At this time, yoga teaching is not a licensed field.  When individuals attend a local yoga class, the teacher may have little or no training, especially for addressing the challenges presented by joint conditions.  Classes may move too quickly, include advanced poses, or take place in a heated room.  YFA teachers have a strong base of training and experience as a yoga teacher, followed by specialized training for working with joint conditions.  No other program offers such rigor.  There are certainly other yoga teachers who are also medical professionals or have additional knowledge that allows them to work safely and appropriately with arthritis patients.  If a YFA teacher is not available in your area, we would be happy to contact local yoga studios and determine if there is a local teacher that you could safely recommend to your patients.  Additionally, we would be happy to discuss providing a training program in your area.

Potential harm to students is related to their musculoskeletal system integrity.  There is a risk of moving a joint beyond its limited range of motion (hyper-extension) or by exerting too much pressure on a joint which could lead to tissue damage or fractures.  The YFA teacher is trained to understand, recognize and prevent students from being positioned and moving the ways that are potentially dangerous to weak and impaired joints. Injury from a fall due to unbalanced standing poses is possible. Muscle and/or ligaments damage is possible as a result of improper technique practiced without respect to one’s limitations.  These risks are minimized in classes specifically designed for people with arthritis, or in other classes that are slow, gentle, and emphasize body awareness.

As demonstrated by several research studies, yoga may improve aspects of physical fitness, disease symptoms (pain, swelling, tenderness, fatigue, etc), psychosocial health, and quality of life for people with arthritis.  Studies have been relatively small to date, utilizing different measurement tools and outcomes.  At this time, meta-analysis is not possible.  However, yoga appears to be safe for RA and OA, with no adverse events reported in any published studies in arthritic populations.  Our team continues to mentor yoga researchers at prestigious institutions to increase the available body of research evidence.

Yoga for Arthritis classes are designed to accommodate all types of student mobility limitations. An entire yoga class can even be adapted and practiced with a standard chair. All YFA teachers are trained to modify yoga poses so each student can participate according to their potential. Although alignment is critical, emphasis is placed on how the posture feels instead of how advanced it is. Students can be fully engaged, regardless of their ability.

There is an inherent risk in any type physical activity. When compared to injury rates from other forms of physical activity, yoga comes across as relatively safe. For instance, yoga appears to be about four times safer than weight training. If there are specific movement contraindications for one of your patients, please communicate that with his/her yoga teacher. We will be happy to accommodate any necessary limitations. If you would like to see a class, please feel free to attend one of our classes, or request a copy of the Arthritis Foundation’s Arthritis-Friendly Yoga DVD, which we created in collaboration with AF, based on our classes. We can also conduct a demonstration for you and your colleagues, if desired.

The level physical exertion is dependent on the student’s strength and range of motion. In general, the style of yoga in the Yoga for Arthritis program is based on moving into gentle postures with an emphasis on alignment. Students are instructed to practice within their own unique limitations and to stop or modify a pose when they feel pain. The instructor creates a learning environment that is multi-dimensional so that each student feels comfortable doing what is most appropriate for them. The yoga teacher is specifically trained to understand the difference between sensations that can cause harm (ie. pain) and sensations that are therapeutic (muscle engagement, gentle stretching) so that the students learn to identify those differences in their body.