in favor of yoga. Yoga may seem to make deep breathing or stretching exercises redundant, but your chiropractor had a reason for assigning those particular exercises and you should still perform them faithfully even if you think your way might be better. Talk to a chiropractor, like Dr. Paul Lyons, for more information.