The Benefits of Yoga in Menopause

My interview with Janine Agoglia, yoga instructor

Janine Agoglia

, from Yoga Living 50 and Beyond on Substack is my special guest this week. Janine has practiced yoga since her early 20s. She found that yoga has helped her in many areas of her life.

She now teaches yoga and meditation for people over 50.

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Can you describe the importance of yoga as we age?

As we age, we lose bone and muscle mass. Yoga is weight bearing exercise that helps us maintain our mass. There are many poses, like Tree pose, Locust pose, and Warrior 2 pose that are beneficial when you have Osteopenia or Osteoporosis. These poses build muscle, and thereby build bone.

Yoga also improves balance (no falls, no hip fractures)

What are the benefits of yoga for our mental health?

Yoga helps us with our inner growth. It calms the anxious mind and helps you accept yourself as you are. We all have stories that we tell ourselves about our “enough-ness” and worthiness, whether we realize it or not. Yoga helps us to look at the stories we tell ourselves and understand that they are just stories, and not actually true. This mindset shift can be life changing. It has been for me.

Can yoga help control our menopausal symptoms?

Practicing yoga has been shown to improve sleep quality, regulate the nervous and endocrine systems, and there are even certain poses and breathing practices that will cool you down when you have hot flash surges. It’s good stuff.

Do you have any favorite yoga poses? How do they help our bodies?

“I personally love back bending poses. These poses undo the effects of gravity and “computering” by opening up the heart, chest, and shoulders, and strengthening the neck and spinal muscles. Poses like Cobra, Upward Dog, Bridge, and Wheel are among my favorites, although I have recently been adding Camel, Dancer, and Locust into the mix as well”.

“Gravity pulls us forward and downward, which can cause restricted breathing, as well as shoulder, neck, and back pain. There have been some studies that imply that long term sitting can also lead to heart disease. Back bending poses relieve the tension in the front to open up the breathing and alleviates the strain in the back. Plus, these poses feel good. Side note: focus on bending the middle and upper back, not the lower back. The lower back already curves in that direction and shouldn’t curve more. The thoracic spine, however, will find great benefit from back bending.”

Are there actual poses that can help us with our menopausal symptoms?

In terms of menopausal maladies, poses like Legs Up the Wall Pose, Shoulder stand, and Plow pose are great to do before bed as they calm the nervous system and help you feel more at ease. Practicing one or all of these poses before bed helps you let go of the day and slide into sleep more easily. These are also cooling poses for the aforementioned hot flashes.

Wait! Is there a yoga practice we can do for hot flashes?!

Sitali Pranayama is a breathing practice that is also cooling. You curl your tongue into a tube and inhale through the tube, then exhale through the nose. This brings in cool air and releases hot air. Practicing this breathing practice when you are feeling overheated can cool you down quickly.

What has yoga taught you about yourself?

For me, yoga has become a way of life. I teach classes daily online and practice what I preach. Yoga teaches us to be kinder and gentler with ourselves, letting go of our harsh self-criticism and replacing it with self-compassion. No one is meaner to us than we are. Being kind to ourselves is the least we can do. It’s hard to live your life with an abusive voice in your head all the time.

Accepting myself as I am has been such a relief. I spent so many years unnecessarily worrying about what other people thought. When I understood that what they thought was none of my business, a huge weight was lifted. That and letting go of the need to be perfect were two weights that I am elated to be without. You don’t need to be perfect. There is no perfect. The world needs you, just as you are. No need to fix or change anything. Except maybe be nicer to yourself. That would be great.

Thanks so much Janine for sharing your knowledge and expertise of yoga with us!

Questions:

Do you practice yoga or have you ever tried yoga?

What benefits would you like to gain from yoga?