Osteoporosis, Building bone and why it’s important.

Photo credit: https://www.twc-ms.com/answers/how-to-prevent-osteoporosis

Building bone and why it’s important.

Osteoporosis is when we have low bone mass or brittle bones, and occurs when the bone loss is greater than bone renewal. This can happen in both men and woman, and surprisingly from as early on as in our 30’s, as we when we age we start to lose more bone mass than we create.

Osteoporosis can lead to fragility fractures and breaks, specifically in the wrists, front of the spine and hips. There are many reasons why some of us might be diagnosed with osteoporosis earlier than others; lack of calcium (diet), a sedentary lifestyle, age (menopause in woman) and medical conditions are a few.

Given this it is important learn how to maintain and build bone mass – think of it as a bone buffer zone. The more bone mass we build up the less likely we will develop osteoporosis, so exercising in our earlier years will help us to build and maintain good bone density and muscle mass as we get older. Good bone density and muscles mass is achieved through weight bearing, resistance and impact work.  

If you have been diagnosed with Osteopenia or Osteoporosis it is important that you do not stop moving, movement is our equivalent of the oil for the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. It’s important to stay active but to modify the exercises. There are movements that you need to avoid such as running, jumping and loaded flexion all of which compress the spine, but many exercises we can and should continue with safely.

Walking is key and great for everyone, so it’s important that we keep it on our daily schedule.

Balance - so, so important but especially as age, we need to do everything we can to ensure we do not fall. Working our back muscles will help to prevent falls, so we need to incorporate some safe extension exercises into your workouts.

Bone is strengthened by weight bearing and resistance, but we need to be careful not to overload the body and to maintain correct alignment. Lifting nothing heavier than 20lbs, follow safe lifting techniques and have the object close to the body to dimmish the load on the spine.

We need good hip mobility to help bring our pelvis and spine into correct alignment when walking, standing or sitting. As well as strong core, back and neck muscles to help keep us in a good upright posture.

We also need to work on leg strength to support our functional movements. When you lift an object you should be bending your knees and hinging from your hips so that you can keep your spine straight. As I say to my clients, your head is an extension of your spine so the position of your head will affect your spine too, something to also bear in mind as you are moving.

For the remainder of this week I am offering my classes free to everyone. I have posted a video for Osteoporosis under the specialist section and I will be adding more in the next few days.

 Please feel free to share with friends and family and enjoy!