I have a student who has Fibromyalgia and has been practicing yoga for many years. She has been benefitting greatly from the joint freeing series and attends class regularly. Lately she has decribed a rather consistent pain in her achilles heel or tendon. When we do ankle flexion and extension, she says that feels good. She said that in the past when she went to physcial therapy she did some seated forward bends, using a towel to pull her feet towards her. So we did some gentle forward bends together, using a strap and focusing on lenghtening/stretching the calves down to the heel- and that seemed to help. Are there any specific movements to help with this pain? I know that you had recommended rest but this seems to be chronic in nature. Any thoughts?
In my opinion (I am no authority), for Fibromyalgia (and many other conditions) it is more useful to look at techniques to address the mind. Treating the body is treating the symptoms, not the cause. I strongly suggest reading John E. Sarno’s “Mindbody Prescription.” For a summary of his ideas (geared more towards “RSI”), take a look at this document: http://www.rsi.deas.harvard.edu/handout.doc
I suffered for years before I discovered Sarno’s book and now I am pretty much pain-free.
I have also found parallels in Yoga with what Sarno is saying, he just presents it in a very scientific and logical way that is easy to grasp and understand.
Hope this helps…