Yoga Class for Preventing Osteoporosis and Osteopenia - Yoga in Ireland with John Conroy

Hi there, my name is John. I'm excited and really looking forward to sharing my videos on Yoga Vista. At present in society there's so many challenges going on that sometimes our mind might fester with so much anxiety and trouble and sometimes stillness and calmness of the mountains, of the ocean, of the sea may provide great comfort and solace. I hope you enjoy the scenery and I hope you enjoy the class. Have fun and take care. Bye bye. Hi this is John here. You're very welcome along to Yoga Vista TV. Today's class I'm coming to you from the edge of the Atlantic. On the background here is the Atlantic and I'm standing on a very very popular tourist attraction called the Cliffs of Moher which would be Ireland's second most popular tourist attraction. Attraction annually 1.5 million people to this site here. The Cliffs itself runs from the Scanner village across here over to Doolan on the other side which is roughly about eight to nine kilometers in length. So you can see that the Cliffs in the background, how spectacular they are and their range up to height of 214 meters. So while the class is on I hope you enjoy the views and the spectacular scenery that I'm surrounded with. Today's class is going to benefit all people but we have a special concentration on osteoporosis and osteopenia. So osteoporosis is oftentimes called brittle bones or porous bones. It's basically a reduction in our bone strength. Sometimes people are asymptomatic and don't realize we have osteoporosis until we can unfortunately get a fall or a fracture. The goal of today's class will be to strengthen our legs, our spine, our hips, our wrist area. We're going to take in some chest opening poses to reverse kyphosis to help improve our posture. We have a range of different exercises to improve our flexibility and mobility. So if you have symptoms of osteoporosis it can vary from losing our posture, stoop posture, losing height and neck protruding forward and also low force fracture on wrist, spine and back area. So going to begin and for some of these I'm going to be seated and we're going to begin with some wrist strength exercises. We take the arms out wide, we lengthen away and we roll the wrist forward and take them up overhead and we roll them back down in reverse. We take them down towards the side and take them forward towards the front as we continue to roll those wrists forward and take the palms forward, fingers up and take the fingers back down. Lengthening up, that's good. Taking the force and impact on the wrist area, draw the fingertips close and move towards the side. That's good and we circle forward, circle in reverse and circle back around again and stretch the fingers and come out and back. That's good and we roll back inwards again once more and we take the left hand across the fingertips and draw the fingers back. That's good and swap on the other side, draw the fingers back towards you. Well done and just roll back to the side. We get the elbows in line, draw the elbows back and we get a nice stretch between the shoulders. Take our right hand place across towards our left shoulder and open the arm back, follow the fingers. As we come back to our centre, take that left, gently press against our shoulder and open back to the side. As we come back to our centre once more, again apply slight pressure, open back. Now look the opposite way, so we're looking away from the arm and return back again. Again gently press, open back, look the opposite side and come back to the centre where we began. Take the right hand across, lengthen our arm, turn our hand out to increase the strength in our wrist and open the arm back and follow the fingers as we open towards the side. As we take that arm in and swap on the opposite side, lengthen the arm, turn your hand out, gently press against and open back following those fingers, keeping the arm straight. As we come back in again, as we change once more, turn our hand, gently press back, place our chin towards our chest or our shoulder on the opposite side, begin to breathe in and push the breath back down. Inhale as we look up, exhale as we lower. Our final one, draw the breath in, exhale back down. As we change on the other side, turning the hand outwards, gently pressing against that shoulder and opening back, place the chin towards the chest or shoulder and with inhale look up, exhale lower back down. Draw the breath in as we look upwards, exhale gently down. Final one, inhale as we come upwards and exhale as we lower back down once more. So we're all working on chest opening poses to rehearse kyphosis and to help improve our posture. Keep the elbows in line, draw the arms back, push the breath towards the centre with palms and elbows coming close, inhale open back and wide. Take both thumbs, gently bring up overhead without overextending the arms and pull the elbows down and towards the ribs, straighten up. We draw them back up once more again, turn the palms down. As we exhale, turn the palms up, inhale, bring the palms close and help to lengthen our spine by bringing the palms together. Exhale back down once more, again turn the palms up, take our left hand over across to our right wrist and inhale and lengthen the right arm up and exhale as we stretch out to your left, inhale back to the centre. Exhale as we turn both palms down, turning the palms up, inhale, take your right hand across towards your left wrist and lengthen upwards to help lengthen our spine. Exhale as