Namaste!

So now its Thursday! Wow this week has really flown by.. which is a good thing! While doing some research for our short activity facilitation for next week, I did some research on yoga, specifically the adaptive kind. While another group chose to do yoga as their activity, I still thought it would be cool to post all of the unique poses and resources that I found that I think will be really beneficial to all of us as future CTRS's!

I absolutely love doing yoga.. I have used it as a tool for myself to relax and maintain my flexibility after I stopped dancing in high school. Especially in college, it is a tool to keep my stress levels down.

What I find so innovative about adaptive yoga is that most people think that you need to be fully functioning in all aspects to participate in yoga, but that is absolutely not true at all. You can even be an amputee and participate in yoga----> (check out this awesome website!)

 Here is the reasoning behind how yoga benefits all people with all types of disabilities! (to read more you can check out  THIS website!

Yoga Helps All Disabilities
The gentle stretching of yoga and its centered-breathing discipline can benefit people who may have arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, or osteoporosis as well as those who have had a stroke. The “asanas,” or poses that make up a yoga practice can also help with balance and strength while helping you find a calming emotional space that helps not only with healing, but also with the day-to-day challenges of life.

In addition, notes the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD), yoga aids your:

• Digestive system, as the bending and stretching poses stimulate the digestive system
• Cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems (also known as your heart and lungs!), as the more active poses increase heart rate and lung capacity through aerobic activity
• Lymphatic system (essentially, the primary component of your immune system), which needs strong muscles and active interaction among the lungs, diaphragm, and thorax to stay strong
• Skeletal and muscular systems, which benefit from yoga’s focus on proper alignment, flexibility, and muscle-strengthening

As you can see, yoga benefits people with disabilities in so many ways... by stimulating all body systems that may not have been focused on before and by working on the flexibility of muscles and ligaments and alignment of the body--things which many people with disabilities do not make a priority. Just working on basic breathing exercises to induce deep relaxation can work wonders on reducing the everyday stresses people living with disabilities often experience.

There are many websites on the internet that describe different specific yoga poses and styles that are the most beneficial for each specific disability. One article that I found was really interesting was the story of a 42 year old paraplegic named Matthew Sanford that says that yoga has  allowed him "to reclaim his entire body and enjoy a renewed sense of wholeness."  After being involved in a car crash, doctors told him that it was basically pointless to focus on working on any muscle groups below his waist, so they assigned him to a weightlifting routine for his upper body. He finally discovered Iyengar yoga, which stresses alignment and precision in the body. While you would think that yoga would be extremely pointless for someone who has no sensation below his waist, Matt explains how he came to understand and feel the sensations and energy coming out of his legs and feel like he was back being "one" with his own body.

Matthew became an innovator in yoga by starting up yoga classes for people with disabilities, especially paraplegic yoga which was never emphasized in the yoga world before! 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!!!!

So in conclusion, yoga is a great tool for CTRS's to use for ALL clients of ALL ages with ALL types of disabilities!!! I really feel like the possibilities are endless and it has the potential to be extremely innovative! Everyone can do it and it offers so many benefits to all populations. I will definitely be utilizing adaptive yoga in my future career as a CTRS.

SIDE NOTE: There is an excellent website on doing yoga with children with disabilities, specifically with CP.  Check out these videos!