Workouts to Improve Bone Strength

🏋️♀️ OSTEOPOROSIS & STRENGTH TRAINING: TIME TO CRUSH THE MYTHS! ❌ "Be careful with weightlifting, you might break an osteoporotic woman!" 🚨 WRONG. Strength training is NOT a risk – it’s part of the treatment! Many believe osteoporosis patients should avoid heavy weights. Science says the opposite. Lifting strengthens bones, reduces fractures, and improves function. 🔬 THE LIFTMOR STUDY: LIFT HEAVY, BUILD STRONG BONES The LIFTMOR Study (Watson et al., 2017) proved that heavy lifting is safe and effective for osteoporosis. ✅ Study Design: High-Intensity Resistance & Impact Training (HiRIT): Squats, deadlifts, overhead presses at 85-90% 1RM, impact landings Control Group: Light weights, balance exercises 📊 RESULTS (8 Months of Training): 📈 Bone Density Gains 🔥 +2.9% lumbar spine | +0.3% femoral neck (vs -1.2% & -1.9% in controls) 📈 Bone Strength 🔥 +13.6% cortical thickness (vs 6.3%) 📈 Functional Performance 🔥 Significant gains in balance, strength, and mobility ⚠️ Injuries? Fractures? None. Just one minor back spasm (resolved in a week). 👉 Conclusion? Heavy lifting is a must for osteoporosis management. 🚫 YOGA, PILATES, ZUMBA WON’T BUILD BONE! ✔️ Yoga & Pilates? ✅ Good for flexibility ❌ Not enough strain for bone growth ✔️ Zumba? ✅ Fun ❌ Not high-impact enough 🦴 Bones need STRAIN & IMPACT to adapt! ⏳ OSTEOPOROSIS STARTS YOUNG – BUILD BONES EARLY! 🚨 Osteoporosis begins in childhood. Peak bone mass is reached by age 30. Poor nutrition & inactivity set the stage for future fractures. 👶 WHAT KIDS & TEENS NEED: ✅ Protein & Calcium (Dairy, greens, sardines) ✅ Vitamin D (Sunlight, Supplements) ✅ Bone-Loading Sports (Gymnastics, sprinting, weight training) 📵 Screen time kills bone health. Get them moving! 🩻 DEXA SCAN – KNOW YOUR BONES! 📢 EVERYONE should get a DEXA scan. ✔ 50+? Get tested. ✔ Risk factors (family history, early menopause, steroid use, sedentary lifestyle)? Get tested. 🦴 Know your numbers, take action early. 🔥 HOW TO STRENGTHEN BONES TODAY 1️⃣ Get a DEXA Scan 2️⃣ Start Strength Training (Squats, deadlifts, presses) 3️⃣ Add Impact Training (Jumping, drop landings) 4️⃣ Optimize Nutrition (Protein, calcium, vitamin D, magnesium) 5️⃣ Avoid Processed Foods 6️⃣ Limit Alcohol & Stop Smoking 7️⃣ Get Kids Active Early 💬 BOTTOM LINE: ❌ Osteoporosis doesn’t mean avoiding weights – it means you NEED them! 🏋️♀️ Strength training isn’t just safe – it’s essential. 🦴 Bones need LOAD to grow strong. 👉 Tag someone who needs to hear this! Let’s crush this osteoporosis myth! 💪 #Osteoporosis #StrengthTraining #BoneHealth #Longevity #Biohacking #DEXA #LIFTMORStudy

