Latest Info on Muscle and Bone Strength!

by Baxter and Nina

Strong Dream by Paul Klee

Just as the natural aging process affects all organs, structures, and systems of your body, aging also affects the strength of both your muscles and bones. Because both your muscles and bones contribute to your overall strength, loss in one is typically associated with loss in the other, so it’s equally important to actively maintain the strength of both. Fortunately, using yoga to maintain your muscle strength will help with bone strength and vice versa.

For our long-time readers, it’s true we’ve written about how aging affects strength a few times before. But recently, due to Nina’s fortuitous meeting with an expert in sarcopenia and age-related muscle loss, Dr. Christopher Adams (see Age-Related Muscle Loss: An Interview with Dr. Chris Adams), we realized that most of what we’ve written in the past wasn’t quite accurate. So this is our official redo! We hope this information clarifies things for you. What hasn’t changed, however, is our understanding of how effective yoga can be for maintaining both muscle and bone strength as we age. And Chris told Nina he had recently become convinced that he should start practicing himself!

Muscles

We have over 640 muscles in our body, and starting as early as our thirties, these muscles gradually lose strength. This natural aging process, called “skeletal muscle atrophy,” causes your muscle cells and fibers to become smaller and weaker, leading to a loss of muscle mass, quality, and strength. The rate at which we lose muscle strength varies from person to person, and is also influenced by:

• Behavioral factors. Working at a sedentary desk job or not exercising are the most obvious behaviors that contribute to loss of strength over time, although these can be counteracted by becoming more active.
• Genetic factors. Your body type can influence how weak you become with age, due to the natural size of your muscles when you are younger. If you tend to have larger muscles as a young adult, you simply have more muscle mass to lose as you age before you become weak. On the other hand, if you’re someone who tends not to bulk up easily, without intervention, you may become weaker more quickly as you age. Although you cannot change your body type, if you have not already started to do so, you can begin building up your muscles now as a preventative measure. Yoga’s strength building poses and techniques provide an excellent way to do this (see Techniques for Strength Building with Yoga). All things being equal, men and women likely have a similar rate of loss of muscle strength as they age, that is until women reach menopause, at which time the more rapid loss of bone they experience (see below) contributes to greater loss of muscle strength as well. So at that phase of life and even leading up to it, women need to be particularly focused on maintaining muscle strength.
• Environmental factors. Scarcity of healthy food (malnutrition, for example, worsens skeletal muscle atrophy) and environmental toxins are the most obvious environmental factors that can contribute to loss of strength, so if possible, try to keep yourself protected.

Although skeletal muscle atrophy is caused by aging itself, other factors, such as muscle disuse (sedentary lifestyle, joint injuries, arthritis, strokes), certain illnesses that affect nerve and blood supply to muscles or have other negative effects on muscles (diabetes, cancer, and chronic infections like HIV/AIDS, to name just a few), and medications that can weaken or damage muscles (such as prednisone and chemotherapy agents) can accelerate this process. So if you have any of these conditions, using yoga to address them—whether that means by simply start to move again or by actively improving your health, such as improving diabetes control through stress management and exercise—could slow down loss of strength over time. 

Sarcopenia. For some people—whether due to illness, long-time inactivity or just very advanced age—loss of muscle mass can become a serious problem if it falls well below the average muscle mass of the general population. This advanced stage of skeletal muscle atrophy is sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is the disease stage of skeletal muscle atrophy, just as osteopenia and osteoporosis are two disease stages of aging-related bone loss. 

Naturally, this serious loss of muscle mass—which is accompanied by significant muscle weakness—is something we want to avoid if at all possible because serious muscle weakness is of the main factors that can lead to loss of independence, not to mention of enjoyment of activities that you love. Fortunately, gentle forms of yoga can help even very elderly and weak people regain strength.

