Your Lovely Bones

Numerous studies have clearly established the benefits of exercise on bone density as we age.  But what kind of exercise?  For this guest blogpost, I asked Joan Pagano, an authority on the benefits of exercise for women’s health issues such as breast cancer, menopause and osteoporosis, to describe the basics of a bone-strengthening program.  She’ll follow-up later this week with a second blogpost that provides a more detailed plan that you can integrate into your workouts.  Joan is the author of six books, including my own favorite resource for strength training; Strength Training for Women.

Think about your strong, healthy bones and how they support you as you move through your day.  Picture your skeleton as the infrastructure of your body, a framework for your muscles and joints, and just imagine how life-changing it could be if the struts in that framework became weak and fragile, at risk of collapse.

Osteoporosis – which literally means “porous bones” – is a bone-thinning disease caused by a loss of mineral (primarily calcium) that weakens the bone structure.  It is a silent disease, with no apparent symptoms until a fracture occurs.  Exercise is a key factor in both preventing and treating this condition, but the strategies are completely different.  This column will highlight exercise for prevention and next week we’ll look at modifications if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis.

After age 40, the goals of exercise are to maintain bone mass, offset or reduce bone loss and improve balance and coordination.  Exercise should maximize the load to the bones with a progressive (i.e. gradual intensification) program of weight bearing aerobic exercise and weight lifting.  Assuming your joints are healthy, you should aim for:

High impact aerobic exercise, defined as activities in which both feet are off the ground at the same time, as in running, jumping rope, and high-impact aerobic dance; also sports like basketball, volleyball and gymnastics. For bone formation, you want to maximize the ground reaction forces, the force with which your body hits the ground.High intensity weight lifting, using the heaviest weights you can lift in good form for 8-12 repetitions with the last few reps being challenging.  Do 1-3 sets of each exercise.

To target bones throughout the body do exercises for all the major muscle groups:  Hips and thighs, back, chest, shoulders, arms and abdomen.

Stabilization exercises, using the stability ball, BOSU and foam rollers, which recruit the muscles of the core body as you master unstable surfaces.

Remember: To prevent injury, it’s essential to prepare your joints for more intense work by increasing the workload gradually.

Of course, this information should not take the place of guidance from your own physician or other medical professional.  Always consult with your doctor before beginning an exercise program or becoming much more physically active.

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