I keep having the same conversation.

A student mentions, almost in passing, that she finally went and got a bone density scan. And it came back showing osteoporosis, or osteopenia, the early version of it. She had no idea. No symptoms, nothing that felt wrong. Just a number on a scan she almost didn’t bother to get. Some of them only went because I nudged them into it.

And every time, there’s this moment where the fear creeps in. Now what? Is it still safe to move the way I’ve been moving? That question is exactly why I built the thing I want to tell you about today.

This post is adapted from Yoga for Longevity, my podcast where I share therapeutic yoga tools for healthy aging. I’m Mikah Horn, yoga therapist and founder of Lifelong Yoga Online, a membership designed especially for adults 50+. If you’re looking for a way to put the things you learn in this episode into practice, you can explore it free for 7 days, with gentle classes for joint health, healthy hips, posture, and more.

More of us than you’d think

More than half of women over fifty will break a bone because of osteoporosis at some point in their lives. More than half.

And here’s the part that gets me. Osteoporosis is usually silent. There are no symptoms until something actually breaks. So you can be walking around, feeling completely fine, while your bones are losing density in the background.

That’s why I keep nudging my students to go get a scan. If you’re over fifty and you’ve never had your bone density checked, please go get a baseline. Even if it comes back perfectly healthy, now you know your starting point. You can keep an eye on it as the years go on.

The list of don’ts

If you’ve recently been diagnosed, I’m guessing you’ve heard a whole lot of don’t.

Don’t bend. Don’t twist. Don’t lift that. Be careful.

And on top of that, probably a hundred things about nutrition and impact and strength, half of them contradicting the other half.

I understand where the caution comes from. But I don’t want you living afraid of movement. That is not the answer, and honestly, it’s not even good for your bones. Being scared to move is its own kind of decline.

What I want is to hand you knowledge instead. What you actually can do. And yes, the specific movements to be a little more mindful of, and how to adapt them, so you can stop second-guessing yourself every time you reach for something on a low shelf.

What I built

The course is called Strong Bones, Safe Yoga, and it’s finally done.

I set out to make a mini course. Small, simple. And it is one, I promise. But I had a lot I wanted to say, so it grew.

It starts with the foundations and the method I teach everything through, which I call SPACE. I’m not handing you a list of poses to avoid. I’m teaching you the concepts underneath, so you can make good decisions on your own.

Then we go through all the different movements of your spine, one at a time, and that’s how the poses are grouped. The biggest focus is on avoiding rounding, the forward flexion, because that’s the one that calls for the most care. But it’s not the only thing to keep in mind, which is exactly why I grouped it the way I did. What I wanted to show you is that you can still move your spine in every direction everybody else can. You just keep a few things in mind as you go.

After that come five short follow-along practices, and a walk-through of how to choose a safe yoga class anywhere, long after you finish with me.

And there’s a bonus I love. If you’ve read anything about yoga and osteoporosis, you’ve probably come across Dr. Loren Fishman. He put together a well-known sequence of twelve yoga poses for osteoporosis. I recorded a video teaching all twelve of them, my way, plus a printout so you can move through the sequence on your own anytime, once you’ve learned it.

If it’s for you

The doors are open this week.

The discounted price is only good through Thursday at midnight. After that, the course stays available, it simply moves to its regular price.

And whether or not the course ends up being for you, I’ll leave you with the same thing I told my listeners. You do not have to spend the rest of your life afraid of your own body. That’s exhausting, and it’s no way to move through your days. You get to be strong, and steady, and confident in how you move. You just deserve to know how.

A few links:

– Listen to this week’s episode

– Strong Bones, Safe Yoga (doors open this week, discount through Thursday at midnight)

– Try Lifelong Yoga Online free for 7 days