Good to the Bone

Whether you're 17 or 70, now is the time to protect yourself from osteoporosis. Weight-bearing yoga poses can help tone your bones.

By Linda Sparrowe

Once you realize that you're out of danger, you begin to calm down and your system returns to normal. Unfortunately, those who constantly feel the threat of external stressors don't give their systems a chance to return to normal. Their adrenal glands become exhausted from constantly pumping adrenaline into the system; the digestive and immune systems remain sluggish. A consistent yoga practice goes a long way toward mitigating the effects of the fight-or-flight response by giving your body the opportunity to rest completely.

But yoga does even more than that. According to physician and yoga expert Mary Schatz, M.D., yoga can stimulate the bones to retain calcium, provided the body gets enough calcium in the first place. It does this through weight-bearing poses (like arm balances, inversions, and standing poses) that affect the whole spine, arms, shoulders, elbows, legs, knees, ankles, and feet, while encouraging full range of motion. B.K.S. Iyengar, master of yoga's therapeutic applications, explains the benefits of yoga by means of what he calls its "squeezing and soaking" actions. He contends that through the process of squeezing out the old, stale blood or lymphatic fluids and soaking the area with fresh, oxygenated blood or fluids, yoga helps the body to utilize the nutrients it needs.

Inversions offer a perfect example of this phenomenon, particularly Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand) and Halasana (Plow Pose). These poses, according to Iyengar, regulate the thyroid and parathyroid glands (critical for metabolism) located in the neck, by creating a "chin lock" that squeezes stale blood from the area. As we come out of the pose and release the lock, the neck region is bathed in fresh, oxygenated blood. Iyengar also teaches that forward bends quiet the adrenals, and backbends energize them. Twists like Parivrtta Trikonasana (Revolved Triangle Pose), he says, are equally effective for regulating the adrenal glands, which we rely on to provide adequate amounts of estrogen and androgen for healthy bones.

A consistent yoga practice can give us confidence and stability as we move through the world. Many older people experience falls because they lose confidence in their ability to move properly; others suffer from poor eyesight, weakened muscles (often from lack of use), poor posture, or arthritis. Yoga can improve posture and coordination, strengthen muscles, increase flexibility, and create balance.

GOOD POSTURE. Good posture is critical to keeping your spine healthy, strong, and flexible. Yoga, particularly standing and seated poses, can help. Schatz points out that when a woman suffers from osteoporosis, her vertebrae weaken and become vulnerable to collapse. If she has poor posture on top of a weakened spine, the likelihood of vertebral fracture increases. If the head sits forward on the shoulders, the weight is not evenly distributed along the spine. Instead, the fronts of the thoracic vertebrae receive the majority of the weight and are prone to stress fractures.

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