Discover Yoga For Skeletal Health

When we think of the benefits of yoga, we tend to think about increased flexibility and muscle tone. While those are indeed benefits of doing yoga, there is one more area you should know about. A daily routine that includes yoga for skeletal health is becoming a common prescription by yogis and physicians alike.
When we do yoga using correct form and positioning, the poses actually do promote improved posture. People with back and neck issues often think exercise is off limits; on the contrary! Yoga poses are meant to stretch and strengthen the muscles that surround the spine, therefore over time actually straightening crooked or slumped posture. Yoga poses involving stretching of the back (which includes most of them) can literally add to the space between the vertebrae, not only straightening your posture, but adding to your height as well. It is not uncommon to hear a yoga student claim to have grown an inch (or more) taller since they have started practicing yoga on a regular basis.
The same can be said for people with bulging or herniated discs in their neck and/or spine. The back stretching poses, as they create space between the vertebrae can also reduce pressure on the herniated discs. Another way yoga is good for our skeletal health is that with gentle stretching and strengthening exercises, trigger point and sciatica pain is also reduced or even eliminated. The condition called adhesive capsulitis, also known as “frozen shoulder” is a gradual stiffening of the shoulders caused by tightness around the joint capsule. Frozen shoulder immobilizes the shoulder(s), making everyday tasks such as getting dressed very painful. Any activity where the patient has to lift their arms for any reason causes intense pain which leads to a decrease in overall activities including exercise. Yoga, however, has changed all that. The gentle stretching in yoga frees up the “frozen” joint capsule, therefore curing the condition altogether.