The tricky thing about bone, is that you build it up from the time you are born until about the age of 30 then you actually start to lose it. Standing on your head or standing on one leg can help counter the problem of loss.

Building it is not an automatic thing. You have to be physical. You have to apply weight to it for it to grow strong. Most of know this to be true for muscle. If you don't move, your muscles will be weak and floppy.

In the case of bone, if you don't move, your bones will be thinner than they could be. Thinner means they will be more susceptible to breakage. The secret is to build up your bone mass in the years that you can so that you can afford to lose some when that time comes.

This week is Osteoporosis Awareness Week, intended to increase awareness of the condition of weakened bones. Most at risk are pale skinny women. This is because thin women will tend to have less bone mass.

Darker women have more melatonin than fair skinned women and this hormone stimulates bone growth.

Yet all is not lost for pale skinny women over 30. Frances Marshall is one. A local yoga teacher for over 20 years she is fighting the condition with specific poses and new yoga techniques.

Anyone in the beginning stages of osteoporosis or at high risk for developing the condition is advised to do weight-bearing exercises. I was always told that skipping is an excellent way to build up bone mass and weight lifting. But to watch me skip you'd have to not blink. That's how fast it is. I can jump maybe three times and then I'm completely winded. I can lift three pound weights – not really enough to build up my bone. I figure if this is how I feel, there are many others out there in this same boat. The non-athletic boat. So I spoke to Mrs. Marshall and was glad to learn that yoga can work.

You can stand on one leg. That will help to build bone mass. I can manage that. And yes, I can stand erect and tall, hold my arms over my head and bend one leg up all at the same time.

This is tree pose, one of the many weight bearing and balancing poses Mrs. Marshall recommends for fighting osteoporosis.

"Yoga is good for strengthening bone because many of the exercises are weight bearing," she said.

"In weight bearing, you are loading the bones and they respond by getting stronger. Lots of poses work with gravity which is pulling us downward or getting a rebound off gravity. The whole effect of gravity comes into play when you are doing yoga," she added.

Postures that increase muscle strength are also important for those facing or suffering with osteoporosis.

"As the bones weaken, you have to rely on muscle strength especially in the abdominals, hips, buttocks and pelvic floor to help support you," she said.

"The tug of muscle on the bone is more strengthening than just standing. It causes them (the bones) to thicken and get stronger – build bone mass. That's why in yoga we try to engage the muscle on the bone instead of relaxing them."

According to Mrs. Marshall, some of the best weight-bearing yoga poses include: tree pose, king dancer pose, all three warrior poses, downward facing dog pose, plank pose and headstands.

Yoga's more celebrated quality of relaxation also plays an important role in bone growth. "Stress leeches calcium out of the bone so the relaxation aspect is extremely important. You don't want to have the muscles under chronic tension because this is stressful and pulls calcium out of your bone," she said.

"Breathing practices help to take acidity out of the blood. A very important thing in any bone is the acid alkaline balance," she said. "You want your blood to be slightly alkaline because, like stress, acidity leeches calcium out of bone."

In this way yoga also works with diet to help achieve strong bones.

Mrs. Marshall regularly offers 'Strong Abs, Strong Bones', a yoga course ideal for those at high risk for osteoporosis.

This fall she plans to also introduce Yin Yoga a course she explained will be of great help to those with the condition. Yin Yoga follows the Chinese medicinal approach. In it poses stimulate the kidney meridian which helps nourish the bone marrow (see Yin Yoga insert).

Look for courses to begin in mid September there are ongoing walk-in classes. For more information contact francesmarshall@logic.bm.