Yoga for PMS (Pre-Menstrual Syndrome and Menstrual Pains)
What is PMS?
Premenstrual syndrome is a very common phenomenon among women, affecting around 75% of the women during their lifetime, in their reproductive stage. PMS is characterized by a certain few specific behaviors. These symptoms of premenstrual syndrome include bloating, abdominal cramps, mood swings, depression, irritability and anxiety, especially in the two week period that happens to fall between menses and ovulation.
Yoga for PMS
Several yoga poses have proven to be immensely beneficial in relieving PMS symptoms, both physical and psychological ones. Yoga can help the body and the mind simultaneously, helping seek refuge from stress, anxiety and depression, promoting feelings of calmness and tranquility, alleviating the psychological symptoms of PMS. Furthermore, a relaxed mind and body also leads to alleviation of menstrual pains as well. What could be better? One activity, shooting down two nuisances!
Here are a few yoga poses that can really help you with menstrual pains and premenstrual symptoms. Not only will these poses help you conquer a more relaxed, serene and composed state of mind, but also help you attain a physical state of being that feels light, soulful and healthy.
The Corpse Pose
The corpse pose is a classic and a very popular yoga pose for relaxation in its deepest and purest form. First lie down facing upwards on the floor and relax your body. Make sure that you are lying down in a symmetrical fashion so that all your body parts have the same amount of space distributed amongst each other for relaxation. Now, rotate your arms and your legs one by one and make them fall gently to your sides in a loose relaxed posture. You need to really let loose in this one, far enough to embrace gravity ad let your body melt into the floor you are lying down. You must breathe deeply straight from the abdomen, sinking deeper and succumbing to relaxation more and more with each exhalation.
Throughout this process, your body and mind are freeing themselves. You will feel the stress swimming away, the depression losing height, the energy levels falling short and the pulse rate slowing down, putting the whole system in a blissful state of relaxation. This state of utter relaxation will alleviate all the psychological menstrual symptoms, and also target the physical menstrual symptoms as well.
The Standing Forward Bend
This pose is a standing yoga pose and is highly beneficial in helping with menstrual pain relief! This pose is relatively simple as well. What you need to do is stand straight and hold on to either elbow with the opposite hand, grab on, and just maintain the position while relaxing deep into it. Next, you need to bend forward and let your head fall lose in front of your knees. If you feel the need to let the weight go off the hamstrings a bit, you can always bend your knees a little.
This particular pose is immensely helpful with back pains during PMS. The forward fold helps with the blood circulation in the head, helping with depression, mood swings and anxiety and also releases stress. Assuming this pose also helps with menstrual pains by relaxing the spine, the neck and the back, alleviating any feelings of unease taking over these parts during the premenstrual syndrome. Furthermore, this pose calms the minds and soothes the nerves, which has more of an impact on relaxing the mind and the body from any additional strain put on the two entities due to menstrual pains.
The Cobra Pose
This particular pose is the perfect yoga pose to follow to help with premenstrual syndrome. This pose addresses most of the premenstrual symptoms simultaneously and highly efficiently! The cobra pose is a fantastic exercise for those individuals who suffer from lower back aches. Not only that, the cobra pose also helps strengthen the arms along with decreasing stiffness in the lower back and tightening the chest muscles. However, the most beneficial component of this pose in terms of premenstrual symptoms is how it combats the menstrual irregularities, including those of constipation and uterine pains.
This exercise is fairly simple to practice. Here is what you need to do: Lie down on the floor on your belly and rest your head on your arms. Now, stretch your hands backwards, raise your head up, and let the weight of your body rest on your chest with your hands pushing the chest down. Now, shift the weight on to the belly instead of the chest, move your belly backwards as further as you can as if someone is pulling onto your arms, shifting more and more weight on the belly, and arching the lower back as you do so. Make sure to keep the muscles of the buttocks relaxed throughout this pose. Now that you have assumed the pose, inhale and exhale deeply, remembering to move the chest further up every time you exhale. Tilt your head back and ease your shoulders for better results.