Bones

We have 204 bones in our skeletons and, like our muscles, those bones undergo changes as we age. Bones slowly and gradually become thinner and weaker as we age, though it is only when they reach a certain degree of thinness that a you are at greater risk of a fracture from a fall or prolonged poor postural habits (for example, wedge fractures in the thoracic spine). The rate at which we lose bone strength varies person to person, and is influenced by:

• Behavioral factors. The same behavioral factors that have a negative effect on muscle strength—such as working at a sedentary desk job or not exercising —contribute to bone loss over time, although these too can be counteracted by becoming more active.
• Genetic factors. Your body type can influence how weak your bones become with age. Some people just naturally have thinner bones, so they have less bone mass to lose before bones become weak and brittle. And for women hormonal changes during menopause accelerate the rate of bone loss, which is why more women develop osteoporosis after their fifties. Although you cannot change your body type or gender, if you have not already started to do so, you can begin strengthening your bones now as a preventative measure. Yoga’s strength building poses and techniques provide an excellent way to do this (see Techniques for Strength Building with Yoga).
• Environmental factors. The same environmental factors that have a negative effect on muscle strength—such as scarcity of healthy food and environmental toxins—can contribute to bone loss, so for both muscle and bone strength, try to keep yourself protected.

Osteoporosis. While everyone’s bones thin somewhat as they age, for many people, due to advanced age, illness or medications, or menopause for women, bone thinning can reach a critical point, called osteoporosis. At this stage, the bones are more vulnerable to fractures, which can then be slower to heal due to the bone’s thinness. (Osteopenia is the stage of bone loss just before full osteoporosis, when you are already starting to be at risk for fractures from falls, but not to the same degree as with osteoporosis.)

Because body type and gender influence how weak bones become with age, smaller-boned people and women in general are at greater risk of developing osteoporosis at younger ages than those with thicker, bigger bones or men. However, for people over 65, developing osteoporosis is very common, with up to 50% of women and 25 percent of men developing it. 

For those with osteoporosis, the bones of the thoracic spine (your mid-spine) are at greatest risk for fracture, followed by the wrist bones and the femur bone (thigh bone) in the hip joint. These fractures can lead to ongoing chronic pain, physical disability, and, particularly with hip fractures, premature death. Naturally this is something we’d all like to avoid. Fortunately, yoga strength building poses and techniques can actually reverse bone loss (see Techniques for Strength Building with Yoga) , and practicing yoga balance poses is helpful for preventing falls (see Techniques for Improving Balance).

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Age-Related Muscle Loss and Sarcopenia: An Interview with Dr. Chris Adams

by Nina

Muscle Man Standing by Hans Baldung

Although we haven't heard from Dr. Brad Gibson lately, he is still consulting with me behind the scenes and also gives me a heads up when he comes across some information he thinks we might want to share with you. And recently when his colleague Dr. Chris Adams, who is a medical researcher studying muscle aging and sarcopenia, was in town, Brad arranged for me to meet Chris because he knew I'd be very interested in the work that Chris is doing. And I was! But I was very good and didn't pester Chris too much over our dinner, but instead approached him afterward to see if he would let me officially interview him. The result is this post today! Thank you so much, Chris, for taking the time out of your busy schedule to educate us all on this important topic. (By the way, Chris says that although he doesn't do yoga, his wife does. And he's becoming aware that he himself needs to start.)

Nina: Let’s start by having you address what sarcopenia is. We here at YFHA understand that muscles change as we age, losing mass and density in everyone to some extent. Is sarcopenia the name of this natural process? Or is sarcopenia the disease stage of this process, the way osteopenia is the disease stage of natural bone loss associated with aging?

Chris: In general, sarcopenia is a condition of being of advanced age and having an amount of skeletal muscle mass that is significantly lower than the average muscle mass of the general population. However, there are several competing definitions of sarcopenia, and, at this point, there is no general agreement on how to specifically define lower than average muscle mass in older people. In addition, comparing an older individual's muscle mass to the general population can be misleading. Because people come in many shapes and sizes, the amount of muscle mass varies widely from individual to individual. Also, as you noted, we all lose muscle mass to some degree as we age. An older person who was very muscular as a younger adult may have experienced quite significant muscle loss with age, even though their muscle mass as an older adult appears normal relative to the general population.

In addition to underestimating the number of people who have lost muscle mass with age, sarcopenia does not consider the most important aspect of muscle aging, the loss of strength. Between the ages of 30 and 40, nearly all people, even elite athletes, begin to experience a loss of muscle strength. Over the following decades, strength continues to erode while muscle mass typically declines to a lesser degree. As a result, reduced muscle quality (i.e., strength per unit muscle mass) is a hallmark of the aging process. By the age of 70, almost everyone will report that they are not as strong and probably not as muscular as when they were 25 years old. 

