Yoga For Bone Strength: Live Online Masterclass, Second Run Sunday 15 November With Chris Lalor

Bone grows where you load it. Nowhere else.

Buy your place today and you are straight into the whole series — the next live session is Strength & core stability on 27 September. Bone strength runs again live online on Sunday 15 November, and so joining now costs you nothing. Pressure on a bone — loading — is one of the most powerful things shaping how strong that bone is. A held standing pose is load, using nothing but your own bodyweight.

Chris Lalor spends half an hour explaining exactly how that works, and where the evidence is strong and where it is still thin. Then ninety minutes putting it to work on the legs, spine, neck, shoulders, arms and wrists.

Here is what you walk away with on the day:

• How long to hold a pose when the point of it is bone, and why the minute matters
• How to load the upper body — arms, shoulders and wrists — which almost every exercise programme leaves out
• How to sequence it safely at home, so you are not guessing between classes

“You do it well at Flametree. Three things strike me: intelligent use of props. Precise instructions. An experienced and highly-trained teacher, who is also ‘of an age’ — ie understanding the changing capabilities of the older student.” — Danny Slater, Adelaide

“Chris makes sure there are doable poses for everyone and all explained well. The 2 1/2 hours just flew and am so looking forward to the next one.” — Fiona, after the first bone strength masterclass, 30 August

The in-the-studio places sold out in six days. LIVE online interactive places are still open, from anywhere. There are 27 left.

Buy today and you are in the whole series — all six Sundays, $239.

Save my LIVE online place — all six Sundays, $239

Online place, $239 the six. Nothing to choose — the button puts it straight in your cart.

Or read what this masterclass actually covers, below.

Bone starts thinning from about 35. Not from 70.

This is the part that usually gets left out. Bone mass peaks somewhere between the late twenties and the mid thirties. After that the line turns downwards and it keeps going, decade after decade. For women it steepens again around menopause.

So this is not a subject that begins when you are old. If you are 42 it is already under way. If you are 58 it has been under way for twenty years. If you are 71 it is still going — and there is still something worth doing about it.

Bone mass peaks in the late twenties to mid thirties, then falls away for the rest of your life — more steeply for women after menopause. Every decade on that downslope is a decade where load makes a difference.

And bone is only half of the story

Muscle is sliding too, on roughly the same timetable. That matters more than it sounds, because the two are not separate systems.

A muscle pulls on the bone it is attached to, and that pull is one of the ways a bone gets loaded. Switch on the muscles around a joint and they turn the bone, generating exactly the sort of force bone answers to. So muscle is not just what moves you about. It is one of the two things asking your skeleton to stay strong.

Which is why it compounds. Less muscle means less pull, which means less of the signal bone responds to, which makes the next decade harder than the one before. Work the muscle properly and the same loop runs the other way.

The good news, and it applies from 35 onwards

There is a great deal that can be done, at any age on that graph, and it is a body of technique rather than a single trick. Which poses put load through which bones. How long to hold one for that purpose. How to get weight through the arms and wrists, which ordinary life almost never does. How to load a hip. How to use props so you can hold a pose long enough for it to count. How to put the whole lot in a safe order.

That is what this afternoon is for. Not more poses — the reasons, and the method, so you can do it properly for the next thirty years rather than hoping.

The work is different at 45 from what it is at 70, and Chris will say plainly what changes. But there is real work available in every one of those decades.

Whatever decade you are in, some of this will probably sound familiar:

• You do a fair bit of walking and you have assumed that covers your bones.
• Someone your age has broken a wrist doing something completely ordinary.
• You have had a scan, or been told to have one, and nobody explained what you were meant to do about it.
• Nobody has ever told you which of the things you already do actually load bone, and which do not.
• You have picked up bits and pieces about bone density over the years and never had it laid out properly, start to finish.

You do not need to recognise all five. If you recognised two, this afternoon was written for you.

How the loading actually works

None of it is about being flexible. It is about being taught properly, and about load. Bone responds to being asked to carry something. Iyengar yoga asks it deliberately — through gravity, alignment and resistance — and it asks the same of the arms and wrists that nothing else in an ordinary day goes near.

The right yoga has real potential to help head off sneaky bone density decline. Chris will be straight with you about where the evidence is strong and where it is still thin. That honesty is the point of the half hour.

This is where the slide ends up if nothing is asking anything of the bone: from 60, breaking a bone is close to a coin toss for an Australian woman. The useful half of the sentence is that bone answers load — and it answers at 40 and at 55, not only at the end.

Where a hip actually breaks

Not the big obvious bone. It breaks at the femoral neck — the short angled stretch between the ball at the top of your thigh bone and the shaft below it. It is about as wide as a 50-cent coin.

