Yoga For a Strong Skeleton

Yoga For a Strong Skeleton

Ask Several Yogis what motivates their yoga practice, and you’re sure to get a range of responses, from “stress relief” to “spiritual growth”.  What you probably won’t hear is “a strong skeleton”! 

But new research shows that yoga is surprisingly protective when it comes to staving off fractures and helping prevent osteoporosis, a bone-thinning disease that will cause approximately half of women age 50 and older to break a bone.  (Men get osteoporosis too, but 80 percent of sufferers are female, likely because women typically have smaller, thinner bones and because production of estrogen—a female hormone that protects against bone loss—drops off sharply at menopause.)

The hard truth is that by the time you hit the age when your skeleton becomes more brittle, it’s much more challenging (though not impossible) to build protective bone mass.

Which is why the best time to focus on increasing your bone mass reservoir is now, says Loren Fishman, MD, a Columbia University physiatrist specializing in rehabilitative medicine who studied under BKS Iyengar.  Iyengar was one of the earliest students of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who is often referred to as "the father of modern yoga". He has been credited with popularizing yoga, first in India and then around the world.

Ready to be more proactive about protecting your bones?

This three-part plan reveals which yoga poses may be particularly beneficial, regardless of your age, as well as new thinking behind the role of nutrition and high-impact, weight-bearing exercises on bone health. 

Read on for the latest research-backed ways to strengthen your lovely bones!

As a yogi, you’re already protecting your frame in a few major ways.  For starters, each time you practice a pose, you’re potentially building new bone.  Forward bends increase low-velocity vertebral fracture risk. When you hold a pose like Supta Pandangusthasana (Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose) or a twist, you’re opposing one group of muscles against another, like the quadriceps against the hamstrings or the gluteal muscles against the shoulder muscles.  That opposition creates a force that physically stimulates osteoblasts, bone-making cells that initially live on the outside of the bone and turn into osteocytes, which are cells that become embedded within your bone.  You are actually laying down new bone!

Yoga may also help reverse or stall the bone-weakening effects that come with age—which is relatively new thinking in the medical world.  Doctors used to believe that women’s ability to accrue new bone basically ended once they entered menopause and their levels of bone-protective estrogen and progesterone plummeted.  The new research shows that yoga can outweigh the hormonal effects of age!  Fishman’s 2015 study found that 80% of older participants, most of whom had osteoporosis or its precursor, osteopenia, who practiced 12 yoga poses (often modified) a day showed improve bone density in their spine and femurs (see poses to boost bone health below)!

These findings apply to younger women with healthy skeletons, too.  There is strong evidence that young osteoblasts do respond pretty vigorously to the forces generated by muscles, which is likely to put off osteopenia and osteoporosis until later in life—if it were to appear at all. 

Finally, yoga plays a vital role in preventing fractures by building stability and agility.  Yoga improves your physical balance and flexibility, which means you’re less likely to fall and break something.  Equally important, yoga enhances your mental balance too.  It makes you more focused and present.  Alert people are less likely to slip on ice or trip on a staircase.  More surprisingly, yoga’s calming qualities help lower cortisol, a stress hormone that breaks down bone when it’s chronically elevated.  In this way, even passive poses like Savasana (final relaxation pose) and Sukhasana (easy seat pose) can play a role in preventing bone loss! 

Whatever your physical practice, slow and steady wins the race for strength. 

12-Minute Sequence of Poses to Boost Bone Health!

Vrksasana Tree Pose – Stand in Tadasana Mountain Pose.  Bend your right knee and rotate your right thigh outward without turning your pelvis.  Lift your right foot and place it above the ankle or knee of your left leg (but not against the knee itself).  Bring palms in front of your chest.  Do the other side.

Utthita Trikonasana Extended Triangle Pose – From a wide stance, rotate your left leg so your foot and knee turn out 90 degrees.  Lengthen your torso over your left leg.  Place your left hand on your left shin, the floor, or a block.  Stretch your right arm up.  Do the other side.

Virabhadrasana II Warrior Pose II – From a wide stance, rotate your left leg so that your foot and knee turn out 90 degrees.  Bend your left knee over your left heel.  Reach your arms actively out to your sides at shoulder height.  Do the other side.

Utthita Parsvakonasana Extended Side Angle Pose – From Warrior II, lengthen your torso and lower your left forearm onto your left thigh.  Reach your right arm up and over your right ear.  Stretch from your right outer heel through your fingertips.  Do the other side.

Salabasana Locust Pose – Lie face-down on your mat with your arms alongside your torso.  Lift your chest forward and up as you raise your legs and stretch them out behind you.  Lift your upper body and legs without straining, streaming your arms along your torso.

Setu Bandha Sarvangasana Bridge Pose – Lie on your back with knees bent, heels in line with your knees.  Press into your feet as you lift your hips and torso.  With your arms extended, interlace your fingers and come onto your outer shoulders.

Supta Padangusthasana I Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose I – Lie on your back.  Hook a strap around the ball of your left foot; hold an end of the strap in each hand.  Straighten your left leg, drawing it up toward the ceiling without lifting your left sitting bone.  Do the other side.

Supta Padangusthasana II Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose II – From Supta Padangusthasana I, hold both ends of the strap in your right hand.  Keep the left side of your body grounded as you extend your right leg out to the right side and lower it toward the floor.  Do the other side.  \

Savasana Corpse Pose – Lie on your back with legs hip-distance apart, heels under your knees.  Press your shoulder blades into the floor.  Rest your hands on your lower belly.  Stretch each leg out in front and let each foot fall open.  Open each arm, palms turned up.

BONUS MOVES

Twists like Parivritta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose), Marichyasana II (Pose of the Sage), and Ardha Matsyendrasana (Half Lord of the Fishes Pose)—the three remaining poses from Fishman’s study—help stimulate bone growth by gently tugging your spine and hip bones. 

But if you have osteoporosis or are new to yoga, start by practicing seated twists in a chair to avoid overdoing it.  Sit in a chair with your heels under your knees and maintain length in your spine as you gently twist to the right, starting from your low back and moving up your spine.  Keep both sides of your chest open and twist only to the point where you can maintain length in your spine (don’t round your back).  Repeat on other side.  Then, practice the same twist with your legs crossed.

Jaclyn Rebekah Roberts, NBC-HWC, CIHC, E-RYT 500

References: Yoga For Osteoporosis by Loren Fishman, MD