6 Beneficial Yoga Poses for Osteoporosis

Yoga can be an excellent option to improve your osteoporosis. It can help alleviate symptoms and reduce the likelihood of complications related to poor bone condition. Yoga may also be beneficial in maintaining bone density following menopause.

Yoga poses that involve weight-bearing can increase strength, alleviate discomfort, and promote good posture. Additionally, they improve flexibility, stability, and agility. These advantages facilitate daily movement, enhance coordination, and lower the danger of falling.

Yoga Poses That Can Help Combat Osteoporosis

Yoga can stimulate halt or reduce bone loss in osteoporosis. It also helps increase your mobility, range of motion, and balance—lowering your risk of injury or falls.

Yoga is also a great way to calm down, which lowers the levels of cortisol, a hormone that breaks down bone when it is chronically elevated.

1. Utthita Trikonasana

This pose offers multiple benefits such as increased stability and hip-opening. It also opens your shoulders and reduces stress. By stretching your spine it helps fight osteoporosis by preventing low back pain.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose:

• Start off by standing in front of the mat, then place your left foot forward and turn to face the long side of the mat.
• Turn your right foot and knee out approximately 90 degrees or little less.
• Stretch your torso across your left leg.
• Place the left hand on the shin, the ground, or a block.
• Extend your right arm upward.

2. Virabhadrasana II

This yoga pose serves to strengthen your shoulders, arms, legs, ankles, and back. It opens up your hips, chest and lungs and improves focus, balance, and stability. The stretching in this pose can gently massage the supporting structures to combat osteoporosis-related stiffness.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose to combat osteoporosis:

• From a standing position, step the left foot back and slant the toes slightly outward.
• Turn the left hip back so the body is facing the side.
• Raise the right arm forward and the left arm back until they are parallel to the floor, palms facing down.
• Bend the right knee slowly until it is precisely above the right ankle.
• Never extend your knee beyond your ankle.
• Equally distribute your weight between both feet and extend your spine.
• Spread your chest wide and extend out with the fingertips of both hands.
• Concentrate your attention on your middle finger.
• Maintain the posture for up to 1 minute.
• Repeat on the opposite side.

3. Utthita Parsvakonasana

This pose stretches many parts of the body at once, including your legs, knees, ankles, groin, spine, waist, and shoulders. The gentle outward stretch massages the supporting structure of the bones and fights osteoporosis-related pain.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose:

• You can step into this pose from the Warrior II pose.
• Lengthen your torso from Warrior II and lower your left forearm onto your left thigh. Extend your right arm over your right ear.
• Stretch from the outside of your right heel to your fingertips.

4. Supta Padangusthasana 1

This is one of the best poses to relieve lower back pain. It also stretches your hamstrings safely without putting much stress on your vertebrae.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose to combat osteoporosis:

• Lay down on your back.
• Attach a strap to the ball of the left foot.
• Hold each end of the strap with your hands.
• Without lifting your left sitting bone, extend your left leg toward the ceiling while keeping your left sitting bone in place.
• Take many deep breaths here. Change sides.

5. Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

This asana improves blood circulation, relieves stress, and calms down your brain and central nervous system. It strengthens your back, glutes, and hamstrings.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose:

• Lay down on your back with bent knees and heels in line with the knees.
• While pressing into your feet, raise your hips and torso.
• With your arms extended, intertwine your fingers and position yourself on your outer shoulders.

6. Vriksasana

The Vriksasana is one of the best yoga poses to combat osteoporosis. It strengthens the legs and opens the hips. It improves neuromascular coordination and helps with balance and endurance.

Here's how you can perform this yoga pose:

• Stand in Tadasana (Mountain Pose).
• Without rotating the pelvis, flex the right knee and rotate the right thigh outward.
• Raise your right foot and position it above your left leg's ankle or knee (but not against your knee).
• Place your palms in front of your chest.
• Slowly lift your arms over your head.
• Breathe normally and look ahead.
• Now gently bring your hands down in front of chest.
• Lower your right leg and stand erect. Repeat with the other leg.

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Takeaway

Yoga promotes muscular and bone flexibility. The yoga asanas discussed here will greatly improve stability. Further, practicing these poses regularly eases pain and minimizes injuries from falls.

Although weight-bearing yoga poses are useful, some precautions are required. Learn them from a trained professional to avoid strain due to wrong alignment. Your teacher can also suggest modifications to suit your physical condition, especially if you have pain in the joints.