A biological term, Menopause, is a phase of a woman’s life that naturally comes with aging and this state is an end to the menstrual cycle. This end brings many physical, mental, and emotional symptoms along. This means that the female body has now stopped reproducing as the estrogen hormone production comes to an end. The natural age for this phase is somewhere between 45-55 years. However, this can truly differentiate among individuals due to uncertain factors.
Menopause has 3 stages of its own and all of them show different signs in the body. Therefore, this blog is posted to help those females who are searching for an effective home solution to this problem. We suggest Yoga asanas for menopause phase. Even in Ayurvedic treatment for menopause, doctors suggest yoga.
Once you make this a part of your life, you will never go back to your old routine. For your help, we have selected 9 such asanas that will prove to be beneficial in this long journey of yours.
Menopause Symptoms
There is no doubt with the fact that menopause is a natural aging process that comes and goes in a woman’s life. However, it brings in some really disturbing signs that can affect one health, mood, and life. Let’s check its list:
- Hot flashes
- Irregular periods
- Sleep troubles
- Vaginal problems like dryness & itching
- Mood changes
- Loss of bladder control
- Hair loss
- Headaches
- Joint stiffness
- Weakness
Role of Yoga in Curing Menopause
Why choose Yoga for menopause? Yoga is a tool we can use to understand and manage the typical symptoms of menopause such as stress, physical pain, mood swings, or even trouble sleeping. As a woman transitions through this phase they need to practice different yoga poses to attain relief from different symptoms. For eg., there are some poses for rest & restoration, tension, reenergizing, and others for strength & bone density.
Along with physical challenges, Yoga can effortlessly help with emotional symptoms as well such as stress, anxiety, and overwhelm. Therefore, there are many different ways yoga can be supportive to women going through the menopausal phase or for any other big change that life throws us at.
Suggested Yoga Asanas for Menopause Discomfort
Yoga for menopause offers guidance far beyond just physical yoga. As we have discussed above that it provides us with some unique asanas for every discomfort along with a way of handling it. Now we will learn more about those special 9 asanas that will help females during menopause. We will understand it briefly including its benefits and way of performing each of them.
Downward Dog Pose
In the Sanskrit Language, the name given to the Downward dog pose is Adho Mukha Savasana.
Benefit: one of the most bothersome symptoms that every female patient complains of is brain fog. However, this can be easily managed by performing this asana. This happens as it improves the blood flow and boosts emotional health. Along with this, it is known to relieve one from constant headaches.
Another amazing benefit it holds is it helps stretch the upper back and legs. Hence, improving bone density and muscle health.
Steps to perform:
- Kneel on your hands and knees ensuring your wrists are aligned beneath your shoulder and your knees under your hips
- Extend your arms while uncurling the toes. Then raise your hips and stretch the legs
- Make an inverted V of your body’s posture by hanging your head down and putting the body’s pressure on your palms
- Point your toes straight towards your head and heels touching the floor
- Now slowly transfer the pressure from palms to quadriceps. Hence, going in a resting position.
- Stay in this pose for a few seconds and then slowly release by exhaling
Bound Angle Pose
Bound angle pose is also known as Baddha Konasana.
Benefits: it improves blood circulation around the pelvic region. Hence, also stretching the inner thighs, groin, knees, and hips. It relieves pelvic pain and menstrual discomfort.
Steps to perform:
- Sit on the floor with legs stretched out in the front
- Then bend your knees and bring both the soles of your feet together
- Hold onto the outsides of your feet
- Stretch your spine by sitting tall
- Let your hips relax and open
- Allow your knees to drop toward the floor
- Maintain the pose for 5-10 breaths or as long as it feels comfortable to you
Corpse Pose
The Sanskrit word for corpse pose is Shavasana.
Benefits: the shavasana is mainly performed in the end. This gives a boost to the digestive system and immunity. During menopause, it provides mental relief i.e. reduces stress, anxiety, and sleeplessness.
Steps to perform:
- Lie down on your back with your legs straight and arms relaxed at your sides
- Let your feet fall in a natural resting position and palms facing up
- Close your eyes
- Breathe naturally
- Release each part of your body, from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head
- Rest in this position for a while
- To exit, gently bring your awareness back to your body, wriggle your fingers and toes, and slowly roll over to your side
- Rest for a moment, then find a comfortable seated position
Seated Forward Bend
Pashchimottanasana is the name of the Seated Forward Bend pose in Sanskrit.
Benefits: The benefits this pose holds during menopause include improved appetite, reduced body fatigue, improved sleep, mental health, organ functioning, and a calm nervous system.
