Are you ready for today’s Yoga Vitamin?

For the past few weeks, I have been providing an assortment of Yoga Vitamins – sequences of yoga postures and breathing techniques to nourish your body, mind and spirit. To be the most effective, a daily yoga vitamin should consist of six essential ingredients: centering & opening positions, standing & focus poses and inversion & relaxation postures.

This week I will give you the “prescription” for a healthy bone sequence. This is an enriching yoga vitamin – one that targets the joints and moves the spine in all directions to combat osteoporosis and arthritis.

 Yoga Healthy Bones Vitamin

1. Centering & Breath Awareness: Start with a Supine Full Body Stretch to lengthen the muscles. Incorporate Bananasana to stretch the spine and breathing muscles.
2. Opening Poses: Down Dog and Plank (repeating this set of poses is a great for upper body strength and linking movement with breath). Then, proceed to Side Plank and Reverse Plank to focus on arm bones.
3. Standing Poses: Warrior II and Side Angle for leg bones.
4. Focus Pose: Hero and Cow Face Pose for hip joints and seated twists for spinal rotation.
5. Inversion: Practice Forward Bend to keep the legs bearing weight. But support the head with a chair to release more fully.
6. Restorative Pose: Savasana with the lower legs resting on a chair to ground and balance the sacrum. End in a seated posture and practice extending your exhalations.

As promised, here is a helpful set of supplements for you to pick and choose from. These extras will, hopefully, boost your daily practice and give you added support for the day!

Mantra: Om = Yoga’s universal sound and the root of all mantras. The vibration of which moves from the pelvis through the spine to the crown of your head.

Mudra: Prithivi Mudra or the earth mudra for stability and nourishment.

Props: This sequence of poses may benefit from the use of blocks to support a comfortable seat and assist with the standing postures.

Essential Oils: In general, any woodsy oil such as cedar, fir or pine will connect to the bones. Wintergreen, lemon and Rocky Mountain Oil’s Joint Support help to ease bone bruises or joint weaknesses.

Music: A great artist for grounding is Anugama.

If you want to check out another Daily Yoga Vitamin prescription, just click on last week’s post.

And if you have anything else to add, I’d love you hear your comments!