The most important question for older people is not whether their muscle mass is lower than the general population, but whether they remain strong enough to accomplish the physical tasks that they wish to accomplish. Fortunately, the field of muscle aging seems to be moving away from strict considerations of muscle mass and moving towards a greater focus on muscle quality and functional outcomes. I think this transformation will be necessary before muscle aging is able to take its place in the mainstream of medical practice. Right now, muscle aging is scarcely addressed by the medical community. 

Compared to the field of muscle aging, the field of bone aging is much more advanced in every way, and in contrast to the term sarcopenia, the term osteopenia is very useful. Osteopenia and its more severe form, osteoporosis, describe well-defined stages in a disease process, can be easily diagnosed, and have real prognostic value, or, in other words, they are clearly associated with clinically meaningful outcome, fracture. It is also worth noting that the definitions osteopenia and osteoporosis are based on the strength of bone (bone density) rather than the amount of bone, which, like the amount of muscle, can vary widely from person to person and is rather beside the point.

Nina: Is there a theory of why this happens?

Chris: Yes. The fundamental underlying process in muscle aging is called skeletal muscle atrophy. In skeletal muscle atrophy, skeletal muscle cells, or muscle fibers, become smaller and weaker, leading to a loss of muscle mass, quality, and strength. Skeletal muscle atrophy can be generalized (affecting most or all of the muscles in the body) or it can be localized (affecting only one or a few muscles in the body). Aging typically promotes generalized skeletal muscle atrophy.

It is important to know that skeletal muscle atrophy can be caused by many things in addition to aging. Other common causes of skeletal muscle atrophy include malnutrition, muscle disuse (e.g., sedentary lifestyle, bed rest, orthopedic injuries, osteoarthritis, stroke, spinal cord injury, and other neurologic disorders), certain illnesses (e.g., cancer, diabetes and several other endocrine disorders, heart failure, COPD, kidney failure, cirrhosis, rheumatoid arthritis, critical illness, and chronic infections such as HIV/AIDS) and certain medications (e.g., prednisone, cancer chemotherapy, and hormonal prostate cancer treatments). If a person develops a condition that causes skeletal muscle atrophy, then that condition will accentuate the loss of muscle mass, quality, and strength during aging.

At the molecular level, muscle aging is still poorly understood. The molecular mechanisms are no doubt complex, and they are difficult to study because they occur so slowly. In all likelihood, muscle aging reflects an accumulation of small molecular changes in skeletal muscle that persist over many years. We and others are working to understand how aging affects skeletal muscle at the molecular level, and our laboratory recently discovered the first example of a protein that is required for the loss of muscle mass, quality and strength during aging. The protein is called ATF4, and it is a transcription factor that alters skeletal muscle gene expression in a manner that causes muscle atrophy. This finding of ATF4 provides an important clue that should help us uncover other molecular aspects of muscle aging over the next few years.

Nina: You told me earlier that there is a great variation in the way individuals lose muscle mass, depending on their body types, and so on. Could you briefly explain that?

Chris: Variability in muscle mass and strength in older individuals is at least partially explained by genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors that determine: 1) the amount of peak, or young adult, muscle mass and strength, and 2) the absence or presence of other causes of skeletal muscle atrophy. There may also be genetic variability in the rate at which proteins such as ATF4 reduce muscle mass and strength during aging, but that is speculative at this point. 

Nina: Are there effective interventions for halting or slowing the progression of muscle loss?

Chris: Unfortunately, at this point, there are no available interventions for halting or slowing muscle aging, and a medicine for skeletal muscle atrophy does not yet exist. However, a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce a person's risk for developing additional causes of skeletal muscle atrophy. For example, exercises such as yoga prevent muscle disuse, a very potent cause of skeletal muscle atrophy.

Nina: How effective is target muscle building in the presence of muscle loss?

Chris: It can be very effective, especially when we are younger. It becomes more difficult to rebuild muscle as we grow older.

Nina: For people who are aging, what would you recommend as the best ways to maintain muscle strength as we age?

Chris: At this point, the recommendations are pretty general and would consist of: 1) maintaining a healthy diet, 2) resistance exercise, such as yoga or weight lifting, assuming there is no medical contraindication to exercise, and 3) avoiding preventable or treatable risk factors for other conditions that cause skeletal muscle atrophy, such as smoking, alcoholism, hypertension, obesity, high LDL cholesterol, etc. 

