How to Combat Osteoporosis With Weight Training

You can't see it. You can't even feel it until you have a fracture. Yet according to the National Institute of Health, osteoporosis affects 44 million people; 68 percent are women. One in six women will experience a hip fracture. Defined as very low bone mass, osteoporosis can be debilitating. Proper exercise for prevention and treatment will help you effectively and safely improve bone mass or slow bone loss if it has begun.

Instructions

Prevention

• 1

  Youth sport participation is osteoporosis prevention in motion.

  Jump-rope and participate in a wide variety of sports. If you did this during childhood, you did your bones some good. If you have children or grandchildren, do everything you can to influence their positive feelings about activity. Youth and adolescents can significantly increase their adult bone density by participating in higher-impact activities. Gymnastics and basketball will have a greater effect on bone density than swimming or bicycling, which unload the bones and provide no ground forces.

• 2

  Boosting bone strength.

  Run, jump, hop, shuffle and lift heavy weights during your 20's and 30's. Vary the direction of impact to the bone by alternating activities. Boot-camp-style classes that promote unusual loads are preferred over doing more familiar movements. Premenopausal women can still positively affect bone mineral mass. From ages 25 to 35, bone continues to solidify. The disadvantage as an adult compared to a child is that any bone density you gain through exercise is only good while your participation continues. Once the exercise ceases, the resulting gains in bone mass will reverse. The good news is even short intermittent exercise helps; jump-rope five to 50 jumps a day.

• 3

  Bone-building exercise can help you live the life you want.

  Prioritize weight lifting over weight-bearing exercise. Postmenopausal women and older adults stand to gain more from strength training than any other mode of exercise. Lift heavy enough weights that you reach temporary fatigue in 10 repetitions. If you're new to exercise, begin with 15 repetitions and over several weeks gradually increase the weight and reduce the repetitions to 10. Minimal effective stress (MES) refers to the effectiveness of weight-bearing exercises you select. Walking programs are often ineffective because they don't provide enough additional overload to activities of daily life. What qualifies as MES varies per individual. Do as much impact exercise as you can safely handle.

Post-Diagnosis

• 4

  Heavy weights, heavy gains.

  Strength-train specific to osteoporosis. Bones respond to stress. Volume of training is important. Heavy weight for fewer repetitions is more effective than lighter weight for more repetitions. That's not to say that the other method is wrong; muscle will respond to both regimens. Low weight and high repetitions is simply not bone-density specific. Two to three sets of 10 repetitions each will be optimal. Include 10 exercises that strengthen all of the major muscle groups and help to load as many skeletal bones as possible. Perform exercises that load the upper back, the middle back and the lower back, for instance, as the spine is a specific area vulnerable to fracture.

• 5

  Strength-train on weight machines for safety. The term "core lifts" describes exercises that use several joints and major muscles. Examples include leg press, chest press and seated row. Performing these exercises on a weight machine also enables you to increase the weight progressively and maintain 10 repetitions as a challenge. Progressing to free weights will engage more muscles and balance. If you must decrease the weight significantly to do this or feel unsafe, continue with machine weights.

• 6

  Fall prevention starts with strength and balance.

  Decrease your fall risk. Practice isolated muscle exercises while standing in balance-enhancing positions. Strength in itself is the foundation for balance. Balance is not an exercise; it is an outcome, according to biomechanics expert Tom Purvis, PT. Carefully plan positions during exercises to further your enhance the benefits. For instance, while performing a biceps curl, stand in a stagger stance as if you were on a balance beam. Alternate legs with the second set. You'll engage small stabilizing muscles to remain upright.

• 7

  Prescription drugs may help bone density.

  Avoid sudden changes of direction, forceful forward flexion, rotation and any attempt to do too much too soon. Once you are diagnosed with osteoporosis, you need to consider your smaller bones more fragile and vulnerable to injury. The spinal vertebra and the wrists, for instance, are smaller bones. While you do want to apply stress by resistance training with them to create stronger bones, you want to do it gradually and remain pain free.