we stretch out right, lengthening away and draw that breath in and turn the palms downwards. Again, inhale, bring the palms close, lengthen our spine as we reach and exhale back down once more. Last one, inhale as we lengthen and reach, exhale and bring both hands to shoulders and gently roll those shoulders forward and we roll up and back. That's good, just roll up and back nice and gently, well done. Just take your arm overhead, gently down behind your head, hand comes across, gently press on towards your elbow, you can reach the elbow, it's placed towards the back of your hand or your arm and change on the opposite side, hand comes across, gently press down, that's great, well done, So we've opened up with some upper body movement, we're going to stand for the next phase and begin to work on our back area. We're going to use the chair as an aid to help us increase our stretch. So this is one of my favourite stretches in terms of flexibility and in terms of strength. We'll place both hands towards the back of the seat, we'll begin and take the two feet beyond shoulder width, we'll straighten the arms and we'll soften the knees, that's very important. So soften the knees, straighten the arms, lengthen the arms, keep the head in line with those arms, don't let the head lower if we can and hold in position, that's good, well done. And we'll breathe as normal, once we get into poses where we hold, we'll breathe as normal and then we come back upwards again. If you have any issues with shoulders as we lengthen out, keep a slight bend on towards the elbows, that's good, otherwise you can lengthen and straighten the arms, soften those knees and lengthen back. Keep the head in line with the shoulders, we're straightening the spine, key area for the osteos, strengthening the hips, strengthening the arms, shoulders, knees and across the core, that's good, well done. As we return back out once more, as we slowly draw away, lengthening the arms, two feet beyond shoulder width, keep that head in line with the shoulders and hold in position, that's good, breathe as normal, don't hold those or hold the breaths in those positions, that's good, well done. Feel the strength come down into your back, into your shoulders and also as well, it's helping to improve our posture, it's helping the whole alignment in our body. That pose can be done off the kitchen table, if your wrists are fairly strong, you can press both hands in towards the wall as well, good stretch to do in the morning, good stretch in the evening, helping to strengthen the musculature of the spine. We're going to work on the other key area we spoke about, the hip area, take both hands towards the back of your seat and with your right leg, keeping straight, lifting from our hip as we push up and back, that's good, it's really important we take the lift from the hip and keep our legs straight. Now if you haven't got the strength today, even a slight lift up is sufficient, we don't have to lift all the way up but what's important is to tense the hip, lift from the hip, so don't avoid lifting from the lower back, we want to work that hip area, that's good. So we'll move on these, so seven, so heel has been pushed up, leg is straight, toes are pointed down, five, good work, and four, excellent, and three, two, and a one. One of the key areas to provide strength, really good for our posture, really good for our balance, but avoid a lot of hip fractures, keep them on, onwards again, keeping straight, push the heel up, that's good, tense the hip muscle as we raise that leg upwards, keeping those toes pointed down, and we can soften our standing leg as well, soften that slightly, that's good, six, five, four, three, well done, two, and a one. Great job, we're moving well, we're going to combine the upper body and lower body, take your right hand on the seat, lengthen the left arm forward, hand facing towards you, spread on the fingers, and take the right leg up and back, we're lifting from the hip once more, that's good, so keep the leg straight, push the heel upwards, well done, only pushing upwards to what you're comfortable with, that's very important, never get into a stage where you're working on these strength and stretch exercises and they're sore, sore or painful, pull back straight away, that's good, we'll swap on the opposite side, left hand on the seat, lengthen that right arm, and push the left up and back, that's good work, keeping straight, that's so so important, keep that leg nice and straight and push up and back, well done, three, that's good, just get two more, number two, excellent, and our final one, lengthen and push and hold, that one is also really good for scoliosis as well. So leg strength, that was the other area we spoke about at the beginning, it's another one of my favourite, favourite poses, get nice even ground here, we're going to go into the torso squat, we'll start with two feet nice and straight, place both hands to hips and from the hips we'll start to lower those hips down, pushing them back towards our heels, if those knees or hips are aching today, don't press back as deep, even to here is good, draw the belly towards the spine and keep the shoulders back, lean from the hips, that's good, trying to keep the knees in line or back behind behind those toes, keep engaging the core, draw the belly towards the spine and keep focusing forward, keep gazing forward, we're going to help to add strength to that lower back also, on the way down we exhale, inhale up along, great work, exhale going down, excellent, good