Strengthen Your Bones

[Guest guest]

Was checking out some fitness and weight machines and found this.

(Disclaimer. Not affiliated with this company.)

Aequalsz

http://www.bodytrends.com/articles/strength/strengthbones.htm

Strengthen Your Bones

By Joy DuMay, Certified Fitness Trainer

Did you know that you can grow bones? Yes, it's true: bone is a unique

connective tissue that becomes mineralized, thereby providing a rigid

support structure. This structure is actually a very active tissue

that is sensitive to changes in the forces it experiences and has the

capacity for growth and regeneration if damaged.

The maintenance of bone mass is related in part to hormonal and

nutritional factors, but it is also related to the level of physical

activity of an individual. After about age 25, the mass and structural

integrity of bone begin to decline in the average man or woman. If a

person has a mostly sedentary lifestyle, they may be on the road to

osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is a disease in which bone mineral density and bone mass

become reduced to critically low levels. Although it occurs largely in

post-menopausal women, there is an increasing rate of incidence among

elderly men. When the bone becomes this compromised, forces that would

normally be absorbed by the skeleton now result in bone fractures. The

sites of fracture that are the most devastating are in the axial

skeleton (the spine and hip).

What kind of training is the best for increasing your bone strength?

Activities that stimulate muscle growth and strength gains also

stimulate the growth of bone and associated connective tissue.

Trainers generally refer to this type of training as " weight bearing " .

The following are three principles to guide you in your selection of

exercises. Make sure that you get advice from a qualified fitness

professional to develop a program that suits your individual needs.

strength equipment

Progressive Overload

Progressively place greater-than-normal demands on the exercising

muscles. If you have been sedentary, just walking around the block may

be sufficient stimulus to build bone. Bone responds to the magnitude

and rate of external loading: therefore, it is necessary to increase

the resistance by making the exercise progressively more difficult.

Start out easy and add weight slowly. If you suspect that you have

very low bone mass, it would be wise to have some form of bone imaging

before you embark on a fitness program.

Specificity

Perform an exercise that directly affects your target bones. Doing a

Squat (which starts in a standing position and involves bending from

the hips, knees and ankles) puts more force on your spine than a Wrist

Curl (flexion and extension of the wrist). When you press weight up

overhead in a Shoulder Press, you'll be strengthening your upper

skeleton. If you're new to weight bearing exercises, body part

exercises are useful: you'll increase your kinesthetic awareness and

begin to condition your muscles. However, after becoming more familiar

with strength building exercises, you'll want to incorporate the third

principle, Variation.

Variation

Choose exercises that involve many muscle groups. Use of isolation

exercises that stabilize that rest of the body should be limited when

your goal is bone building. If your body is braced for isolating one

muscle group, you won't get the synergistic and stabilizing benefits

of a structural exercise (one that involves many muscle groups).

Structural exercises like squats (for the spinal skeleton) and bench

presses and overhead presses (for the upper limbs) also allow you to

lift heavier loads during training.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association has set exercise

prescription guidelines for stimulating bone growth. They suggest

performing 3-6 sets of up to 10 repetitions, rest of 1-4 minutes

between sets, and selection of structural exercises such as: Squats,

Deadlifts, Bench Press and Shoulder Press. free weights women's strength

books and videos

[Guest guest]

Some people think it's related to PTH. (which changes with age, of course).

If it was solely a weight bearing thing, obese women would not have to worry about knee/hip joint replacement.

Since there are notable examples of CRONies with osteopenia, osteoporosis, I assume eating too little, or exercising more than the caloric intake will allow, is a no-no.

Finding the right level of exercise and intake may be a problem, with or without exercise.

http://www.ctds.info/osteopenia.html

"So how am I beating the odds against low bone density? All I do is exercise regularly (walking, dancing and yoga) and eat as healthy as I can, including lots of nondairy foods high in calcium. There are lots of good diet and exercise tips in the books below, including many osteoporosis prevention tips that are often overlooked by doctors and the mainstream media."

http://www.ctds.info/osteoporosis-exercise.html

"Weight Bearing Exercise

According to Betty and Si Kamen, authors of Osteoporosis, aerobic walking is the best possible exercise for osteoporosis prevention. Walking outside in the sunshine not only gives bones the strengthening benefits that come with the weight bearing exercise of walking, but the skin exposure to sunshine also helps with the absorption of Vitamin D. Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium from the intestines and into the blood. Statistically, about 30 - 40 percent of the people who get hip fractures, a common occurrence with osteoporosis, are vitamin D deficient. "

Regards.

----- Original Message -----

From: aequalsz

Sent: Sunday, June 06, 2004 12:20 PM

Subject: [ ] Strengthen Your Bones

The maintenance of bone mass is related in part to hormonal andnutritional factors, but it is also related to the level of physicalactivity of an individual. After about age 25, the mass and structuralintegrity of bone begin to decline in the average man or woman. If aperson has a mostly sedentary lifestyle, they may be on the road toosteoporosis.