Please verify your email address to receive email notifications.

Enter your email address

We have sent you a verification email. Please check your inbox and spam folder.

Unable to send verification, please refresh and try again later.

  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    Can I still do yoga if I have osteoporosis?

    I was diagnosed with osteoporosis ate age 49 and have done yoga my whole life. However recently I encountered a stress fracture on my foot from doing this - I thought yoga would be a safe exercise for my condition?
  • Find a professional to answer your question

  • Stephen Lee

    Physiotherapist

    I'm a qualified Physiotherapist based and a Credentialled Mckenzie Therapist in Heidelberg and in Reservoir. I have an interest in most musculoskeletal and orthopaedic conditions. … View Profile

    Yoga is a form of exercise which incorporates sort of flexibility and balance. Yoga itself in particular won't help in terms of bone density or muscle strength usually. But you may improve your balance, which is quite important if you have osteoporosis. If you have a risk of falling you may fracture some part of your body.

    So you could modify your Yoga. You may use weights in particular poses, which may help the osteoporosis side of things. It's definitely still safe to exercise or do Yoga even if you have osteoporosis. But, whether you obtained the stress fracture from Yoga, it's usually quite hard to say. It's usually unlikely as it's not a very high loading sort of form of exercise.

    It may be just how your osteoporosis has developed and just obtained it from that. But it's definitely fine to do Yoga. You've done it all your life, so I wouldn't recommend stopping you from doing that.

answer this question

You must be a Health Professional to answer this question. Log in or Sign up .

You may also like these related questions

Empowering Australians to make better health choices