Steps to perform:
- Sit on a flat surface and stretch your legs out in front of you
- Inhale and raise your arms straight up by facing your palms to each other
- Exhale and slowly bend forward, holding your toes with your arms
- Keep your knees straight, and if you can't bring your head to your knees without bending your knees, bend them slightly and bring your head down as far as is comfortable
- Inhale to lengthen your spine, and exhale to deepen the forward bend
- Avoid curving or hunching your spine
- In the final position, relax your entire body and breathe deeply
Cat Cow Pose
Sanskrit language holds a unique name for each asana and for the cat-cow pose it is Bitilasana Marjaryasana.
Benefits: it will improve your spine and pelvic region's flexibility. With this gentle stretching, the hormones start to balance inside the body. Thus, increasing the body’s coordination, and organs functioning, and relieving all the mental tension.
Steps to perform:
- Get on all fours, like a cat
- Start to place weight evenly through the hands and legs.
- Lengthen your spine, lift your chest, and arch your back. Your tailbone should lift, and your belly should expand toward the floor
- Draw your navel in toward your spine, and slowly rotate your chin toward your chest
- Repeat the sequence of inhaling to lengthen and exhaling to round
Dolphin Pose
‘Ardha Pincha Mayurasana’ is the synonym in Sanskrit for the dolphin pose.
Benefits: It is a great asana to perform that will relieve menopause symptoms. Some common ones that it deals with are headache, fatigue, back pain, and insomnia, etc.
Steps to perform:
- Again kneel down on your palms and knees
- Keep your palms parallel to shoulders & knees to hips
- Press the forearms and palms firmly onto the floor
- Inhale and gently exhale as you slowly lift the knees up and far from the floor
- If your heels lift up and do not completely touch the ground in initial practice, that’s fine. You will learn with time.
- Lift the sit bones and pull them towards the ceiling.
- Straighten the knees, ensuring your back remains straight
- Stay in the pose for a few seconds
- While coming out of the pose, inhale slowly, and bring the knees back onto the mat
Bridge pose
Setu Bandha Sarvangasana is the name of the bridge pose termed in the Sanskrit language.
Benefits: This completely stretches the back muscles, thus providing them strength and taking away the pain. In addition, it also improves respiratory functioning and blood circulation. Therefore, automatically relieves symptoms related to mental health. You might be shocked to know but it’s a great asana that can deal with chronic diseases like asthma, osteoporosis, sinusitis, high BP, & insomnia.
Steps to perform:
- Lie down on your back and fold your both knees
- Place the feet flat on the floor, keeping it hips width apart
- Keep your arms alongside the body, facing the palms down
- The fingertips should be lightly touching the heels
- Now inhale and lift the hips upward
- Slightly put pressure on your arms and shoulders and lift your chest upwards as well
- Now hold this pose for at least 10-15 seconds. Then release
Child pose
Balasana is the another name that describes child pose.
Benefits: It’s a combo pack that deals with many major symptoms during the menopausal phase. This includes hot flashes, insomnia, stress, back pain, and digestive issues, and also promotes calmness.
Steps to perform:
- Kneel on your yoga mat by sitting on your heels
- Bring your head towards the floor, touching your forehead to the ground
- You can stretch out your arms in the front or keep them alongside the body
- Breathe into your lower back
- Stay in there for atleast 30 seconds for several times
Legs up the wall
Viparita Karani or legs up the wall, both are the same.
Benefits: stress, hot flashes, emotional overwhelm, hormonal imbalance, poor sleep, and physical discomfort - all will be gone after regularly adding Viparita Karani asana to your yoga routine.
Steps to perform:
- Lie down on a flat surface in such a position that your tailbone or hips are as close as possible to the wall
- Now slowly walk your feet up the wall. Keep doing this until your body posture forms an ‘L’ shape with support to the wall
- Make adjustments to your posture until your body feels relaxed
- Stay there for 30 seconds
Other Health Benefits of Yoga in Daily Life
Apart from helping recover from discomforting symptoms of a disease, yoga helps improve the body’s various functions. If we add this to our daily routine it will allow us to prevent the disease beforehand.
- It improves strength, balance, and flexibility.
- It helps with various body pains.
- It can even manage various symptoms of diseases.
- It restores heart health.
- It helps your body to relax and sleep better.
- It brings more energy and brighter moods.
- It can manage your stress effortlessly.
- It promotes better self-care practices.
- It gives the needed boost to the immune power of the body.
The Bottom Line
No one can run away from menopause. It is a biological process that has to happen naturally. However, even while surviving we have options to manage its disturbing symptoms so we can get over it easily. The best option out of all is definitely Ayurveda! It is because, it's the safest and most natural way to deal with this phase of women’s life. Similarly, today’s blog describes all the beneficial yoga asanas for menopause. Practice them regularly and you will surely start to notice some relief within yourself.
