inMotion Magazine

May | June 2019 40 Health & Well-Being (continued) instead. Many amputees wear non-skid shoes, like sneakers, for stabilization. While some amputees enjoy hot or vinyasa (flow) yoga, I recommend taking a room temperature class that is hatha yoga-based. Hot yoga can damage prostheses, make yoga mats slippery and increase bacteria on the residual limb. Vinyasa yoga is very fast-paced, making good alignment and body awareness harder to maintain for amputees. Amputees do best when they have access to yoga props like a wall, a folding chair, yoga blocks, yoga straps, bolsters and a folded blanket. Traditionally, yoga was done before sunrise as a form of prayer that set the tone for the entire day. Additionally, the best times for yoga can relate to your body type. Lighter, skinnier bodies do better with a yoga practice between 6-10am/pm. Muscular bodies do best between 10-2am/pm, while more fleshy bodies do best between 2-6am/pm. Yoga is often represented as a form of exercise to lose weight, gain balance and build muscle. While those are nice side benefits, yoga, at its heart, is a therapeutic medicine, designed to heal the body, mind and spirit at the deepest levels. Yoga’s main component is the breath, and its positive effects are far-reaching. Good breathing not only soothes the cells of the body, it also stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates our ability to cope with stress. It restores harmony in our organs, stretches our muscles to reduce tension and increases our mental capacities. The more relaxed our brain and body are, the better able we are to adapt to change – quite useful for amputees! Yoga’s focus on mindful action, taking the time to be present in each moment, has been found to reduce pain (essential for amputees struggling with phantom pain) and increase creative adaptability. Yoga positively affects the deepest tissues of the body, healing us from the inside out. Finally, yoga offers us, as amputees, a chance to embrace the wholeness of our bodies, the beauty of our relentless spirits and the power of our determined minds. For me, personally, as a cancer survivor, amputee, and kidney transplant recipient, yoga has saved me many times since my amputation in 1976. Try this short yoga routine: 1. Check in. How are you feeling in mind, body and spirit? 2. Sit comfortably. 3. Breathe. Inhale. Lengthen your spine. Exhale. Relax. Do this three times. 4. Warm Up. Inhale. Exhale. Twist your navel to the right. Allow the head to follow. Repeat to the left. Inhale and arch your chest forward. Exhale, round your spine, chin dipping to your chest. 5. Mountain Pose. (A) Imagine that your inner body, from your hips to the crown of your head, is a mountain. Inhale. Lengthen your spine. (B) Exhale as you relax your outer body over this “inner mountain.” Inhale and exhale three times. (C) Focus your eyes on a spot 8-10 feet in front of you. Stay in the moment. 6. Relax. Close your eyes. Loosen your body and let go a little bit. 7. Open your eyes. Do another check-in. How do you feel now in mind, body and spirit? Congratulations. You have just practiced yoga!  Marsha Therese Danzig, MEd, C-IAYT, RYT 500, is a leg amputee, founder of Y4A: Yoga for Amputees®, and author of Yoga for Amputees: The Essential Guide to Finding Wholeness After Limb Loss . She has been practicing and teaching yoga for over 30 years and is a pioneer in the field of yoga for amputees. For more information, visit: yogaforamputees.com. Email: yoga4amputees@gmail.com. Staying Fit With Limb Loss amputee-coalition.org/ resources/staying-fit-with- limb-loss Yoga for Everyone amputee-coalition.org/ resources/yoga-for-everyone Related Resources Warm Up: Inhale and arch your chest forward. Warm Up: Exhale. Round your spine, chin dipping to your chest. Photography by Augusta Rose Photography • Photos provided by Marsha T Danzig.