Yoga and Skeletal System,reviving bone health

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Yoga and Skeletal system- The Interdependence

In order to bring a clear understanding of yoga and skeletal system, it is crucial to know the harmful side effects of the digital age on our overall bone health.

When we switch from a physical model of working to the digital mode, our body responds differently. Ignoring our body stress signals may emerge in the form of a disease and distress. Peeping into a fraction of my life story will explain the things more clearly.

Being Ambitious and Competent

I am a happy and satisfied human being normally. You may ask how come? Are you very smart and competent? Or you have all your ambitions fulfilled and wishes granted? My reply is a firm NO.

I can explain in a few words that you can believe. The very first thing I did to remain in peace was to withdraw myself from any kind of rat-race in my workplace. To say in a more simple way is that I stopped thinking to be superior than my colleagues. So I remained out of my boss’ GOOD LIST.

Also, I avoided working extra hours in order to save some quality time for my family, at the cost of losing some remuneration.

Sounds so unconvincing? Yes, not everyone has the liberty to live like this. It is possible only when you have good financial support and a mindset which can set your ways to live your life. This definitely makes you believe in “Happiness comes from within”.

Life is unpredictable

So while living with all the inner happiness with my perspectives, life took an unexpected turn. Roughly four years back due to the recession and some unknown reasons we had to face severe salary cuts.

Suddenly I lost all my perception of inner happiness!! This made me realize that those rejected remunerations were not needed because I had handsome earnings. My tranquillity with myself lost the sight.

Also the opportunity of earning extra remunerations from working extra hours vanished.

“The problem has many companions and always approaches you with all of them”.

So what should I do now in order to achieve my earlier tranquillity? Do I have some talent which could earn me money to meet out losses from the salary cuts?

After a lot of trials and errors reply came to me was online teaching and problem-solving assignments. It was a nice, fulfilling, and money- yielding job. So I went to Physics lab simulations with ‘Colorado’ and solving maths assignments.

All this made me sit in front of my laptop for 5 to 6 hrs a day. I had two results. First was a decent earning, a pleasant feeling and another was a horrible experience.

The body always signals overuse

It all happened when I was about to complete a very long Maths assignment. I felt severe pain in my back. It was near around the intensity of damaging a bone or muscles. Something terrible happened to me I thought. My this fear had a quick confirmation of a severe headache and head spinning. There was a feeling of numbness in my arms and limbs. Even balancing myself felt a tough task. An obvious visit to the doctor resulted that I was a patient of  *Cervical Spondylitis. These were the **Side Effects Of Digital Age. And the cure was physiotherapy and medication.

The conclusions of my story are:

• It is not bad to be ambitious.
• It is not bad to have extra talent.
• And, It is very good to engage in many ways of earning extra money.
• But, It is too bad to make your body work extra without proper nourishment and relevant form of exercise.
• Prolonged seating in one posture in front of my laptop resulted in bone-related serious health issues.
• If I had an in-depth knowledge of my body and of the skeleton system it was hard to abuse it.

Our Skeletal System: Bonafide Bones

Our skeletal system is a series of long and short bones connected to each other by *joints. The skeletal system defines our body structure.

It also supports the body movements in combination with the Muscular system and plays an important role in protecting our soft, delicate and very important internal organs.
This system has approximately 300 bones at the beginning which remain around 206 after reconstructions and joining. Bones are very crucial body element because the Blood Cells are produced in the bone marrow.

Bones are also the storehouse of important minerals like calcium and phosphorous. They also release hormones that help to regulate our blood sugar level.
Bones are hard from outside and soft in inside. The soft part is porous. Bones are living tissues like that of other body tissues. These tissues are growing and reshaping much faster in a young body.

This process depends majorly on individual lifestyle, i.e. on the nutritional intakes, physical activities, stress level, and relaxation patterns.

Joints:

Let us know our joints in detail. Our skeleton joints are majorly classified as-
1.Synovial Joints: These joints have cartilage and some fluids at the end of the bone. These fluids lubricate the joints and prevent them from the friction. Synovial joints are named after their name and nature of the operation, viz

• Hinge Joints(knee, elbow): These joints ensure180 degrees of movement between the joining bones, which is analogous to a hinged door! having just a single direction movement.
• Ball and socket joints(shoulder, hips, wrists): These joints ensure 360 degrees of rotation between the joining bones, which is analogous to the rotation of a ball on a socket!

2.Saddle Joints: These joints are found in thumbs, middle ear.
3. Fibrous Joints: These joints have no fluids and bones have solid tissues. Our pelvis and spine have these joints.

• RELATED: THE HUMAN BODY IS TRULY A MIRACLE

We have a wonderful body which is clever and a miracle as well. Our bones charge and discharge according to the weight and response to the “weight and efforts” they bear.

So if we are a very active person doing our daily chores and follow some exercise and body relaxation techniques, complemented with nutritious food, our body and bones will be in good condition. With all this, we are helping our bones and joints and resulting in increased bone density and flexibility.

