Yoga: a women's health best friend
Yoga- a women’s health best friend.
I recommend yoga to my patients quite often. I never did it myself. For years I said I was too busy for yoga. My excuse was that it didn’t burn enough calories and I am already flexible. Until a girlfriend invited me to join her and I actually had the time to do so. I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it! It was difficult at first, learning to find my breath and use it while at the same time trying to bend over, balance and put my body in challenging yoga poses. But I kept coming back. Fast forward 5 years, I am a true yogi and I recommend it to many of my patients. Yoga has so many benefits for women’s health specifically and especially for those dealing with pelvic pain, struggling with anxiety or just wanting to stay healthy, toned and fit.
Benefits of yoga at midlife
In your 40s and then in to your 50s, your body changes. Women gain fat and lose muscle. Our joints become less flexible and we are weaker than we used to be in our earlier years. We may spend hours hunched over a desk staring at a computer. Our bones thin. (Isn’t menopause fun!). Our lives may become stressful at midlife, dealing with teenage children, aging parents, financial stressors and now Covid 19. Yoga, in one simple hour class, takes care of all of these in one fell swoop.
Yoga builds strength.
Strength training maintains your metabolism and helps you lose weight (muscle burns more calories at rest than fat). Strength also helps you maintain your balance and avoid falls. Any sort of weight bearing exercise also helps reduce your risk of osteoporosis or osteopenia (thinning bones). Grab your yoga mat and start strength training!
Yoga lessens anxiety
Times are tough. We have so much to worry about. Midlife is particularly difficult as our hormones take us on a roller coaster ride. Some women feel as though they have lost their identity once the kids grow up and leave the house. Others may be in stressful work situations or have relationship troubles. There is nothing better than yoga for lowering anxiety. Those deep belly breathes calm your sympathetic nervous system. They lower your blood pressure and relax your mind. For that 1 hour, you can leave your worries aside. As they say in yoga, throw your worries away, let your mind be empty and when negative thoughts come, don’t judge, just push them away.
Yoga tones and strengthens the pelvic floor muscles.
The pelvic floor muscles are the muscles that surround the vagina and rectum. They help to prevent your pelvic organs from falling out when you are standing up. They also play a role in urination and defection. Keeping your pelvic floor strong can help prevent urinary leakage and prevent constipation. Don’t have time to do your kegels? Yoga works too!
Pelvic floor and orgasms
Many midlife women say their orgasms are either non-existent or are just “meh”. A strong pelvic floor will contract during orgasm, making orgasms feel more powerful. Who wouldn’t want that?
Yoga helps heal pelvic pain
If you suffer from vaginismus or pelvic floor muscle spasm, then yoga is just the thing for you. Sometimes the pelvic floor musculature forgets how to relax. This leads to either painful penetration or the inability to have penetration. Women describe it as “s/he/they are hitting a wall” during penetration attempts. Also, big deep yoga breathes, the ones that fill up your lungs so much that they push your belly out, make it impossible for you to contract your pelvic floor muscles. This means the muscles can’t tighten up, creating that barrier to penetration. Pelvic floor physical therapy works great to relax the pelvic floor too but your physical therapist can’t be with you all the time. Yoga can be done at anytime, anywhere- thanks to the internet.
Go ahead, make a commitment to do something healthy for your mind and body. No excuses, no buts or whys. I personally like Offbeat here in Chesterfield, Missouri. Or open up YouTube and check out Yoga with Adrienne or Yoga by Candace (my personal favorites). If you are new to yoga, be sure to choose a class for beginners, listen to your body and go easy. Build up to more difficult classes or poses. If you aren’t new, be the warrior-hit the pose and namaste!
Dr. Becky Lynn is a gynecologist, menopause and sexual health specialist in St. Louis, MO. She is licensed to practice medicine in Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois. She she sees patients in her St. Louis office and offers telehealth consults to Illinois and Tennessee. Call today to schedule your appointment. (314) 934-0551 or click here to schedule.