To improve bone health, heavy resistance training and impact activity are the best solutions. The body responds and adapts to stress. Fortunately, high-intensity resistance training and impact exercises are not just for the young; they are effective and safe for older adults, too. The LIFTMOR (Lifestyle-Intervention and Functional Exercise for Osteoporosis) research trials are a fantastic series of studies that show how powerful and safe high-intensity exercise is. The participants, all postmenopausal women aged around 65 with osteoporosis or osteopenia (the stage of density loss before osteoporosis), engaged in two 30-minute resistance training sessions per week. Each session included deadlifts, overhead presses, and back squats for 5 sets of 5 at an intensity of 80–85% of their 1-repetition maximum (the most weight they can lift). They also performed jumping chin-ups with drop landings. They began by grabbing an overhead bar, then jumped as high as possible while pulling themselves up with their arms. At the peak of the jump, they dropped to the floor, focusing on a controlled and impactful landing. Yes, 65-year-old women with low bone mineral density did all that. Despite the intensity, no injuries were reported. More importantly, the high-intensity group showed significant improvements in bone mineral density, strength, and functional measures compared to a lower-intensity control group.

Your Peloton is great for your heart. It's doing nothing for your bones. Professional cyclists lose bone density during training. A systematic review on cycling and swimming confirmed it: zero positive effect on bone mineral density. Zero. You could be the fittest person in the room and have the weakest skeleton. Bone only responds to mechanical load. On a bike or in a pool, there's almost none going through your frame. Your heart gets stronger. Your bones get nothing. I spent years in consulting sitting twelve hours a day. Back-to-back meetings in windowless rooms. I trained on top of that and thought I was covered. I wasn't. Nobody told me that sitting all day signals to your bones they don't need to stay strong. Day after day, year after year, they adapt. Just not in the direction you want. What the research says works: Heavy compound lifts, twice a week, 30 minutes. • Squats • Deadlifts • Overhead press Five sets of five at 85%+ of your max. The LIFTMOR trial put postmenopausal women with low bone mass on this exact protocol. They gained roughly 4% in lumbar spine density. Adherence above 90%. No fractures. If it was safe for that population, your excuses are thin. Add 10 jumps, three times a week. Two minutes total. Do them between calls. Nobody needs to know. 60 minutes a week. Less time than a strategy meeting that could've been an email. After 30, you lose 0.5-1% of bone mass per year. By 50, you could be down 10-20% and feel completely fine. The official screening recommendation for men? Wait until 70. Or until something breaks. When was the last time a doctor mentioned your bone density? I wrote about all of this in Sunday's Upward ARC newsletter. 20 peer-reviewed sources. The full protocol, the screening blind spots, and what changes after 30. Subscribe here www.andreheeg.com Stay healthy, Andre Heeg, MD, PhD

Menopause is an important moment in a woman’s bone health journey. As hormones change and oestrogen levels decline - bone mineral density (BMD) decreases. With this loss of bone density comes reduced bone strength and a greater risk of fractures. Risk is greater, the earlier menopause happens in life. There are various interventions which are recommended for prevention or treatment of osteopenia or osteoporosis - lifestyle, non-hormonal therapies/medications and of course hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The best approach depends on woman’s age, age at menopause, medical/family history, lifestyle, medications use and balance of benefits versus risks. With so much noise and aggressive push for HRT in the media - the important role of diet and exercise in bone health can be undermined. Weight bearing and resistance exercises are known to improve bone density - but do they work? And what type are best? Let’s look at some of the relevant scientific papers. To estimate the effects of different types of exercise on BMD at different regions of interest (ROI), Kemmler et al. conducted an analysis based on a comprehensive meta-analysis on exercise effects on BMD in postmenopausal women. All types of exercise significantly affected BMD at LS, FN and TH. The results provide evidence for the favorable effect of exercise on BMD largely independent of the type of exercise. https://lnkd.in/eRDTNjdt What does the Cochrane review suggest? It looked at 43 randomised trials with 4320 participants. The results suggest a relatively small statistically significant, but possibly important, effect of exercise on bone density compared with control groups without exercise. https://lnkd.in/eRwHCmBb O’Bryan et al. in their analysis found that resistance training programs concomitantly increase lower-limb muscle strength and femur/hip BMD in older adults, with greater certainty for strength improvement. https://lnkd.in/eR8seaTX So, exercise is good for bones but what type is preferred? Weight-bearing exercise is crucial for building and maintaining bone strength and involves activities where body's weight is supported by feet and legs for example walking, jogging, dancing, and even jumping, with the intensity adjusted based on individual needs and abilities.  Progressive muscle resistance training is the best type of muscle-strengthening exercise for bones. It involves using weights or resistance bands to build up the work for muscles over time - gradually increasing the weight lifted in a slow and controlled way. It’s important to build up gradually based on fitness level and muscle strength and having a trainer/qualified supervisor/coach is ideal. Here is an information leaflet which provides a brief overview of many lifestyle interventions that can help during menopause transition - https://lnkd.in/enCTQFUA

𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 "𝗟𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆" When a 70-year-old patient asked me, "Would my bones not break?" after her osteoporosis diagnosis, it sparked an important conversation about bone health that every woman should understand. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Understanding Your Bone Architecture: Your skeleton contains two distinct bone types working in harmony: Cortical bone forms the dense, calcium-rich outer layer of long bones, providing structural integrity and resistance to bending forces. Trabecular bone creates the honeycomb-like interior, particularly abundant in your spine and the ends of long bones, designed to absorb and distribute mechanical stress. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗽𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 While genetics influence baseline bone strength, menopause dramatically shifts the equation. During this transition, many women experience declining bone mineral density (BMD) - essentially a measure of how mineral-rich and strong your bones remain. Your bones constantly undergo remodeling: old bone tissue breaks down while new tissue builds up. This delicate balance tips during menopause, favoring bone removal over formation, weakening your skeletal foundation and increasing fracture risk. 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵: The DEXA Scan Healthcare providers primarily use DEXA scans to assess BMD, with results reported as T-scores comparing your bone density to a healthy 30-year-old: T-score -1.0 or higher: Normal bone density T-score between -1.0 and -2.5: Osteopenia (low bone mass) T-score -2.5 or lower: Osteoporosis diagnosis Advanced imaging like HR-pQCT and trabecular bone scores provide additional diagnostic precision. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Building Stronger Bones Research consistently demonstrates that combined aerobic and resistance training outperforms either approach alone for bone health. The key lies in progressive resistance training using your one-repetition maximum (1RM) - the heaviest weight you can lift once with proper form. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗹: Calculate 85% of your 1RM for major muscle groups Perform 5 repetitions for 3 sets Target arms, legs, and back systematically Studies show this approach reduces injury rates, improves balance, and significantly decreases fracture risk. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲 As exercise physiologist Stacy Sims emphasizes, "Lift Shit", your bones respond to mechanical stress by becoming stronger. While resistance training doesn't replace medical treatment, it provides powerful complementary therapy. 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂; 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸. What questions do you have about bone health and exercise? Share your thoughts below.

Plyometrics are explosive movements that are particularly helpful in preserving and developing fast-twitch muscle fibers. We’ve learned that our fast-twitch fibers and their associated function erode rapidly as we age. Like so much about aging, it’s a use-it-or-lose-it process. When we neglect this aspect of our fitness, our function declines. Plyos are also excellent for preserving bone strength. And because they generate a sizeable neuromuscular stimulus, they also help with balance and coordination. So, LOTSA great stuff from a couple of pretty simple movements. Coaching point: The key is a soft landing. You want to absorb as much of the force from the landing as possible with a soft landing. You don’t want to feel a jolt when you return to the ground with either the pushups or the squat. As soon as you can master the coordination, try to sink right into the next rep without pause or hard stop. But how can you incorporate these when you can hardly do five regular pushups? Start with modifications. You can try doing these as knee pushups until you feel confident you won’t break your nose. Same for the Squat Jumps. Start with tiny hops or full-body extensions and build from there. Warning: if you have replacement parts (hip/knee/ankle replacements) please check with your physician and/or physical therapist before building these into your program. Same if you’ve had an Achilles injury or shoulder issue. Be smart, please. How often and how much should you do? A good place to start is adding 3 sets of 8-10 reps once per week into your plan. What’s your favorite plyo exercise? #plyometrics #coordination #neuromuscular #powertraining #legstrength #plyos