work, three and two, very good, last one, finish strong, that's it, great job, good power there, well done, we're going to continue on with the leg strength and we have the option this time of combining the arms to give us upper body strength, the first option on this is take hands to hips and we lower and back, we have the strength in the arms, we take those out, as we push the hips down, take the arms forward and open back to the side, so leaning from the hips, lengthen and back, arms wide, stretch between the shoulders, gaze between our palms coming forward, good work, exhale going down, draw the breath in, opening back and wide, push the breath, that's good, again you're only pressing back to a point where you're comfortable, that's good work, well done, we'll keep those going, for three, good job, for two more, for two and our final one then, push downwards and open back and wide, we'll do one last set of those, bring the arms differently on this time, again we're strengthening the upper body by using these, we bring the arms up, as we push the hips downward, gazing between the palms and we draw them back up, if you find the arms, if you find it difficult with the arms, simply leave the hands on the hips and get those legs moving, that's good, draw the belly towards the spine, keep gazing forward, good work, well done, exhale down, inhale up, get three more, for three, good work, and two, that's very very good, get the last one then, push downwards and the last one comes up along, excellent, well done, we're going to stick with the leg strength, we're going to work on two stretches coming up, the first one is going to stretch out all the back area of our legs, our hamstrings, our knees and our calves, we get the two feet straight, place both hands on our back hip and we take the right leg forward, we keep that leg straight, our toes are pointed up and we can gently sit back in the stretch, keep the heel on the ground, keep the toes pointed up and keep the spine long and straight, keep gazing forward, that's good, change on the other side, change once more, important, get the two feet straight if we can first, take the two hands in the back hip, slight bend to our back knee and take the front leg forward, pressing the heel on the ground, the toes are pointing up towards us and we're keeping the spine nice and long, that's good, well done, hold the position, that's great, really important, get a really good stretch out in the back of those hamstrings, we're going to get into hip strength exercise next, you may need the chair for some support, if you do that's perfect, it doesn't lessen the stretch if we use any kind of props, it helps to ensure that you do the exercise correct, so we're going to keep tall and straight, if we need support, one hand to the seat, one hand to hip and take that leg, keep it straight as we move outwards and back in, that's good, we'll engage the core, lengthen the spine, now if we don't need that chair for prop, place the two here and keep straight and back, so keep straight as we move towards the side and back in, good work, four, hinge on the hip and three, keep gazing forward, good work, for two and one more, as we come outwards and one more goes back, change on the other side, keep any support you may need, bring it with you, keep straight, hand to here, hand to your prop if you're using, place that hand on the hip and feel where we're getting that movement, feel where we're getting that strength, again we're providing strength, avoid folds, avoid fractures, provide good strong balance and good strong posture, we don't need the seat, both hands, keep straight, that's good, if someone wants to join me for these two you can, arms out, palms up, five, that's good and four, well done and three, brilliant and two and a one and back we go, great work, we deserve a stretch after that, we've a lot of work done, we're going to take in a hip circle to mobilise the hip and give it a nice stretch, again use the support if you need, length of the spine, tall and straight, take the foot upwards and we circle towards the side, what's really important in these, we move slow, no sudden movements, that's good, well done, take upwards and we change to the other side, take that knee upwards and slowly out, so it's a circle we're making, upwards and roll, great work, get one more, upwards and roll towards the side, good work, just take the hands on the hips, just lift up from the heels and back down, this is a stretch I like to include with all the classes, it's really important for our feet, for our calves, calves are really important, that's good, so we'll inhale going up, exhale down, so we draw the breath in, lift from the heel, now try length of the spine if we can, as we reach up, draw the whole body up, pull the hips up and lengthen up through the crown of our head, lengthen up, that's good, up as tall as we can, well done, as we get four, well done, lift as high or low as you're comfortable, and three, good work, and two, that's great, get one more, as we draw the heels up and lower back down, as we come back in, two feet in line, come back in, we join the hands, we gently draw them upwards as we lengthen up, that's good, and we take it back down, something else we spoke about at the beginning was our balance, so all the work we've been doing all so far, that's helped to increase our bone health and our bone strength, that in turn then is really good for our balance, we need strong bones for good balance, these few poses we work on next are specific to help support