>Yoga is more than just an exercise. It can help you with many things such as strength, flexibility and becoming at peace with yourself.
It also can really help to strengthen your bones and help with your posture.
Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden write about healthy bones for women in their book: Yoga for Healthy Bones: A Women’s guide:
Here are some tips: Your body needs vitamins and minerals to stay strong, especially A,C, D and K and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, boron, copper and silicon to add into the protein matrix to form new bone.
MOUNTAIN POSE
Yoga comes into play, because: It helps you to maintain good posture with your head over your shoulders, your shoulders in line with your hips which prevents pressure on your spine- this is why a good Mountain Pose ( Tadasana) is helpful to your yoga poses.
RANGE OF MOTION: Yoga helps with a full range of motion from standing poses, sitting, and twisting poses which allow for mobility and flexibility.
RELAXATION: Yoga is restorative in that it allows your body and your muscles to relax completely.
DIET
1. Eat less animal protein
2. Eat an Alkaline diet: too much animal protein produces an excess of phosphorus which the body converts to phosphorus acid.
3. Eat lots of fruits and veggies: If you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables which are high in alkaloids( they are full of calcium, magnesium, iron and potassium), your body can neutralize the excess acid and return to the alkaline state that it needs.
4. Drink less soda pop which is high in phosphoric acid, eat less processed cheese, fried foods and snack foods especially those with aspartame ( artificial sweeteners). Use Agave sweetener.
If you eat a healthy more alkaline diet, your body won’t have to turn to the acid-neutralizing minerals in your bones as often.
Other more alkaline foods include: pumpkin seeds, lentils, yams, limes, nectarines, raspberries, tangerines, pineapples, dark leafy vegetables and spices like cinnamon.
Recommendations: Adequate calcium: RDA is 1,000 mg/day before and during menopause and 1,500 mg/day after menopause.
To avoid problems with too much calcium, you should try to change your diet to include foods that are rich in calcium, instead of depending on supplements.
There are some studies with women taking calcium/vitamin D supplements that have been promising related to healthy bones.
The jury is still out on how much calcium is enough. One study published in an 1998 article: Internal Medicine News found that taking 1,200-1500 mg/day of calcium and 700-800 IU of Vitamin D supplements reduced fractures in postmenopausal women by 50%.
Remember that there are a lot of good sources of calcium besides milk. Include dark green leafy vegetables in your diet along with carrots, almonds, tofu, miso, and other soy products and also seaweed and salmon.
Calcium rich herbs: nettles, horsetail, sage, oatstraw, borage, raspberry leaf and alfalfa.
If you take calcium supplements: follow directions on the bottle. Some supplemental calcium such as calcium carbonate gets absorbed better with food. Other such as calcium citrate works better on an empty stomach.
Current studies show that calcium citrate malate may be the most easily absorbed.
Make sure your calcium has Vitamin D in it. As noted above, supplements with 1,200 -1,500 mg of calcium and 700-800 IU of Vitamin D help the best.

Taken in part from: Sparrowe, L & Walden, P., Yoga for Healthy Bones: A Women’s Guide. Boston MA.Shamblala Publishers.