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Exploring How Yoga Supports Stronger Bones, Injury Prevention, and Confident Aging
Yoga has played a profound role in my own life and healing journey. In fact, my very first yoga teacher back in 2009 was Jules Mitchell — and she’s my guest in this episode of Stronger Bones Lifestyle. Jules is now a leading yoga educator, author, and biomechanics specialist with a Master’s degree in exercise science.
We dive into yoga, stretching, bone health, and why finding what’s right for your body is so important, especially when living with osteoporosis or osteopenia. With so much conflicting information out there, this episode brings clarity and confidence.
What Does Stretching Really Mean?
Stretching is often misunderstood. Jules explains that “stretching” can mean different things depending on the context:
- Flexibility exercises: moving toward end range of motion.
- Mechanical tension: applying load or stress to muscles, connective tissue, and bones — not just about flexibility.
For bone health, it’s this mechanical tension that matters. Whether it comes from yoga postures, resistance training, or even heel drops, your tissues need to be loaded in different ways to adapt and get stronger.
The Concept of Optimal Loading
One of the most powerful takeaways from our conversation was Jules’ explanation of optimal loading — the sweet spot for safely building bone and muscle strength.
Optimal loading involves three key elements:
- Specificity – Targeting the specific area you want to strengthen (spine, hips, wrists, etc.).
- Variability – Mixing up direction, duration, frequency, and rate of loading so bones don’t get “bored.”
- Progression – Gradually increasing challenge in a way that respects your current capacity.
Injury often happens when we do too much, too soon. Instead, yoga teaches us how to listen to our bodies and progress safely.
Yoga’s Unique Role in Bone Health
Unlike a gym workout, yoga isn’t about lifting the heaviest weight or hitting a number of reps. Yoga offers something equally — if not more — valuable:
- Body awareness (interoception): Learning to listen to the “yes” or “no” signals from your body.
- Confidence and autonomy: Gaining the ability to choose what feels safe and effective for you.
- Variability in movement: Exploring positions and directions that aren’t part of daily life (like Warrior II or side planks).
- Psychosocial benefits: Community, stress reduction, and freedom from suffering — all of which play a huge role in bone health.
Injury Prevention and the Bio-Psycho-Social Model
Jules also highlighted the bio-psycho-social model of injury:
- Biological factors: tissue health, loading, and progression.
- Psychological factors: fear, confidence, beliefs about movement.
- Social factors: support systems, community, and guidance.
Yoga addresses all three. It gives you tools to manage stress, move with awareness, and connect with others — powerful elements that keep you resilient as you age.
Final Thoughts: Keep Doing Yoga
Whether you’re brand new to yoga or a seasoned practitioner, Jules’ advice is simple: Keep doing yoga. It may not replace strength training or other forms of exercise, but it doesn’t need to. Yoga brings unique benefits that extend far beyond flexibility.
Most importantly, yoga teaches you how to listen to your body, progress safely, and cultivate the confidence to move through life with strength and grace.
Learn more about Jules Mitchell → https://www.julesmitchell.com
Podcast Subscribe Links - Reversing Osteoporosis
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Oxalates, also known as oxalic acid, are naturally occurring compounds found in many plants, vegetables, and fruits. They are part of a plant’s defense mechanism against predators and can be found in high concentrations in foods like spinach, rhubarb, beets, nuts, chocolate, tea, and certain beans.
Regarding bone health, oxalates can bind to minerals such as calcium in the gut, forming calcium oxalate. This compound is not easily absorbed by the body, meaning the calcium that could have been utilized for bone strengthening is instead excreted. This process can potentially lead to lower calcium availability for bone health, which can be particularly concerning for individuals at risk of osteoporosis or other bone-related issues.
However, for most women, dietary oxalates do not pose a significant threat to bone health, especially if their diet is balanced with enough calcium and they do not have a history of kidney stones.
Your gut is crucial for stronger bones for several reasons:
- Nutrient Absorption: The gut is where most nutrient absorption occurs. For bones to be healthy and strong, they need a variety of nutrients, particularly calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and vitamin D. A healthy gut efficiently absorbs these essential nutrients from your diet and facilitates their transportation to the bones.
- Gut Microbiome and Bone Health: Research has shown that the gut microbiome (the community of bacteria living in your intestines) can influence bone density. Certain gut bacteria help in producing short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which have been shown to promote bone health. SCFAs can enhance the absorption of minerals necessary for bone strength and play a role in reducing inflammation, which can negatively affect bone health.
- Hormone Regulation: The gut helps regulate hormones that are involved in bone metabolism, including insulin, thyroid hormones, and sex hormones like estrogen. For example, estrogen is vital for bone density, and gut health can influence estrogen levels through the enterohepatic circulation, where estrogens are processed in the liver and intestines.
- Reducing Inflammation: Chronic inflammation, which can stem from poor gut health, is linked to many conditions that compromise bone strength, such as osteoporosis. A healthy gut helps to reduce systemic inflammation, protecting bones from inflammatory damage.
- Immune System Modulation: The majority of the immune system is located in the gut. An imbalance in the immune system can lead to autoimmune conditions, some of which affect the bones. Maintaining gut health helps to ensure the immune system works correctly, protecting against autoimmune reactions that could impact bone health.
In essence, maintaining a healthy gut contributes significantly to stronger bones by ensuring the effective absorption of vital nutrients, regulating hormones, reducing inflammation, and supporting a healthy immune system. Therefore, a diet rich in bone-healthy nutrients, prebiotics, and probiotics, along with lifestyle factors that promote gut health, is key to maintaining strong bones.