There is a large unmet need for more specific recommendations, and scientists such as Blake Rasmussen at University of Texas-Galveston are doing some very nice and important work to develop specific exercise recommendations for older people, as well specific dietary recommendations, particularly for protein intake, which is especially important for muscle health. In addition to that work, we and others are working to develop nutritional products that are enriched in dietary compounds that help maintain muscle mass and strength during aging. For example, our laboratory recently discovered two natural compounds that reduce ATF4 activity in skeletal muscle of elderly mice, leading to increased muscle mass, quality and strength. One of those compounds, called ursolic acid, is naturally found in apples and several other edible fruits and herbs. The other natural compound, called tomatidine, is a metabolite of a compound that is found in tomatoes, especially unripe, green tomatoes. We are optimistic that compounds such as ursolic acid and tomatidine will someday form the basis for specially designed foods that help promote healthy aging. In addition, we are hopeful that compounds such as these will lead us to medicines that can halt or reverse the effects of muscle aging.

Nina: Besides our muscles getting weaker as we age, they also get stiffer. Is this increasing stiffness due to the same changes that make our muscles weaker?

Chris: That's a very interesting question. To my knowledge, the answer is unknown. I am also not aware of any ongoing research in this area, but it is certainly an important issue, and it would be a great area for research.

Nina: In our previous conversation, you said to me about bones something that I didn’t know, which is that bones age in a similar way to muscles in everyone (not just in people who are prone to develop the “disease” osteoporosis). Can you say a bit more about that? And what is the relationship between the changes in the muscles and the changes in bones that result from aging?

Chris: In most circumstances, muscle and bone go hand-in-hand. Muscle strength and bone strength require similar nutrition and exercise, and both are weakened by poor nutrition, disuse, serious illness, and aging.

Nina: Should that information about the connection between aging of muscles and bones affect our thinking about how to maintain both muscle and bone strength as we age?

Chris: Yes, a healthy lifestyle that includes exercises such as yoga can be beneficial for the strength of both muscle and bone.

Christopher M. Adams, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist, a Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa, and Founder and President of Emmyon, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on discovery and development of nutritional and pharmaceutical compounds that reduce skeletal muscle atrophy and improve muscle function. His clinical practice is in internal medicine and endocrinology. His research primarily focuses on molecular mechanisms and treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy. He received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Iowa in 1999, and then completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine, a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metab.olism, and post-doctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center before joining the faculty at the University of Iowa in 2006. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2013.

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The Importance of Yoga for Strength

by Nina

Lately as I’ve been teaching yoga for healthy aging to several older people, I’ve couldn’t help but notice how weak some of them are. For example, one woman has trouble balancing because knee problems led her to stop walking and her legs became very weak. (Even though balance requires much more than just brute strength—see Yoga and Balance: An Overview—if you don’t have the muscle tone to keep yourself upright, you’re going to be all wobbly.) Then, there’s the man who walks regularly but who is losing his upper body strength due to a white-collar job that leaves him using his body for light physical labor only on the weekends. 

Left unchecked, this kind of muscular weakness could lead to an inability to live independently because even the simplest daily activities, such as getting up out of bed, getting out of a chair, and, especially, walking up or down the stairs, require strength. (See Yoga for Strength: An Overview for information about what happens to muscular strength as you age.) And lack of ability to balance due to weakness is going to increase the risk of falling, which is a serious problem for older people (see The Importance of Preventing Falls).

In fact, even though I had originally intended to cycle between strength, flexibility, balance, and agility, I quickly realized yoga for strength should be included as part of every single yoga for healthy aging class or daily home practice. So I thought today I’d recommend a few of my favorite strengthening poses and practices. Although Baxter has written some full-length sequences for strength (see Lower Body Strength Practice, Upper Body Strength Practice, Core Strength Practice), you can don’t necessarily have to do a long practice. I feel that practicing just a few strengthening poses on a regular basis will allow you to bring about real change. What I like about the following poses is that they are simple, accessible, and safe, yet they allow you to work as hard as you wish (though longer holds or repetitions). 

And although I haven’t been focusing specifically on bone strength—I can’t tell what’s going on with people’s bone strength just from looking at them—the good news is that all these poses will strengthen bones at the same time they strengthen muscles. 

1. Warrior 2 (Virabradrasana 2) mini vinyasa, followed with a long hold of the pose. People with balance issues can practice with their backs near a wall. Provides both lower body and upper body strengthening. See Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasasas and Featured Pose: Warrior 2 (Revisited).

