Phase 1 · Two Weeks of Almost Nothing

Part of the 8-Week Supportive Yoga Program After Cancer Treatment

25-Minute Gentle Yoga Sequence After Cancer Treatment

Weeks one and two. Seated and lying down, nothing on the arms, and a long rest at the end.

Treatment ends and the tiredness does not. It is a different kind of tiredness from being short of sleep, and it does not answer to a lie-in. The first two weeks of this program are deliberately small: seated breathing, a gentle turn, the legs supported, and a long rest. Nothing here puts weight through your arms or hands.

25 min · Level 1

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When it helps

For the first two weeks, three times a week, after your primary treatment has finished. Twenty-five minutes. Cushions, a bolster and a strap. For after your primary treatment has finished, not during chemotherapy or radiotherapy. This is supportive care alongside your follow-up, and it is not a cancer treatment: anything new or unexplained goes to your oncology team first. Never in a heated room. If you have lymphoedema or had lymph nodes removed, keep weight off the arms and hands in the poses, and raise the affected arm on cushions during the final rest. Bone metastases, active treatment, immunosuppression, recent surgery or an unclear lymphoedema all need medical clearance before you start.

Fatigue

The best supported outcome in this research. In one review across 11 trials, fatigue improved with a pooled effect of 0.48 against no therapy.

Sleep

The trial this program follows had sleep quality as its primary outcome and improved it, along with reducing sleeping medication use.

Arms and shoulders

Movement without load. That distinction is what makes this safe when lymph nodes have been removed.

Sitting

Twelve minutes seated. Nothing here takes weight through the hands, which matters after any surgery near the armpit.

Sukhasana

4 min

Easy Pose

Sit on a cushion so the hips are above the knees. Hands resting in your lap. Let the breath be whatever it is for a minute, then breathe out a little longer than you breathe in.

A longer out breath than in breath is the simplest way to shift the balance towards settling, and it needs no equipment and no energy.

Learn more about Sukhasana

Dandasana

3 min

Staff Pose

Sitting tall against a wall if that helps. Lift the shoulders, roll them back, let them drop. Slowly, a few times, only as far as feels easy.

Shoulders after surgery and radiotherapy tend to guard. Small movement without load is how range comes back, and forcing it is how it does not.

Learn more about Dandasana

Baddha Konasana

3 min

Butterfly Pose

Soles of the feet together, knees resting on cushions, sitting on a folded blanket.

The hips, with the props holding everything so no muscle has to.

Learn more about Baddha Konasana

Bharadvajasana 1

1 min each side

Bharadvaja's Twist

A gentle seated turn, hands resting rather than pulling. Keep it small, and smaller again if you have bone metastases anywhere in the spine.

Rotation without force. Where bone is involved, end range turning is one of the things to leave alone entirely.

Learn more about Bharadvajasana 1

Lying down

Eleven minutes on your back, with the legs supported and the arms doing nothing at all.

Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

90 sec each side

Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose

On your back, a strap around one foot, knee bent as much as you want. Hold the strap loosely, or loop it and rest your hands.

The back of the leg, with the floor holding everything else. The strap is what keeps this out of your shoulders.

Learn more about Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

Viparita Karani

4 min

Legs Up the Wall

Legs up the wall, or knees bent with the feet on the floor and a cushion under the hips. Both are the pose.

Four minutes with nothing to hold. On a day when everything is expensive, this is the cheapest thing here and it does the most.

Learn more about Viparita Karani

Bananasana

1 min each side

Banana Pose

On your back, feet and shoulders drifting gently towards one side, a long curve.

A side stretch with nothing held, which is useful when one side has been operated on and is quietly shorter.

Learn more about Bananasana

Savasana

5 min

Corpse Pose

Lying flat, covered, cushion under the knees. If you have lymphoedema or had lymph nodes removed, rest the affected arm up on cushions above the level of your heart.

Five minutes, with the arm raised. That last detail comes straight from the one trial that studied this practice in women with lymphoedema.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 1 · Weeks 1 to 2

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Two Weeks of Almost Nothing, the first phase of the 8-Week Supportive Yoga Program After Cancer Treatment. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Three times a week for the first two weeks. If the fatigue is worse for more than a day after a session, do less next time rather than pushing through. On a bad day, the ten-minute evening version instead is a complete way to practise.

The teacher behind this sequence

Gründer & Autor

Manish Rana

Gründer von Asanaverse.de. Manish schreibt über Yoga, Ayurveda und Meditation und verdankt seine tiefe Verbindung zum Yoga seinen indischen Wurzeln. Mit über 1000 Stunden Yoga Alliance Teacher Training gibt er sein Wissen an die Community weiter.

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