Synovial Fluid and Inflamed Joints

Yoga can help this important body fluid keep your joints at their strong and supple best.

By Julie Gudmestad

Because increased synovial fluid production—we see it as swelling—is associated with injury and inflammation, you don't want your yoga practice to stimulate this production. In fact, we teachers should encourage students to practice in such a way that, over the months and years, their joints become healthier and stronger, and that they avoid strain and injury. One of the best ways to avoid joint damage is to teach students to pay attention to any pain in or directly around a joint, and to modify or change the alignment of the pose to eliminate that pain. Pain in or around a joint means one of two things: You are overstretching connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments (which are designed to stabilize joints and will cause a joint to become hypermobile if overstretched); or you are compressing the joint surfaces, which can contribute to arthritis. So "no joint pain" should be your teaching rule. Leave the work on joints to trained health care professionals who know whether, and precisely how, to improve joint mobility without damaging the joint's cartilage or support system.

On the other hand, what should a teacher do if a student arrives at class with an already inflamed joint? A common example is a sprained ankle, which is painful, swollen, hot, and may be red. Ankle ligaments are often violently overstretched by stepping in a hole or slipping off a high heel, but any joint can become inflamed by damage to a ligament or tendon. Common examples are tears, which are often associated with accidents and athletic activities, and overworking a joint beyond its current level of condition. Overworking a joint to the point of inflammation can occur while doing yoga, perhaps by repetitively practicing a pose in incorrect alignment and thereby putting strain on ligaments or tendons. Also, seriously deconditioned or even atrophied shoulder muscles, for example, can easily be overworked by even a few Sun Salutations. And arthritis, of course, provides joint conditions that are easily provoked into inflammation.

How to Respond to Inflammation

The bottom line here is that an inflamed joint should never be pushed, stretched into pain, or worked vigorously, because the risk of increasing or prolonging the inflammation is great. It's much better to train your students to respond to the inflammation in a way that promotes health. Use the example of a sprained ankle to guide your problem solving. A sprained ankle is usually stabilized with a wraparound bandage, brace, or, in severe cases, even a cast. These stabilizers prevent movement, allowing the strained tissues to heal without disturbance. But if, instead, you move and stretch and work an inflamed joint, you'll likely cause repetitive microtrauma, which disrupts the healing process and may actually cause more damage.

So when dealing with inflammation, encourage your student to work vigorously on other parts of the body, and to choose poses that keep the inflamed joint relatively quiet until the pain and swelling have receded significantly. This is not to say you shouldn't move the joint at all: Mild, unforced movements help the healing process by circulating the blood to ligaments, tendons, and muscles, and by circulating synovial fluid to hyaline cartilage. However, if the inflammation or pain is severe, or the problem is showing no improvement or is even getting worse, urge your student to see a health care provider to evaluate the problem, run necessary tests, and prescribe a treatment plan.

Julie Gudmestad is a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher and licensed physical therapist who runs a combined yoga studio and physical therapy practice in Portland, Oregon. She enjoys integrating her Western medical knowledge with the healing powers of yoga to help make the wisdom of yoga accessible to all.

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