2. Warrior 1 (Virabradrasana 1) mini vinyasa, followed by a long hold of the pose. People with balance issues can practice with their back heel against the wall. Provides both lower body and upper body strengthening. See Warrior 1 and Warrior 2 Mini Vinyasasas.

3. Powerful pose (Utkatasana), in all its variations. I particularly like using a block between the thighs to activate the thigh muscles, which are so vital for basic movements of getting around in the world, especially getting up out of a chair or off the toilet. Provides both lower body and upper body strengthening. See Featured Pose: Powerful Pose.

4. Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana), in all its variations. Provides upper body strength. See Featured Pose: Downward-Facing Dog Pose.

5. Plank pose, in all its variations. Provides upper body and core strength. See Featured Pose: Plank Pose.

6. Side Plank pose (Vasithasana), in all its variations. Almost anyone can do the wall version. Provides upper body, side body, and core strength. See Featured Pose: Side Plank Pose.

7. Upward Plank pose (Purvottanasana), in all its variations. Provides upper body, back, and core strength. See Featured Pose: Upward Plank Pose.

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Featured Sequence: Core Strength Practice

by Baxter

There is a lot of talk these days about developing core strength for benefits such as better posture, less back pain and better overall body strength. When I started doing yoga in the mid-90s, I never gave this much thought, perhaps because core strength was not all the rage then but also because I found that my well-balanced yoga classes were already cultivating strength in the areas that I consider “core” musculature.

So what are those areas? The most obvious ones are the focus of many exercise or Pilates mat classes. I’m referring to the four layers of the front abdominal muscles, from the most superficial and famous six-pack known as the Rectus Abdominis, the next two diagonally oriented layers, the External and internal Obliques, to the deepest corset-like layer, the Transversus Abdominis. And this is where a lot of the focus in other core strengthening sometimes stops. But I also think of the lower back muscles, such as the Erector Spinae and the Quadratus Lumborum (sometimes referred to as the QL), the deeper belly muscles, such as the Psoas and the Iliacus, and the pelvic floor muscles as all contributing to “core” strength. 

So, in addition to one or two obvious poses that will address the four layers of the abdominals, such as Boat pose, the other poses in my sequence address the other areas we should also be interested in if we truly want to focus on a strong core. As with our other strengthening sequences, working towards longer holds, somewhere around 90 seconds, is your longer-term goal. But always listen to the feedback of your body, and if you start to feel shaky, lose form and alignment, or feel weak, stop at that point and note the time and use that as your initial baseline hold. 

Core Strength Practice

1. Gentle Reclining Warm Ups: For a couple of minutes, lie down and do some simple movements to wake up your lower back and belly area, perhaps bringing your knees into your chest one at a time a few times, or from Constructive Rest pose, rocking your knees side to side. 

2. Upward Extended Feet Pose (Urdhva Prasarita Padasana): Lying on your back, stretch your legs out long on the floor and make them strong, as if you were standing on them. Find and maintain a slight natural lumbar curve in your lower back. Don’t let this space enlarge or diminish as you work. 

On an inhalation, take your arms overhead and down toward the floor and keep them there. On an exhalation, lift one leg (easier if you need to start off slowly) or both legs up about 30 degrees off the floor and try to maintain this spot for 20 seconds or so while breathing normally. Then, on another exhale, take your legs up another 30 degrees (now at 60 degrees off the floor) and repeat the hold. Finally, take your up to 90 degrees and hold there for about 20 seconds before lowering your legs slowly to the floor on an exhalation. Bring your arms back to your sides and rest for a few breaths, and see if your body seems up for trying it one or two more times. This pose activates the abdominal muscles, the Psoas and Iliacus, the pelvic floor and some of the lower back muscles.

3. Revolved Abdomen Pose (Ardha Jathara Parivartanasana): Lying on your back, bend your knees and place your feet on the floor. Take your arms out to your sides, in line with your shoulders. Then, lift your shins up and bring them parallel with the floor, keeping your knees positioned right over your hips. Keep your legs snuggled against each other as you work. 