On the other hand, if we have a sedentary lifestyle which means less physical movements, we are making our bones to suffer badly.
This can be a result of a serious injury causing restrictions in movements of a single body part or the whole body itself. This will again result in depleted bone density.

Yoga And Bone Health

Yoga is recommended in all the situations, in recovery from an injury and regain bone strength-gentle, restorative yoga poses should be considered first. Gradually more challenging one can be switched to.

Yogasnas works quite differently from the high impact exercises like jogging, aerobics, and weight training. If not supervised properly may cause harm to joints and contribute to bone fracture.

Yoga, on the other hand, improves the joints health by stimulating the release of lubricating fluids thus reducing the frictional pain and the effects causing tears and wears responsible for osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

A thoughtfully designed yoga program, consisting of various yoga poses, applies bone strengthening body weight to tone and strengthen the bones in the hands and wrists, arms, spine, neck, head, and feet.
Yoga poses should be adapted and modified within the limit to suit all age groups and body structure.

Stress and bone health

Unavoidable stress may be a cause of our bone-decay. A prolonged stressed body releases a hormone called adrenaline, causing depletion of calcium from our bones hence making them more brittle and prone to osteoporosis.

Body posture and skeletal system

one common problem related to our lifestyle is compression and misalignment of the spinal cord. Yoga plays a crucial role in maintaining the correct body posture. T

he stretching, twisting and bending yoga poses help us to maintain an upright and balanced body posture.
Yoga postures also minimize the risk of collapsing which becomes prominent after a certain age. Collapsing occurs due to the weakness of bones and muscles and inappropriate body posture.

Best selected yoga poses for the healthy skeletal system

1. Slow and complete yoga breath 
Five sets of “inhale and exhale” three times a day are the most recommended and doable method to achieve the relaxation hence aligning and soothing our spinal cord. Setting an alarm, say at 9 am, 1 pm then 6 pm will definitely get the job done.

• Sit down in lotus or half lotus. This can be done by sitting on the chair.
• Keep your core upright straight.
• Release tension from all the joints and muscle groups, one by one.
• Deep inhale, count to five.
• Slow exhale, count to ten.
• Repeat five times

 Related- Meditation for Beginners

2. Spinal twist

Seated twists do wonder to our core, by aligning our vertebrae and spinal cord. It rejuvenates the bones after a long working session. It opens our hips and ribcage.

• Sit down upright with leg-spread in front of you.
• While inhaling fold one leg giving your body a horizontal twist. Position your hands as shown in the picture to achieve the complete pose.
• Release the pose slowly while exhaling.
• Repeat with other leg and opposite side twist.

3. Cobra Pose

As we walk, sit or even lie down, we tend to lean forward. This habit contributes to a bad posture. The cobra pose helps to revert this kind of forward curvature of our core.

• • • Lie down flat on your stomach.
    • While inhaling raise your face and then chest.
    • Keep both hands in supporting position as shown.
    • Stay there for a few breaths.
    • Return back to initial position while exhaling.

4. Boat Pose

The simple looking, but not so simple doing a pose. The boat pose requires some patience to achieve the balance. Its benefits include simulations of thyroid and prostate glands. It does wonder to improve your waistline. It gives a nice stretch to your hamstrings. The most important changes it brings to the posture by strengthening your spine and hip flexors.

• • • Sit upright with leg spread in front of you.
    • While inhaling, apply pressure on both hands to lift your legs up.
    • You need to bend back a bit to achieve that perfect V shape.
    • Spread your hands as shown to stay in the pose for few breaths.

5. Cat and Cow Pose

The cat-cow pose is a combination of two poses, the cat pose, and the cow pose. It prepares us for most activities as a warm-up session does. It does wonder in relieving lower back pain. This pose strengthens our bones also works well for neck and shoulder pain.

It is recommended for the prevention of severe ailments like osteoporosis and osteopenia, arthritis or stiffness of the hips and spine. 

However, if you are already suffering from any kind of bone-related disease please consult your doctor first. Researchers reveal that forward bends may harm the weak bones further. So yoga poses involving a forward curvature should be avoided. A backward curvature is found to be safe and rewarding.

• • • Start from the knee and hand pose.
    • While inhaling open your chest, push your ‘head and back’ to get a back curvature of cat pose as shown.
    • Exhale to switch dynamically into a forward bend of cow pose as shown.

If cow pose is causing any kind of discomfort, instead of bending forward, stay on table pose/plank or on the beginning position i.e. knee and hand position, then switch back to cat pose.

Thank you so much! I hope this article helped in knowing your bones and skeletal system altogether. In case you are in a job that demands a lot of your time glued with a chair, it’s time to be awaken. Take some active rest and do some yoga poses in the office itself. Don’t know how? Learn Here.

For more detailed information on the topic of OFFICE YOGA, Please check my book “A Complete Book on Office Yoga”. 

The book comprises 12 Chair Yoga Tutorial, Healthy Office Lunch Recipes, Sleep Guide for Millenials.

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