Working through pain can be a beneficial part of treating an osteoarthritis condition such as ankylosing spondylitis, as long as you take the right approach. The ankylosing spondylitis exercise that includes yoga can be extremely useful when you are living with symptoms such as back pain, stiffness and inflammation. There is no cure for osteoarthritis, so yoga and other non-impact exercises are great options. The expression without pain, no gain does not apply here: you do not want to add any pain you are feeling, so you will want to start slowly and adapt the yoga poses to your abilities. People who have a milder disease and do not have significant stiffness can do more yoga poses than someone who has advanced the disease.