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Arts & Culture

Easy Yoga For Easing Pain

Yoga instructor Peggy Cappy. Cappy’s latest special focuses on easing pain through yoga.
Courtesy of Peter Wrenn
Yoga instructor Peggy Cappy. Cappy’s latest special focuses on easing pain through yoga.

Airs Saturday, March 25, 2017 at 9:30 a.m. & Sunday, March 26 at 7 a.m. on KPBS TV

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Peggy Cappy provides a path to relief for you if you suffer from pain in your muscles or joints.

Joint and muscular aches and pain affect most Americans in varying degrees. They are the major complaint of millions of individuals who suffer from arthritis, but also from people who’ve injured themselves and those who perform jobs that require some form of repetitive action. All joint pain sufferers also share a common observation: the real pain of joint pain is that it is unrelenting. And what’s the cause of this intolerable pain?

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According to yoga expert Peggy Cappy, “It often comes from the inflammation that occurs around the joint, damage to the joint from disease, daily wear and tear of a joint, and muscle strain caused by forceful movements against what are already stiff and painful joints.”

In "Easy Yoga For Easing Pain," Cappy demonstrates how gentle yoga can bring real relief. Cappy bemoans the fact that our lifestyle often fuels the situation.

“It doesn’t help that spicy and fried foods, a sedentary lifestyle (which makes the supporting muscles weak and overburdens the joints) and bad posture all exacerbate our pain,” she says.

She’s also observed that as a result of the increasing tendency of all Americans to be inactive, our bodies get out of balance and there is an uneven or poor flow of energy from head to toe.

The bottom line is that once joints are stiff, they become harder to move through their normal range of motion. This stiffness causes more pain and we’re then hesitant to move — and a vicious cycle ensues. A great first line of defense can be yoga.

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In this new program, Cappy demonstrates how yoga can increase flexibility, reduce muscular aches and pains, and even combat fatigue. There are years of research that confirm that this indeed can be the case with yoga. Slow, controlled physical movement will not only improve blood circulation in the joints and limbs, but can also remove unwanted toxins and other waste products from the body.

As an instructor who walks the walk, Cappy discusses how some of the simplest changes can make a positive and lasting impact on one’s daily life — she is living proof. She also demonstrates some of the easy changes that can be incorporated into a daily routine.

Easy Yoga for Easing Pain Preview