A recent AARP article claims that 5 yoga poses are especially effective at combatting bone loss in older adults.
When I first read the title of this article my spidey sense started to tingle.
Don’t get me wrong, I love yoga! I teach a weekly yoga class on Mondays at 6 pm P.T. focused on stretching, gentle strength exercises, balance, and mobility. It’s a great start to your week and the benefits can include:
- stress reduction
- improved sleep
- improved balance
- decreased muscular tightness
- building community
One claim I don’t make about this class is that it will build stronger bones.
While these 5 poses, Warrior II, Tree Pose, Twisted Triangle, Standing Twist, and Hand to Foot, are weight-bearing exercises, is this enough (good) stress for your body to create new bone material?
The AARP article cites this study by Loren Fishman, M.D. medical director of Manhattan Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in New York who claims “unlike running, biking, even weight training, a yoga pose involves holding sustained pressure on the skeletal system”. From 2005 to 2015 Dr Fishman studied 741 people who were already practicing yoga. Their average age was 68, and 83% had lower-than-normal bone density. They submitted DEXA scans of their hips and spines. They were given DVD’s with descriptions of the yoga poses and asked to log their yoga activity online.
Out of the original 741 participants, 227 practiced the routine at least every other day for two years, and 202 of those were women. The DEXA scans they submitted at the end of the study showed increased bone density in the spine and hip. None of the participants reported bone fractures or other injuries caused by doing yoga.
The study, published in 2015 in Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, does not provide conclusive evidence that yoga builds stronger bones.
Less than one-third of the study’s participants adhered to the yoga routine by practicing the poses at least every other day throughout the study, and just 43 submitted complete actual DEXA reports at the beginning and end of the study. “It gives one a reason to be cautiously optimistic, but a more complete study should be done,” says Dr. Marian Hannan, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
So what’s the best possible outcome of this article?
Anything that gets people moving is a net positive!
If you’re not currently exercising, yoga is generally safe way to start.
While these 5 yoga poses may not help build stronger bones, they can improve your balance, lessening the chance of a fall (and the possibility of breaking a bone).
What’s my beef with this article?
It’s not enough.
Say you’re already doing yoga, and are familiar with these exercises, you keep doing them thinking that this exercise modality alone (and these 5 poses) will strengthen your bones.
You do not do any additional strength exercises that have been proven to build stronger bones.
By not educating people on how to properly build bone tissue we’re doing the public a disservice.
What do I recommend?
Do yoga! Stretch, work on your balance and flexibility, calm your mind. Keep up the good work!
And dedicate two days a week to strength training, specifically the exercises outlined in the LIFTMOR study. If you need help getting started give me a call.
Keep your eyes peeled here for my next article about menopause and bone density coming soon…
Anne McCranie is a Vancouver, Washington based personal trainer and licensed massage therapist. She is currently accepting new clients for both in person and zoom sessions.
