Bursitis, the swelling of the bursa near your joints, can be painful enough to make you want to abandon your yoga practice altogether. While MayoClinic.com notes that the best remedy for bursitis is resting until the swelling subsides, your regular yoga practice can still be beneficial, especially for the knee and shoulder areas, if you modify it accordingly. No poses will make the swelling go down, but a couple might help, Yoga Journal says.
Shoulder Modifications
You don't have to abandon all of your usual yoga poses if you have bursitis. They can still be helpful as long as you avoid those that cause too much pain and modify others that might otherwise prolong recovery from your condition, Yoga Journal notes. If you suffer from bursitis in the shoulder area, it might be too painful to raise your arms over your head, in which case you'll do best to avoid any variations of downward-facing dog, handstands or other poses that lift your arms over your head. You should still be OK with poses that keep your arms parallel to the floor or lower.
Knee Modifications
The same modification theory stands if you're suffering from bursitis in the knee area, Yoga Journal says. If you find leg raises painful, you still can do them as long as you adjust your body accordingly. Keep your knees bent, hold your legs a bit apart during the lifts and keep your legs slightly off the floor when you bring your legs down. Modifying the warrior and triangle poses by slightly turning your foot inward or outward, depending on what feels better for you, also works.
Making Matters Worse
Those suffering from bursitis in the shoulder area often tend to over-compensate to relieve the pain by keeping their back crunched up near the ear, Yoga Journal explains. This not only does nothing to help the bursitis but it also can create new problems from poor form. Pay attention to your shoulder blades when you lift your arms above your head. Move them down, away from your ears as you lift your arms and spread them apart across your back as you move your arms over your head.
Helpful Poses for Shoulders
A couple of poses that gently stretch and lengthen a key shoulder muscle can help shoulder bursitis, Yoga Journal reports. One is cow face pose, or gomukhasana, and the other is eagle pose, garudasana. Both involve stretching a muscle called the supraspinatus, which connects the top of your scapula to the top of your arm bone.
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