Strengthen your bones by toning your muscles
Our bones are truly remarkable in their composition. They have the tensile strength of steel, yet they also possess elasticity that enables them to bend slightly in response to external stressors. They are strong yet yielding. The bones are very adaptable, and their shapes and density reflect the forces applied to them. Your muscles are attached to your bones. As your muscles become more powerful, they pull harder on your bones. Your bones become stronger to withstand that pull. Heavily stressed bones become thicker and denser, while bones that are not subjected to ordinary stresses become thinner and more brittle. That is why we need to strengthen our muscles to make our bones stronger, too.
In this practice, we emphasize muscle strengthening by holding poses for several breaths. We mainly focus on the muscles that move and support the skeleton areas most vulnerable to loss of bone density: the hips and the spine. Research shows that you have to maintain the muscular contraction for at least eight seconds to have an effect on bone. So take your time, breathe deep, and focus on maintaining the muscular contraction for as long as you can. Remember that the stresses applied to bones during physical activity are essential to maintaining bone strength and bone mass. What you don’t use, you lose.
This practice is appropriate for people with osteopenia and the early stages of osteoporosis. Give it a try and see how it feels!
Practice sequence
Your body consists of about 37 trillion cells; each of those cells knows exactly what to do to keep you alive and healthy.
