Yoga can help increase breath and body awareness, slow your respiratory rate, and promote calm and relieve stress — all of which are beneficial for people who have asthma, says Judi Bar, certified yoga therapist and yoga program manager at Cleveland Clinic Wellness.
While there currently isn’t research that says yoga can definitively control asthma symptoms, studies have shown that yoga can help people with asthma control breathing and reduce stress, which is a common asthma trigger.
One study review looked at the effect of yoga in patients with asthma, finding that yoga “probably leads to small improvements in quality of life and symptoms in people with asthma.”“There can be outside forces, such as allergens and toxins, that may trigger an asthma attack,” says Bar. “While we can’t always necessarily avoid some triggers, we can use yoga to try to generally stay calm and have breath and body awareness, and that may be able to at least take a layer off the severity of the attack, if not help prevent it.”Doing yoga routinely can have a cumulative effect, says Bar. If you begin to feel an asthma attack coming on, you can use breath awareness to slow down and remain calm. During an asthma attack, Bar adds, we use any muscles we can to try to breathe, and as a result, our muscles get very tight; stretching the shoulders, back, side, and breathing muscles routinely is great conditioning for getting those muscles in the habit of relaxing in the event of an asthma attack.“You can do a relaxation pose every day and do one or two of the body stretches daily,” says Bar.
“It won’t take very long.” And best of all, there are secondary benefits of yoga, such as a feeling of peace, increased mobility, better flexibility, and improved balance, says Bar.Simply put, yoga may help provide some asthma relief, and can lead to a host of other health benefits. The key, says Bar, is to find a practice that’s accessible for you and doesn’t cause you anxiety — start slow, and be careful not to push yourself to do anything that is uncomfortable or could lead to strain or injury.Here are some great yoga poses to try for asthma relief:RELATED: How Yoga Benefits Your Health and Well-Being