Bariatric surgery recovery can be made easier with gentle “bariatric yoga.” It’s helping many get healthy. Weight loss surgery recovery isn’t easy, but bariatric yoga can help. Dr. Matthew Cook practiced yoga before he went to medical school and even taught it after he graduated. Later, while working in a hospital and helping coordinate a recovery program for bariatric surgery patients, an idea seemed obvious. “I realized at that point: Hey, I teach yoga and this is where I work,” he said. “I gotta bring ‘em together.” With bariatric yoga, Cook guides recovering weight loss surgery patients through moving and breathing exercises that are simple, but work well. Through this technique, he said, the patient can relieve pain and feel he is doing something to promote health, even immediately after surgery. “When you’ve had surgery, a couple things that happen,” Cook said. “One, the lungs get a little compressed, as a result of the anesthesia. And then there is a tendency to just feel you can’t do anything. And you’re lying in bed and a lot of times, you don’t feel supported. It’s a difficult situation for a lot of patients.