On an inhalation, slowly drop your knees and turn your hips to the right, hovering a few inches off the floor while keeping the backs of your shoulder blades on the floor. Then on your exhalation, slowly swing your legs and hips back to center. Repeat this process on the left, slowing your breath down a bit as you work. Do this side-to-side about six times, then bring your feet down, stretch your legs out on the floor and take a brief rest. This pose strengthens the Oblique layers of the abdominals, and if you can maintain a slight arch in the lower back, also gets the Transversus in the mix, too. 

4. Locust Pose (Shalabhasana): Roll onto your belly and chest, and bring your arms along side your body, hands by the hips. I think doing a few rounds of one-legged or two-legged dynamic Locust is a good preparation for the full pose so wee Dynamic Locust Pose for instructions for the dynamic version of this pose.  After you are warmed up, on an inhalation, lift your chest and head and one or both legs up a few inches off the floor. Keep your head and neck in line with the rest of you spine (which is coming into a small backbend). Stay in the pose for 10-20 seconds, breathing normally. Lower down on an exhalation and release all effort for a few breaths. Depending on how you are feeling, repeat one to two more times. This pose strengthens the back core muscles such as the QL and the Erector Spinae.

5. Hunting Dog Pose: Come up to hands and knees and do Hunting Dog pose once on each side, keeping close attention to maintaining the natural curve in the lower back. See Hunting Dog Pose for instructions. In addition to the back core muscles, this also works the Transversus and the pelvic floor muscles if you can maintain your back arch without wobbling! And feel free to release your wrists by giving them a quick shake out before proceeding to the next pose. 

6. Plank/Forearm Plank Pose: From all fours, come into Downward-Facing Dog pose, and then shift your shoulders forward until your shoulder joints are directly over your wrist joints. Keep your ribcage lifting up towards your shoulder blades and your elbows strong and straight. The rest of your body should be in a Mountain pose-like shape, so you need to keep your core and legs engaged, while maintaining a natural curve in your lower back. To come out of the pose, swing back to Downward-Facing Dog, then to hands and knees. Afterward, give your wrists a good shake out and brief rest. Similar to Hunting Dog, the core muscles are strongly engaged, but much more so in Plank and Forearm Plank.

To get a whole different experience and give your wrists a nice break, you can also do Forearm Downward-Facing Dog and swing into Plank pose with your forearms on the floor.  

7. Arms Overhead Pose (Urdhva Hastasana): In our Opening Tight Shoulders Sequence, we showed you several variations of this pose, but the one I want you to try today is different. From Mountain pose, on an inhalation, take your arms overhead alongside your ears. 

While firming your leg muscles and simultaneously pressing your fingertips as high as they will go, notice what happens in your lower belly and pelvic floor. If you get the up-down action of your arms and legs going, your lower belly often hollows a bit towards the spine without flattening the spinal arch, and your pelvic floor muscles will firm and may even slightly lift. I call this a natural belly and pelvic floor “lock,” known in Sanskrit as Uddiyana and Mula Bandha.  It is “natural” because it arises as a result of the physical effort of the reach of Arms Overhead pose, and strengthens the Transversus and pelvic floor muscles nicely. You can also make those locks happen for your pranayama practice separately, but we won’t get into that today. (Shelly Prosko has some information in her post Treatment of Incontinence if you want to learn more about locks.)

8. Triangle Pose (Utthita Trikonasana): As I had you do in our Lower Body Strength Sequence, you may want to start by coming in and out Triangle pose dynamically a few times to warm up for full Triangle pose. Then hold full Triangle for 10-20 seconds while breathing normally. To engage your side core muscles, such as the Obliques, more fully, try this variation: Bring your palms together in front of your heart in prayer position, and keep your arms and hand like this as you side-bend into Triangle pose. Notice how much more your leg, hip and side waist muscles have to work when your bottom hand is not supporting you. Repeat on second side.

9. Half-Downward-Facing Dog Pose at the Wall (Ardha Adho Muka Svanasana): This is a great counter-pose for the asymmetric standing poses like Triangle pose you just did. See Half Dog Pose at the Wall for basic instructions.   While you are in the pose for 20-30 seconds, draw you lower abdomen up towards the spine without changing the arch of your lower back.

