Did you know that consistent yoga practice provides many health benefits, especially for anyone suffering from chronic pain? Studies have found that yoga can prevent the changes that chronic pain causes in the structure of the brain. These changes are linked to depression, anxiety, and brain fog.

Catherine Bushnell, PhD, a director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, said, “Practicing yoga has the opposite effect on the brain as does chronic pain.” Bushnell also reported that ongoing yoga practice can increase levels of pain tolerance, leading to a decrease in chronic pain. Brain images of someone suffering from chronic pain revealed that it causes changes to occur to the brain's volume of gray matter and disturbs the connections of the white matter. New brain images performed on people who had been practicing yoga for a period of time, showed that yoga actually bulks up gray matter and strengthens the connections of white matter.

Yoga is a gentle exercise that helps you build strength and flexibility. It is also an activity that is widely available. You can find a yoga class in many local communities, gyms, or YMCA organizations. If you aren't comfortable with public classes, then you can hire a personal trainer, find online classes, or purchase instructional DVDs. Yoga does not require expensive equipment. The only thing recommended for yoga practice is comfy clothes and a yoga mat to help you stay steady while performing poses.

To learn about other health benefits from yoga go ahead and watch the video!

There is a misconception that exercise causes pain, but actually, the issue of pain is often rooted in a lack of flexibility. Flexibility is the mobility of joints in order to achieve their full range of motion, as well as the muscles’ ability to move around the joints freely. However, when we lack this essential tool, we are sending misinformation to our body about how to move. Our bodies’ are capable of adapting to this limited range of motion, but over time it can lead to compromised body positions. Hence, more pain. In other words, flexibility is the mechanism that allows your body to move without restriction. When restriction is present, pain occurs. This is similar to our joints’ reaction to inflammation, stiffness, and pain. Now, what if we could combat this stiffness and reduce pain just by stretching every day? Well, you can! Perry Fine, MD, a board member at the American Pain Foundation says, “Everybody can do something.” She explains how exercise not only reduces one’s perception of pain but also helps overcome limited functioning. There’s this trend of- get moving, feel better. Now you don’t necessarily need to go to a gym to reap these benefits.

The prescription: Get into a nice, comfortable stretch. Hold it for 15-30 seconds. Breathe Deeply. Rinse. Repeat.

Here are some exercises that play a major role in increasing flexibility and that anyone can do anywhere:

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Are you a runner? If so, have you heard that implementing strength training into your routine can benefit your performance in several ways?

I will name just a few of the improvements that our latest article discusses: cardiovascular benefits, better endurance, and improved neuromuscular coordination, etc.

As a bonus, we also included an amazing list of 6 strengthening exercises in the article.

To check out the Benefits of Strength Training for Runners, (Click Here)

You can check out our articles and infographics to learn a multitude of ways to start relieving your pain naturally!

At Real Time Pain Relief, we not only care about the quality ingredients that go into each and every one of our products – but also about the people who buy them. We hope this blog, and the articles posted on it, become a valued resource for your own personal journey to better health. We know natural products that reduce your pain at the source are important to you, and for more than 17 years, our Real Time Pain Relief rub-on has been providing fast acting, targeted pain relief with natural ingredients to thousands of satisfied customers. From the useful information on this blog to our high-quality natural products, we hope you become one of the thousands of customers telling us they “Enjoy Living Again!”

It’s Fall, which means that you may find yourself reaching for the cinnamon a little more often than you were a few months ago. What is it about the smell of cinnamon when the leaves start changing and falling?

Despite the warmth that it makes you feel during this time, did you know that cinnamon has numerous health benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties? Researchers have found enough benefits that it might be worth using cinnamon in your diet all throughout the year.

Click Here to Continue Reading about the Anti-Inflammatory Health Benefits of Cinnamon

To Learn about How to Eat to Reduce Arthritis Pain, (Click Here)

You can check out our articles and tips to learn a multitude of ways to start relieving your pain naturally!

This image is used courtesy of Steven Depolo from Flickr. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/. No changes have been made to this image.