Exercise for Osteoporosis

I mentioned about the the physical therapy for osteoporosis includes weight bearing exercises in my previous post. Now you obviously want to know which exercise is weight bearing and which isn't, this post will speak all about it.

Weight bearing exercise literally means the activity that puts your bones to bear your body weight. Although our bones always bear it the activity induces positive stress which helps the bone mineralisation and lowers bone loss. I will also enlist the kind of exercise you should stay far away from if you have low bone density.

Weight Bearing Exercises for Osteoporsis prevention and cure:
1. Strength Training - If you have read this blog from the begining you must have noticed my emphasis on strength training exercise. I am pro strength training not because it gives you a chiseled look but because metabolically you couldn't have asked for a better gift. Strength training exercises that bear weight are low - medium intensity squats (with or without add on weights), same goes for lunges however please make sure you are accompanied by a trainer inorder to correct your form during the exercise as squats and lunges if done in incorrect posture can do you harm than good. Leg extension and hamstring curl are another form of strength training exercise that allow weight bearing also good for building strength in the muscles around your knee and why is that so good for osteoporosis? Well matter of factly the knees bear the weight partially of the lower body next to the lower spine, so if your knees are strong they can afford to bear weight better. Hyperextension of the back can also be good for the spinal bones strengthing the back muscles too, wrist flexion is also a good strength training exercise. The focus of these exercises I just mentioned is to firstly impact your hip, femur, tibia, wrist bones and spinal bones where osteoporosis is majorly seen. Strength training can also be done without any add on weights and that is what I personally practise too. You can do all the above exercises with the help of your own body weight with a little more intensity added to it. The use of terra bands, tubes, physio ball, water workouts for these exercises has turned out extremely beneficial. My mother started out with weights and then slowly moved towards resistance tube and it has shown remarkable impact on her osteopenia.

Cardio exercises - Walking is the best of all the options and it is absolutely possible wherever in the world you are with a good pair of shoes of course. Walking puts adequate weight on the bones to impact on the reduction of bone loss. Similarly medium intensity elliptical trainer is also good as is climbing the stairwell to your apartment instead of the elevator. Infact climbing stairwell has proved to be a very good alternative in times when you cannot go out for a walk but need to continue exercising just keep your posture erect. Like wise swimming and water aerobics have benefits however these are more helpfull during immediate rehabilitation after a fracture secondary to osteoporosis.

Yoga - The good old yoga proves to be a good weight bearing alternative but there are some asanas where you bend forward your turn your spine which would go against the idea of preventing osteoporosis, so don't attempt those positions.

Stretching - Sometime back I had given 9 stretching exercises to attain flexibility well it also is beneficial for osteoporosis. What you need to lower bone loss is have good weight impact on your spine and lower body bones with an erect posture. Joints where osteoporosis is frequent are hip, wrist, spine and if these are not flexible enough or lets just say are stiff your core muscles (abdominal and lower back) will pull you forward giving a hunch back look and thats no good news for your spine bones which are already under stress of low bone mineral density and compression fractures. Stretching will free the joints and help attain a good posture and balance to the body keeping the add on stress on these bones at bay.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THESE EXERCISES FOR OSTEOPOROSIS :
These are red alerts as far as osteoporosis is concerned, running, jogging, skipping, bowling, playing sport that bends your spine diagonally or impacts directly on knees and lower back. Why and How are your immdiate questions so lets answer them one at a time.

Why? - Visualise the running or jogging activity in slow motion and concentrate on the leg movements. Do you see when the foot hits the ground the weight shifts first on the knee and then on the lower back with high impact? Well that is not what we want to achieve the high impact.
How ? - We do not want these impacts because they cause compression of the spine bones, knee joint and hip joint. Compression of the bones is what will speed the fractures rather than avoid them. So do not attempt these.

Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D
Related articles - http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/09/osteoporosis-benefits-of-physical.html
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/08/osteoporosis-metabolic-cause-and.html

Osteoporosis: Benefits of Physical Therapy

After we have seen all the pathophysiological evidence as to how osteoporosis begins and develops we arrive at a point to discover what are the options we have, to reverse it. Well honestly reversal or not depends how bad the situation is. If the bone is depleted completely its difficult physically for the person to do except therapy and of course nutrition and hormonal therapy. How does physical therapy help?
Medical researches all over the world across genetic pools, age, gender have given significant evidence of weight bearing exercises reducing bone resorption or bone remodelling. The major problem we face in osteoporosis is as we now know the continuous battle between bone mineral deposition and its removal to balance the calcium in the blood. Exercise that bear our weight or any tolerant weight with correct posture and body form helps tremendously in reversing the bone resorption effects. Its no wonder that when NASA sends astronauts to zero gravity they face a challenge to maintain bone mineral density if exposed to weightlessness for a long period of time continuously. No amount of good nutrition, hormonal balance is good enough if the proper exercise or physical stimulus to the bone isn't available to develop it.
I know you want to know how does gravity or bearing your own weight help osteoporosis when obesity can also threaten it? Well, remember that a child in his/ her growing years shoots up like an unkept lawn grass before you even realise it, just like grandma always says to grow up you must go out and play. The primary reason bones develop on a stimulus of the growth hormone in childhood is because it is complemented by physical stimulus to the bone cells to deposit more calcium to develop it inorder to sustain the physical demand on it. Unless there is a demand in the body there will never be a supply and that's a GIVEN. So the body or lets say the bone cells respond to the stimulus (hormonal and physical) of exercise that puts a demand over bearing weight. The stimulus is a message to our body for strength demand so the bones quickly respond in slowing the resorption or remodelling of the bones and work towards bone mineral deposition or modelling. If you ask a simple question as how on earth would the bones know if they need to grow or not ? the answer would be as simple as the baby that cries gets his milk. Our body would cry for strength and therby our bones would fulfill it. Now this fulfillment of bone modelling on a stimulus upon exercise can be met if the nutrition is fine otherwise the body ends up in a viscious cycle of malnourishment.
What are the actual benefits of weight bearing exercises on osteoporosis other than a mere stimulus you may ask? well it builds good strength in the musculation which enhances the overall strength of our body and also our agility and body posture and that is what we need ultimately to avoid a trip and fall fracture.
In my next post I will write on the various exercise you can do that will send your bones the stimulus to slow your bone remodelling.

Wish you wellness,
Neha
R.D
Related articles -
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/08/osteoporosis-from-where-does-this.html
http://wellnessandi.blogspot.com/2009/08/osteoporosis-metabolic-cause-and.html