10. Extended Side Angle Pose (Utthita Parsva Konasana): From Mountain pose, step your feet wide apart, turn your right foot and leg out 90 degrees and kick out your back heel an inch or so. Bring your arms up parallel with the floor and bend your front knee. Then side-bend your hips and torso over your front leg and put your right hand on a block on its highest height, placed snug up against the outside of your front shin. Swing your top arm up and overhead, completing the side angle from your back leg through your torso and into your top arm. Push down firmly into the block with your bottom hand and feel your right shoulder blade firm into your chest and slightly down toward your waist. Reach your top arm and shoulder blade strongly forward towards your fingers. Inhale as you come up, relax your arms at your side and repeat on the second side.

Doing the pose this way can start to work the side core muscles, but for this practice, I’d like you to try Extended Side Angle pose with your hands in prayer position as you did with Triangle. After side-bending into the pose with your hands in prayer position, line up your spine with your back leg so you create one long angle. Your side core muscles will have to work quite a bit harder to keep you in position then when you use your bottom hand for support, so you may have to shorten your time in the pose initially. Repeat on the second side.

11. Repeat Half Downward-Facing Dog at the Wall here if you like.

12. Boat Pose (Paripurna Navasana): Come to a seated position, with your knees bent and your feet on the floor in front of you. Tip your torso back a bit, keeping some good length in the spine, but not overly back bending it. Hold onto the back of your knees and rock back to balance on your buttocks with your feet just off the floor. See how long you can stay before your front thighs begin to tire. If Version 1 is easy, try Version 2, which involves bringing your shins parallel to the floor and holding there. If Version 2 is easy, try Version 3, letting go of your knees and stretching your arms forward. Finally, if Version 3 isn’t challenging enough, try Version 4, straightening your knees so your upper and lower body forms a “V” shape. Start with six breaths and work up from there

13. Marichi’s pose 3 (Marichyasana 3): Start by sitting in Staff pose (Dandasana) with your legs extending forward. Feel free to place a folded blanket or other lift under your hips if your hamstrings or lower back are tight and stiff. Then, keeping your left leg straight, bend your right leg so your knee is upright and the toes of your right foot are facing forward. Then, move your right foot close to your right sitting bone. Place your right hand on the floor to your right and a bit behind you and support your torso with that arm. Turn your upper belly and chest towards your right knee and wrap the crook of your left elbow around your right knee. Maintain a nice vertical lift up through your spine, and, using your arms simply to keep you in position, focus on your abdominal muscles firming and contracting to take you a bit deeper into the twist. This pose focuses mostly on the diagonal Obliques. Stay for 20-30 seconds to start, then release and repeat on the second side.

14. Reclined Cobbler’s Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana): As a treat for your core and all the hard work it has done, this restorative pose is a great way to release tension from your abdomen and all the muscles around it. It’s the first pose in our Mini Restorative Sequence  and you can watch me teach it on YouTube here:

Stay for a minimum of 10 minutes, if your schedule permits, and focus on softening the core area of your body as you feel your natural breath enter and exit. 

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Featured Sequence: Upper Body Strength

by Baxter

Over the years, a consistent desire expressed by many of my students is to have more upper body strength. I suspect that being confronted with yoga poses in their weekly yoga class that require more strength shines a light on an underlying weakness and fatigue that plagues many students of all ages.

So today’s sequence is designed to get you started on the road to a stronger upper body. As with our previous strengthening sequences, start with static holds to the point where you begin to fatigue or get shaky, and then gradually add more time to your holds until you can work up to 90 second. You can always warm up your muscles, connective tissue, and joints with a dynamic version of a pose, but I won’t describe those here today.

Upper Body Strength Practice

1. Hunting Dog Pose: See Featured Pose: Hunting Dog for basic instructions. Today I’ll add that since you are focusing on upper body strength, be mindful to keep your chest lifting towards your shoulder blades, especially on the side where your hand is on the ground. And strongly reach your lifted arm and shoulder blade forward. After you come out, be sure to shake out the wrist of your supporting arm. 

Hunting Dog Pose

2. High Lunge  (hands on the high side of blocks): From hands and knees position, take your right foot forward between your hands, and use the blocks on their highest height to support your straight arms. Turn the toes of your back foot under, then lift your back knee up and fully straighten your back leg. Position your front knee over your front ankle joint and keep your feet hips-distance apart, side to side. Press down into your front foot and the ball of your back foot, but for this sequence try to use your arms more for support to the point where you imagine you could lift your front foot off the floor (only imagine it!). Start with six breaths and gradually increase to 90 seconds over time. Repeat on the other side.