our balance, so again use the seat if we need to, we're going to draw the hips up and lengthen the spine upwards, we take hand to hip, hand to seat, and we inhale as we take the foot upwards, exhale down, so pull the hips up, lengthen up to the crown of your head, now if you want to, you can take hand to here, draw the breath in, exhale down, that's good, we get two more, pull the hips up, lengthen up to the crown of your head, and keep gazing forward, get one last one, inhale going upwards, and exhale back down, bring the feet to the other side for support if we need, again hand to seat and hand to hip, lengthen, pull the hips up, inhale as we take the foot upwards, exhale back down, if you want to come from the seat a little better, you can take your hand upwards and on, just little by little, use your fingertips, maintain that good posture, that's good, as we inhale as we take the foot upwards, exhale down, one more, as we inhale coming up, exhale as we lower back down, we're going to challenge ourselves that little bit further with the next few, we're going to combine the arm movements, we'll use the arms in different ways, again we'll use the seat, take the arms out wide, lengthen both arms, take that left foot upwards, inhale come up, and hold, keeping the arms straight, drawing the hips up, gazing forward, good work, and lower back down, as we change on the other side, and if you need any support, take one arm here, take the other arm out, and soften our standing leg, just slightly take some pressure away from that knee area, that's good, keep straight, lengthen away, well done, engage the core, pull the hips up, stretch up to the crown of that head, well done, brilliant, we're moving really good, changing again, take the two arms by your side, palms facing, as that foot comes upwards, we inhale and lengthen the arms forward, gaze between both palms, thumbs pointed up, and to soften that standing leg slightly, great work, now we're changing on the other side, again bring the arms forward, lengthen, take that foot upwards, if we need support we can place hand to our seat, or take the hand off and on as you require, that's great, and lower back down, we're going to continue, we're doing really really good, we'll take the arms forward, as the foot is coming upwards, bring the arms upwards, and lengthen up, reach upwards, that's good, palms facing, well done, engage the core, and we take both back down again then, get one more, again lengthen up, as that foot comes upwards, the arms are coming up, you can leave them here if you like, or challenge further, take them up, palms facing, and lengthen up, draw that core in, reach up towards that sky, reach upwards, that's good, well done, four, three, two, one, and take hands and foot back down nice and gently, we take both palms to centre, that's good, and we'll inhale as we lengthen the spine up, reach up, exhale as we take the arms out towards the side, for two more, draw the breath in as we lengthen and reach, exhale towards the side, last one, inhale and lengthen and reach, and exhale away towards the side, going to get in warrior one, I'm going to leave the seat on the far side in case we need it, we take the front foot forward and we'll place our knee roughly in line with the mid part of our foot, our back leg, keep straight, our foot is angled out, press down into our back heel, tense the back hip, and now both hips are facing forward, we've got really really good alignment, both arms either side with palms facing and we'll begin to draw the breath in as we take the arms up, lengthening up, reaching up, keep the shoulders nice and relaxed, if your shoulders don't feel up to it today, just take the arms out wide, just draw them away, that takes away a lot of the pressure from the shoulder area, and from here we can gaze forward or we can look upwards between both hands if you like, I'm going to look forward, if I look upwards the sun is in my eyes, that's good, engage the core and hold four, three, two, and a one, good work, we'll change on the other side, again, hope you're getting that view in, quite spectacular this evening, it's just a beautiful beautiful evening, as we change on the other side, again we get that front knee in line again, hips are facing forward, press down into the back heel, foot is angled, arms either side with palms facing and draw the breath in as we take the arms upwards and continue with palms facing and lengthen upwards, keep the shoulders relaxed, again if you have any shoulders that are a little bit tight, just open them wide like that, it's perfect, and we can glance up if you feel up to it or keep gazing forward and breathe as normal, we don't want to hold our breaths in any of those poses where we hold, are we holding the weight, that's good work, excellent, hold for a little bit longer, draw strength to your arms, your shoulders, your legs, your core, help improving our balance and strengthening those hips, that's good, brilliant all-round strength, that's great, bring it back to centre and take the breath in, exhale out, palms away, draw the breath in, bringing the palms close, exhale as we lower back down, final one, palms away, inhale, follow the palms if you like and lengthen the spine, exhale, back we go, that's the last pose for this class and again I hope you're enjoying all the beautiful views that are here in the background and the different sounds that I hear from all the different birds, so hope you enjoy the class and look forward again to seeing you soon, so until then, take care, bye