Yoga For The Menopause

Menopause is an important stage of a woman’s life. It is marked by the cessation of menstruation, which can lead to many physical and emotional changes in a women’s body.

The most common symptoms include hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, depression and mood swings—all of which can reduce when yoga practices are incorporated into your routines.

Yoga not only helps alleviate menopause symptoms but also promotes strength, flexibility and self-awareness through its various poses or “asanas” that focus on balance and concentration.

How Many Women Suffer With Menopause Symptoms

Approximately half of all women will experience the symptoms that are associated with menopause. The average age for a woman to reach this stage in her life is 51 years old, but it can happen at any time between 45 and 55 years old.

Common Symptoms of the Menopause

The most common symptoms of menopause can include hot flashes, insomnia and depression.

Hot Flashes: Hot flashes are one of the first things to occur in menopause and they can disrupt a women’s night-time sleep cycle which leads to fatigue during the day. Yoga helps by bringing down the heart rate so it is no longer pushing blood through vessels at such high levels as before. This allows for better control over bodily mechanisms like thermoregulation or sweat production to keep you cool on those hot flush days!

Insomnia: Insomnia can be another symptom of the menopause. Women in menopause can experience sudden and unexplained bouts of insomnia or sleeplessness. Yoga helps by increasing serotonin production, which is a chemical that regulates moods and sleep cycles.

Depression: Depression is another common symptom for women going through the change of life. Having periods stop altogether with no warning can cause feelings of loss and sadness. Yoga’s benefits are significant when it comes to relieving depression because practicing yoga regularly encourages meditation (which reduces stress), increases circulation, lowers blood pressure, boosts your immune system making it easier to fight infection (a big contributor to depression) among many other things!

Yoga Poses That Help Relieve Menopause Symptoms

There are many yoga poses that can help with menopause symptoms. For example:

• Mountain pose (Tadasana) – This is a great way to start your yoga practice because it helps you release any tightness in the hips, pelvis and back. It also encourages deep breathing by stretching out the lungs, ribs and abdominal muscles.
• Supine twist pose (Jathara Parivartanasana) – This is a good one for stretching out the abdomen which can feel very heavy during perimenopause or even early stages of menopause when menstrual periods are still occurring regularly.
• Lunge pose (Anjaneyasana) – This pose also helps with the abdomen by stretching out the muscles and relieving any tension.
• Cat/cow (Marjarisasna) – These poses help to release lots of tightness in the low back, hips and neck which can all be uncomfortable during menopause.
• Plow Pose (Halasana) – Another great one for releasing tightness is Halasana or Plow pose because it stretches out your entire torso making you feel more relaxed after holding this posture for a while.
• Child’s pose – is also a great way to relax your whole body, from the head all the way down through your backside.

Keep It Simple – Yoga For The Menopause

Most of these poses do not require any intense exercise. Simple stretches and breathing exercises relax the body and help to relieve the symptoms of the menopause.

The emotional benefits of regularly practising yoga can also help alleviate menopause symptoms. For many women the regular practice of yoga really helps them bring a greater degree of control over their bodies and therefore lives.

Many women who try yoga for the menopause find that they go on to continue their yoga practice well beyond the time when their menopause symptoms have stopped.