Best Yoga Moves for Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing spondylitis is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease that causes pain and stiffness and is often accompanied by poor sleep, fatigue, stress, anxiety, and depression. While drug treatment is an important component of relieving AS symptoms, exercise, including mind-body interventions like yoga, is also an important part of the treatment picture. Regular physical movement helps you maintain fitness, flexibility, and good posture while decreasing joint pain.

Yoga, an ancient Indian system of well-being that has become extremely popular in Western countries, may be particularly helpful for people with AS. The practice of yoga encompasses physical poses, breathing exercises, and meditation that, done regularly, help many people gain physical strength and flexibility, improve their balance, and also feel more relaxed and better able to manage stress and anxiety.

While yoga is safe for most healthy individuals, some poses are better avoided by those with osteoporosis, a common complication of ankylosing spondylitis. Certain eye conditions, severe balance problems, and uncontrolled high blood pressure also make certain yoga poses unsafe.

To make sure your yoga practice helps and doesn't harm your body, speak to your doctor before you start about any limitations you may need to observe.

There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of yoga poses and infinite ways to combine them. But you can start reaping the benefits of a yoga practice by learning to do just a few poses properly, and listening to your body as you do them.

You will likely find that some poses feel better than others. If a yoga pose causes pain or other significant discomfort, stop doing it. You may want to try it again at a later date, or you might just decide that pose isn't for you.

The following yoga poses have been selected because they target areas of stiffness commonly encountered by those with ankylosing spondylitis. Be sure to read the description and watch the accompanying videos, narrated by physical therapist Cara Ann Senicola of the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, to understand how to do each pose.