Here is the part almost nobody is told. The wall of that bone is not the same thickness all the way round. Underneath, where your weight presses every time you take a step, it is around 6 mm thick. On top it can be 0.3 mm — less than half the thickness of a credit card.

That difference is not an accident. It is the same rule as everything else on this page: bone thickens where it is loaded, and nowhere else. Walking loads the bottom of the femoral neck, every stride, all your life. Almost nothing you do in an ordinary day loads the top.

A cross-section straight through the neck of your thigh bone. The solid outer wall is about 6 mm thick on the underside, where every step presses on it, and can be 0.3 mm on top. The two bars on the right are drawn to scale against each other — a credit card is more than twice the thickness of that top wall.

And the top is the part that gets jarred when you fall. Walking never tests it. A fall does.

Your hip is also not a post. A post takes weight straight down the middle, which bone is superb at. Your femoral neck takes it off to the side, at an angle of about 125 degrees, so the load bends it rather than simply pressing on it — and bending is the thing bone is worst at. A bracket is only as good as its top edge, and on a femoral neck that edge can be 0.3 mm.

Stand on one leg and roughly two and a half times your bodyweight goes through that coin-sized piece of bone. A held standing pose puts load through it for far longer than a stride does, in a direction ordinary life almost never asks for. That is a large part of what this afternoon is about.

Why the wrist keeps coming up

The wrist is one of the first bones a woman may break, often years before a hip. Almost nothing else in ordinary life loads it — you do not lift much through a straight arm, you do not stand on your hands, you do not push the floor away.

In an Iyengar class you do all three, in almost every session. That is not a claim about outcomes. It is a description of what the poses ask of the arm.

What actually happens on the afternoon

1. Half an hour of presentation and discussion. The how and why of loading bone, what the research says and does not say, and questions taken as they come.
2. Ninety minutes of practice with Chris. Standing poses, balances, inversions, backbends and twists — set up properly, adjusted, and held.
3. The upper body, deliberately. Arms, shoulders, neck and wrists, which is the part almost every other programme skips.
4. How long, and in what order. You leave knowing what to hold, for how long, and how to build a safe sequence at home.
5. Written notes afterwards. Proper prose you can read a fortnight later, not slides.

Two and a quarter hours in all. Long enough to set a pose up, watch you do it, correct it, and have you do it again — which does not fit into a normal class, whatever its length.

Three things this gives you that a class cannot

Time. A sixty-minute class has no room to explain. This one has half an hour every single time, before you move at all.

The reasons. You will practise differently once you know why a pose does what it does. Most people find that is the part that stays with them.

Somebody senior watching. Chris Lalor is a Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher, a moderator of the panels that certify Iyengar teachers, and one of the more senior practising Iyengar teachers in Australia. Thirty years of teaching, and six years of teaching live online.

Joining live online: what it is actually like

The studio filled in six days. Online is not the leftover option — it is how a growing number of Flametree students prefer to practise, including people who live ten minutes from the door.

• The same session, at the same time, live. Not a video. Chris sees you and corrects you.
• Video access afterwards, is in your Flametree video library. Miss a Sunday, watch it later. Come back to it in three years.
• The same written notes after every session.
• No drive, no parking, no traffic. You roll out your mat where you are.
• Use your own props, improvise, or use none. Chris explains an alternative for everything — books, a belt, a firm cushion, a dining chair.

Flametree has been running live online classes for six years. This is not an experiment.

Start times around Australia

Darwin doesn’t do daylight saving, so the eastern states are an hour later from 25 October — including for this 15 November session.

“Flametree Yoga’s range of online yoga classes is exceptional and they are conducted so well that you feel like you are in the studio with the teacher.” — Dee

“I am completely intrigued by the way it works. I love all the subtleties and details that make a difference… I find it amazing that I have learnt so much, being hundreds of kilometres away.” — student, Alice Springs

Save my LIVE online place — all six Sundays, $239

And then there are five more

Here is the part worth knowing before you decide. This is one of six Sunday afternoons, and the sensible way to buy is the lot — because that is how it is sold, and because each one builds on the one before.

Sunday 27 September — strength and core stability. How holding a pose keeps muscles working even when the body appears still, and a proper look at the yogic core. It is not just the abdominals, and it is not built by pulling your stomach in.

Sunday 25 October — the immune system, and restorative practice. Your blood has a pump. Your lymph does not. A gentler afternoon, with doable inversions for every level.

Sunday 8 November — quietening the mind. I like this one. I can’t do this. Why are we holding it so long? Those reactions are not trivial — the same habits show up everywhere else. The pose becomes a mirror.

Sunday 22 November — pranayama and breathwork. Most of us breathe around 20,000 times a day and have never been taught how. What each technique is for, and why the nose matters far more than you would think.

