How therapeutic yoga can help you rebuild strength, stability and confidence through menopause.

3.5 Minute Read

Author: Juanita Hanna, Therapeutic Yoga Teacher.

For many women, menopause can arrive with an unexpected sense of betrayal.

From being in a body that has always felt capable, adaptable and resilient to one that increasingly feels stiff, sore, sensitive or unreliable. For these women, it may feel confusing, frustrating, and easy to attribute these experiences simply to the onset of menopause.

Yet what I often see working with women is something different.

Menopause on its own has not suddenly created these experiences. It has simply revealed patterns that the body could previously compensate for.

For women who have spent decades being “the flexible one”, meaning they could touch their toes without trying, sit comfortably, or in unusual positions on the floor or couch, and adapt relatively easily to physical challenges, there was no question, this was simply how their body had always been.

Then, somewhere through the menopause transition, the rules begin to change.

Recovery takes longer. Joints can become sore. Sleep is interrupted. Stress becomes harder to recover from. The body that once felt familiar begins to feel unpredictable.

For some women, this is also the time they first discover they are hypermobile.

The penny drops.

It wasn’t that the body suddenly became broken. It had simply been compensating remarkably well for many years.

Rather than asking,

‘What’s wrong with me?’

perhaps a more helpful question is,

‘What might my body be communicating?’

Curiosity creates space for understanding. It shifts us away from blame and towards awareness.

Awareness is often the first step towards change.

Rather than wishing the body back to where it once was, we begin to learn who we are now and how best to support the body we have today.

Research is helping us better understand hypermobility as far more than “being flexible”. It is increasingly recognised as a complex connective tissue condition that can influence joint stability, proprioception, pain, fatigue and recovery. Many people remain unaware they are hypermobile because they have adapted so well. Eventually, however, those compensation strategies begin to fail.

Menopause is often the point where the body quietly says,

‘I need a different strategy.’

Therapeutic yoga can become a valuable way of navigating this transition.

Unlike a traditional yoga class, therapeutic yoga is an individualised approach that blends modern movement science with traditional yoga practices, rather than asking the person to fit a large group practice. This can include gentle strengthening, breath awareness, balance training, myofascial release, modified Yin Yoga, or restorative practices such as Yoga Nidra. While each offers something different, they share the same intention, helping the body feel supported, the nervous system feel safe, enabling both movement and rest to become more sustainable.

My therapeutic yoga sessions begin with an individual assessment. Together, we begin to discover how your body moves, compensates and communicates before deciding what it needs next.

One of the first things I look at as a Therapeutic Yoga Teacher is not how flexible someone is, but how supported someone feels in their own body.  While I do not diagnose medical conditions, my role is to observe movement patterns and recognise when further assessment by a physiotherapist, medical practitioner or other healthcare professional may be appropriate. Therapeutic yoga works alongside healthcare, supporting the development of stability, confidence and awareness as part of a broader multidisciplinary approach.

As confidence grows, strength follows.

Together, we begin to explore some simple questions.

• Can I feel my feet connecting with the floor?
• Can I comfortably balance on one leg?
• Can I gently activate the muscles that support my joints without gripping?
• Can I notice my breath without forcing it?

These seemingly simple observations often reveal far more than how far someone can stretch.

Balance improves.

Breath becomes easier.

Movement begins to feel less effortful and more supported.

Yoga can have an important role to play here, not because it asks us to do more, but because it teaches us to do what matters with greater awareness.

Perhaps the greatest gift therapeutic yoga offers during menopause is not another stretch or another pose, but an opportunity to rebuild trust.

Trust in a body that may feel unfamiliar.

Trust in movement again.

Trust that strength can look different.

Trust that this next chapter is not about becoming the woman you once were, but discovering the woman you are becoming.

Menopause may not be asking us to become who we once were.

It may simply be inviting us to move from unconscious compensation to conscious reorganisation.

One breath. One step. One moment of awareness at a time.

If you’re wondering where to begin, don’t start by trying to do more. Simply notice your feet on the floor. Feel your breath. Become curious about how you’re standing before you think about changing it. Sometimes the smallest moments of awareness become the beginning of rebuilding trust.

Further Reading

• Slater P, Chryssidis R. Six Myths About Hypermobility, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders and Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. APA In Motion Magazine, 2026.
• Yoga Australia. Why and How Yoga Benefits Women in Menopause.
• Jeannie Di Bon. Navigating Menopause with Hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
• The Fibro Guy. Menopause, Perimenopause, Hypermobility and EDS.

About The author:

Juanita Hanna is a Therapeutic Yoga Teacher (RYT500), Yoga Australia Level 2 Teacher and AUSactive Registered Professional, with a special interest in menopause, hypermobility, persistent pain and healthy ageing.

Working collaboratively with physiotherapists, chiropractors and other healthcare practitioners through Smart Health and Human.Kind in Adelaide, Juanita integrates evidence-informed movement with therapeutic yoga to help people better understand their bodies to build confidence in movement.

Juanita is currently undertaking advanced training with the Yoga Therapy Institute of Australia while continuing her professional development through Yoga Medicine, with a particular interest in menopause, myofascial release, nervous system regulation and healthy ageing.