3. Downward Facing Dog: From hands and knees position, come up into Downward-Facing Dog pose. See Downward-Facing Dog Variations for variations you can use to experience the upper body strengthening of the versatile pose. Try any or all to find the variation that is right for you! I especially like Full Downward-Facing  and Forearm Downward-Facing Dog. 

Forearm Downward-Facing Dog Pose

4. High Plank Pose: Start in Downward-Facing Dog pose, and then shift your shoulders forward until your shoulder joints are directly over your wrist joints. Keep your ribcage lifting up towards your shoulder blades and your elbows strong and straight. The rest of your body should be in a Mountain pose-like shape, so you need to keep your core and legs engaged, while maintaining a natural curve in your lower back. To come out of the pose, swing back to Downward-Facing Dog, then to hands and knees. Afterward, give your wrists a good shake out and brief rest.

To get a whole different experience, and give your wrists a nice break, you can also do Forearm Downward-Facing Dog and swing into Plank pose with your forearms on the floor. 

After all that work with your hands and wrists, you can shift to standing and do some poses that bear less weight on the arms but that still strengthen the upper body!

5. Arms Overhead Pose: In a previous post, we showed you a version of this pose where you bind the hands. For this version, I’d like you to take a block between your hands, with your hands on the small ends of the block. Then, starting in Mountain pose, keeping your legs active swing your arms forward and overhead to the place your shoulders permit. Press your hands into the block, and lift your shoulder blades and arms actively towards the ceiling. You might repeat this twice.

6. Extended Side Angle Pose: From Mountain pose, step your feet wide apart, turn your right foot and leg out 90 degrees and kick out your back heel an inch or so. Bring your arms up parallel with the floor and bend your front knee. Then side-bend your hips and torso over your front leg and put your right hand on a block on its highest height, placed snug up against the outside of your front shin. Swing your top arm up and overhead, completing the side angle from your back leg through your torso and into your top arm. Push down firmly into the block with your bottom hand and feel your right shoulder blade firm into your chest and slightly down toward your waist. Reach your top arm and shoulder blade strongly forward towards your fingers. Inhale as you come up, relax your arms at your side and repeat on the second side.

7. Powerful Pose: We’ve featured this pose in the past, so for the basics, see Featured Pose: Utkatasana. 

For this sequence, as with Arms Overhead pose, place a block between your hands to bring more work to your arms. Make sure to listen to your shoulders if they are tight, and only take your arms up as far as you can safely go. When you come out, rest a moment and then repeat it one more time.

8. Side Plank Pose (Vasithasana) on the Wall: Although the classic version of this pose is done on the floor, the wall version of the pose is much more accessible because you stand on the floor and bear less weight on your arm. To come into the pose, start with your right side to the wall, and reach your right arm out to your side, parallel with the floor, and place your palm on the wall with your fingers pointing up. Engage your right shoulder blade into your chest wall and down slightly towards your right waist. Then, step both feet out away from the wall, until your right foot is positioned directly under your left shoulder. If your balance is good, try bending your left knee and bringing your left foot into Tree pose. Then take your left arm up and overhead, reaching strongly towards the wall with your left arm and shoulder blade, aligned it like the top arm in Extended Side Angle pose. Repeat on the second side.

9. Upward Plank Pose (Purvottanasana): Although this pose is often discussed as a great way to stretch the front chest muscles, it also strengthens the back of the upper body musculature. 

See Friday Q&A: Upward Plank Pose  for some easier variations. If your wrists are spent, you can get some of the same muscle strengthening by doing a static version of Bridge Pose, where you press the upper arm bones down into the floor actively while lifting your hips and breast bone skyward (see To Peel or Not to Peel).

10. Wrist Care: As I have mentioned before and Nina has discussed in her post on Upward Plank Variations, it is a good idea to do some counterposes for your wrists, and my favorite is the “wrist flossing” shown in this post. You could actually do this more than once during a strong upper body strengthening sequence like this.

IF you still have more in you, you could do Upward Facing Dog with blocks under your hands to give you a bit more lift off the floor, keeping your chest lifting up to your shoulders and your collarbones broad.

As with all practices, I would recommend you finish with a few minutes of mindful breath awareness and then set yourself up in a comfortable Savasana, making sure to support the back of your upper body so your arms, upper back and neck and head are resting comfortably and can release the work of the practice completely. There are many other yoga poses you can eventually add into a home upper body strengthening practice, but this is a good start!

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