Sunday 6 December — hips. The largest weight-bearing joint you own, and the pelvis everything else turns around — which is why hip work so often helps the lower back too. Whether you still have your own hips or have some metal bits.

What the six cost, per hour

$239 for the series. That is $39.83 a session — and because each one runs two and a quarter hours, it works out at $17.70 an hour. Less per hour than a casual non-beginner class.

Thirteen and a half hours in total, which is the longest thing Flametree has ever run outside a retreat.

What is included

• Six sessions of 2¼ hours — thirteen and a half hours in total
• Half an hour of presentation and discussion each time — the how and why, with questions taken
• Ninety minutes of practice with a Certified Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher — thirty years of teaching, watching and guiding
• Written notes after every session — so what you learned in September is still there in December
• Video access afterwards, is in your Flametree video library — a Sunday away does not cost you the session
• Live online from anywhere — same session, same time, seen and corrected
• Improvised props explained — you do not need to own a bolster
• All props provided in the studio — just turn up in comfortable clothes

Why this approach suits an afternoon like this

• Props support you rather than push you, so a long hold is possible without strain
• Precision means you can be told exactly what to do, and feel what changes when you do it
• Teachers train for years rather than weeks, so the corrections are informed
• Sequencing is built for real bodies — including stiff ones, older ones, and ones with a history

No heat, no music, no competition with anyone. Nobody watching what anyone else is doing.

What Flametree students say

“I really enjoyed the masterclass on bone health. Having osteopenia myself, it made me realise how important it is to ‘work’ my bones, particularly as I get older. I definitely came away feeling like I had learned some valuable information. The best bit was the 90 mins of supportive practice.” — a Flametree student, after the first bone strength masterclass

“I had many years away from yoga & kind of felt I may have missed the boat. Flametree Yoga has led me slowly & surely back to strength, stability & confidence. No more back issues, up & down ladders again with ease, better sleep & lowered stress.” — Sharon, Coolalinga Darwin

“Classes often have a theme and always have a logic that takes us from active to wind down — always with a fantastic blend of challenge, stretches and breathing exercises — along with really helpful Iyengar philosophy. I owe a great deal to Flametree — fitness, optimism, can-do attitude are all benefits that I have experienced — and courage!” — Karen

“Initially, I attended at the studio, and then when I moved, I went online. Flametree changed my life. It’s all about the quality of instruction from the teachers, their training and understanding, and how they pass that on.” — Gillian

What changes if you come

By 6 December you will have done thirteen and a half hours of properly taught practice, and you will know why each part of it works. Most people find that changes how they practise afterwards — not what they do, but how they do it.

Or it will be December, and the same questions you have been quietly carrying will still be the same questions. That is genuinely the whole choice.

Questions

Have I missed the bone strength masterclass? No. It runs again live online on Sunday 15 November, and you have ongoing video access to the August one in the meantime. Nothing is lost either way. The 15 November session is online only — the studio sold out in six days — but everyone is welcome online, including students in the Greater Darwin region.

Studio students — what about 15 November? This is the one session with no in-room option. Join online just for this one to get all six, or stick with six in the studio and keep video access to the November session instead.

What if I can’t make 15 November live either? Ongoing video access to that session is in your Flametree video library, the same as every other one. Watch it whenever suits — nothing is lost by missing it live.

Do I have to come to all six? The series is sold as all six and it is built to build. Each afternoon stands on its own, but they lead into each other.

What is the online version actually like? Same session, same time, live. You are seen and corrected. Chris has taught online for six years. You get the same written notes, and video access afterwards is in your Flametree video library. One student who lives ten minutes from the studio chose online for this series.

Do I need props at home? No. Chris explains improvised alternatives for everything — books, a belt, a firm cushion, a dining chair.

Is two and a quarter hours too long for me? Half an hour of it is sitting down, listening and asking questions. The practice is ninety minutes, prop-supported throughout, and you can rest whenever you want. Nobody watches.

I have only been practising six months. Is this too advanced? You will be fine. Everything is adjusted with props as needed. All you need is enough practice to know your way around a pose, not to be good at it.

Who is this not for? If you are brand new to yoga, start with beginner classes and come to this next year — you will get far more from it. If you are unsure about your own situation, email us and we will help you work it out.

The six, at a glance

Save your place

27 LIVE online places left. $239 for all six Sundays — join for bone strength on 15 November, or start wherever suits.

Save my LIVE online place — all six Sundays, $239

Or pay direct to Flametree’s bank: BSB 065-901, Acc No. 10464634, Flametree Yoga Studio. Email [email protected] to tell us.

Returning to yoga, or new to Flametree? New and 3-months-lapsed students can add a half-price 10-class pass to this series — non-beginners here, or beginners here.

The full six-masterclass page, with everything each afternoon covers, is here.