Embodyoga & Bone Health
with Dory Pelletier
Embodyoga & Bone Health
with Dory Pelletier
with Dory Pelletier
Embodyoga & Bone Health
Embodyoga uses awareness and internal cues to feel your way into yoga postures with good alignment and integration according to your ability. Yoga can support bone health through spine lengthening, weight-bearing, longer holds for poses and optional light weights. Our asana class will be centered around the 12 Yoga Poses identified by Dr. Loren Fishman to support good bone health with additional poses focusing on balance, stretching and strengthening.
Developed by my teacher and mentor, Patty Townsend, the founder of Yoga Center Amherst. Embodyoga® offers a deep dive into your physical embodiment and an experience of union of body and mind. Dr. Loren Fishman is a researcher, doctor of rehabilitation, 50 year yoga practitioner and creator of the Fishman method of yoga for osteoporosis & osteopenia. His research documented 12 poses for bone strength published in Orthopedic Nursing in 2021. He wrote Yoga for Osteoporosis with Ellen Saltonstall in 2010.
The 12 Poses
Yoga supports bone health by working against gravity, spine lengthening and weight-bearing poses. According to Dr. Fishman, these 12 poses “work by putting pressure on the bones of sufficient magnitude and duration” to impact bone density. With all poses, avoid rounding the spine if you have reduced bone density. The following information comes from a 2023 interview with Dr. Fishman. (thehealthy.com/excercise/yoga/yoga-stronger-bones)