Best Exercises to Build Bone Density

Best Exercises to Build Bone Density

Bone health is one of those hidden mysteries for many people. Until there is a revealing event, such as a fracture or results of a bone density test, most people tend to assume everything is fine with their skeletal system. At that point, it becomes a matter of maintaining what you have or trying to recover what you’ve lost. Fortunately, there are many exercise options for increasing bone density, both weight bearing and muscle strengthening.

1) Exercising your way to better bone health can be as simple as taking a walk. Using your own body weight as you move against the forces of gravity can increase bone density, particularly in the spine and hips. Brisk walking is better than adopting a slower pace, but every effort will be beneficial.

2) For those who want to pursue something more exotic in their exercise program, yoga is a great way to increase bone mineral density. The hips, spine, and wrist will show the greatest benefit from yoga. This is important because these are the skeletal areas most at risk of fracture.

3) As a step up from walking, hiking is a recommended exercise to increase bone density. Uphill and downhill hiking provides more bone impact than level walking trails. Make your next vacation destination a place to explore nature with a walking stick in hand and an eye for finding out what’s over that next hilltop.

4) One of the best exercises for your bones may not seem like exercise at all. Dancing is a good way to enjoy spending time with your partner while putting bone-strengthening pressure on your body. Learn to salsa, rhumba, or tango your way to better bone health.

5) Weight training has benefits on multiple levels. In addition to building stronger bones, you will notice the added bonus of firmer muscles. Weight training doesn’t need to take place in the gym to be effective. Carrying heavy items, such as bags of groceries or small children, can impact bone health as well. Pushing a lawn mower or raking leaves also gives resistance movements to your body.

6) Taking the stairs will improve bone health. Climbing 100 steps five times in the course of a day is both aerobic and bone strengthening.

7) If you like using the gym equipment or want to use your own exercise machines at home, an elliptical trainer or step machine can give you the opportunity to do some bone building while enjoying a favorite television show or movie.

8) For a truly energetic workout, try jumping rope. As with every aspect of life today, technology has developed digital jump ropes that can help you track your progress. There are even cordless jump ropes available for those who feel too clumsy to risk using a traditional rope.

Maintaining good health and a strong body starts from the inside out. Proper nutrition in addition to good fitness practices will help you live a long, healthy life. Taking care of your bone health doesn’t have to be tedious when you engage in the wide variety of exercise options available to you in everyday life.

Exercise can help even if you already have bone loss

Ten million Americans suffer with osteoporosis, and another 34 million have low bone mass and high risk for osteoporosis. If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis or osteopenia (low bone density for your age, but not low enough be a risk factor for fracture), it’s important to know that it most likely hasn’t affected your bones’ ability to develop. You’ve just stopped “loading” them.

It’s also unlikely that your bone density is low in all the bones throughout your body — it’s likely centered in a few spots that you’ve neglected moving. You can begin simple weight-bearing exercises at any time, sending the message to the bone that you’d like it to start growing now!

Certain areas are more prone to bone density loss

The ribs, wrists, hips and spine are the most common places to lose bone. Let’s take the hips as an example of how these areas can become trouble zones: Your hips are designed to rotate and have a large range of motion. If you sit a lot, then they aren’t moving as much. Even if you’re walking, cycling, or even swimming, chances are you're still only moving your hips in the same direction most of the time — in a linear pattern, straight ahead and straight behind. If you don’t move your hips in the patterns in which they were designed to move, the bone is sent the message that it doesn’t have to maintain as much density as it would need if it had to move more.

5 ways to boost your workout’s bone-building power

If you’ve been exercising regularly yet developed low bone density anyway, your movement habits need to change — but you can do it fairly easily.

1. Move your body in new ways

Choose exercises that work your body in different directions than you’re used to. If most of your workouts consist of walking, try yoga poses, dance workouts ort’ai chi  once a week to add lateral movement.

2. Do weight-bearing exercise (but know what that means)

Weight bearing is not the same as using weights! There is a lot of confusion on this point. Weight-bearing actually refers to how much of your body weight you are holding up while exercising. For example, walking would be more weight-bearing than riding a bike. And swimming is the least weight bearing exercise, as the buoyancy of the water is doing most of the work to hold up your body.

The term “using weights” can mean any type of resistance exercise – whether it be elastic tubing, body resistance (like push-ups or yoga’s arm-balance poses), weight machines, circuit equipment, or hand-held weights. While using weights can be a great way to exercise, it is weight-bearing exercise that is critical to a bone-density-building program.

Because the skeleton’s job is to hold the entire weight of the body, lifting three, five, or even 20 pound weights is not as important to bone health as is being strong enough to carry your own body mass.

3. Favor activities that get you up on your feet to load your bones with your own body weight

Do the treadmill instead of an exercise bike for part or all of your workout. Walk the golf course instead of getting a cart. Stand up and do some stretches or knee lifts while you watch TV, rather than sitting on the couch the whole time. Stand at the sink to do your make-up rather than sitting at a make-up table.

4. Critique your gait and what’s affecting it

Often when I am developing an exercise program for someone with low bone density in the spine, I can identify habits in their gait patterns that are decreasing the loading signals to the bone. Tight calf muscles, for example, can really affect how the heel strikes the ground while you’re walking, decreasing the vibrations that move up the leg to keep the hips strong.

High heels (even one inch!) and excessively cushioned shoes also quiet the signal that would help build bone density in the hips and back.

5. Add balance exercises to help prevent fractures

The most significant health risk for anyone with low bone density is the risk of a fracture. Falling can definitely lead to fractures or bone breaks, so balance exercises to help prevent falls should be at the top of your exercise list! Try using a “wobble board” or inflated half-ball, or include moves that strengthen one side of your body at a time, such as one-legged squats or yoga’s Tree Pose andWarrior III.

When you start a new balance program, it may take awhile for your body to gain the muscle control and strength to keep you steady. Be safe! Start by standing on one leg while leaning against a wall or holding onto a chair, in time increments your body can handle. If you don’t have the strength or stability to stand on one leg, work on developing your muscle strength before you try to balance on one leg.

Osteoporosis Exercise for Strong Bones

There are two types of osteoporosis exercises that are important for building and maintaining bone density: weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises.

Weight-bearing Exercises

These exercises include activities that make you move against gravity while staying upright. Weight-bearing exercises can be high-impact or low-impact.

High-impact weight-bearing exercises help build bones and keep them strong. If you have broken a bone due to osteoporosis or are at risk of breaking a bone, you may need to avoid high-impact exercises. If you’re not sure, you should check with your healthcare provider.

Examples of high-impact weight-bearing exercises are:

• Dancing
• Doing high-impact aerobics
• Hiking
• Jogging/running
• Jumping Rope
• Stair climbing
• Tennis

Low-impact weight-bearing exercises can also help keep bones strong and are a safe alternative if you cannot do high-impact exercises. Examples of low-impact weight-bearing exercises are:

• Using elliptical training machines
• Doing low-impact aerobics
• Using stair-step machines
• Fast walking on a treadmill or outside

Muscle-Strengthening Exercises

These exercises include activities where you move your body, a weight or some other resistance against gravity. They are also known as resistance exercises and include:

• Lifting weights
• Using elastic exercise bands
• Using weight machines
• Lifting your own body weight
• Functional movements, such as standing and rising up on your toes

Yoga and Pilates can also improve strength, balance and flexibility. However, certain positions may not be safe for people with osteoporosis or those at increased risk of broken bones. For example, exercises that have you bend forward may increase the chance of breaking a bone in the spine. A physical therapist should be able to help you learn which exercises are safe and appropriate for you.