| | Integrative Medicine: Exercises for Heavy Menstrual Flow Anemia | |
Now, tense and relax the following parts of your body in this order: face, shoulders, back, stomach, pelvis, legs, feet, and toes. Hold each part tensed for 15 seconds and then relax your body for 30 seconds before going on to the next part.
Visualize the tense part contracting, becoming tighter and tighter. On relaxing, see the energy flowing into the entire body like a gentle wave, making all the muscles soft and pliable.
Finish the exercise by shaking your hands. Imagine the remaining tension flowing out of your fingertips.
Exercise 3: Joint Flexibility
It is very important that women with heavy menstrual bleeding and anemia maintain full range of motion and flexibility in all the joints of the body to reduce the tendency of muscle tension. The following exercise helps to stretch and release tension in the muscles around the joints. This exercise is similar to the "range-of-motion" sequence that physicians may use when testing a patient for joint limitations such as arthritis produces. The exercises are also thought to stimulate the acupuncture meridians as based on the work of Motoyama, a Japanese researcher. In his book, Theories of the Chakras: Bridge to Higher Consciousness, Motoyama discusses the importance of these exercises in opening the acupuncture meridians.
Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front. Place your hands at your sides.
- Toes: Slowly flex and extend the toes without moving your feet or ankles. Repeat 10 times.
- Ankles: Slowly flex and extend the ankle joints. Repeat 10 times. Separate your legs slightly, then rotate your ankles in each direction 10 times. Be sure to keep your heels on the floor.
- Knees: Still resting in the sitting position, bend the right leg at the knee, bringing the heel near the right buttock. Then lift the right leg off the floor, straightening the right knee. Repeat 10 times. Then do the same exercise with the left leg.
Hold the thigh near the chest with both hands. Rotate your lower leg in a circular motion about the knee 10 times clockwise and then 10 times counterclockwise. Repeat with the left leg.
- Hips: Bend the right leg so that you can place your right foot on the left thigh. Hold the right knee with the right hand and hold the right ankle with the left hand. Then gently move the right knee up and down with the right hand. Repeat with the left leg.
While you are sitting in the same position, rotate the right knee clockwise 10 times and then counterclockwise 10 times. This improves the flexibility of the hip joints. Repeat on the left side.
While sitting, bring the soles of the feet together, bringing the heels close to the body. Using your hands, gently push the knees to the floor and then let them come up again. Repeat 10 times.
- Fingers: Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out in front of you. Lift your arms up to shoulder height, keeping them straight. Open your hands wide. Flex the fingers, closing them over the thumbs to make a fist. Repeat 10 times.
(Excerpted from The Menopause Self Help Book ISBN: 0890875928)
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 | Dr. Susan M. Lark is one of the foremost authorities on women's health issues and is the author of nine books. She has served on the faculty of Stanford University Medical School...more |
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