The Benefits of Exercise - Our Bones
Exercise is vital in maintaining and building strong bones.
We don’t often think about our bones as needing growing or maintaining (after we finish growing). But bone is living tissue. It changes over time and responds to forces we place on it.[i] Not only do our bones act as our scaffolding to hold us up, they protect our vital organs and make and store minerals and blood cells.[ii]
As we age, our bones can get weaker and fragile putting us at risk of broken bones.[iii] A sedentary lifestyle makes this worse.[iv]
Exercise helps to make our bones stronger. When we are younger it is importing for building strong bones and as we age it helps to maintain bone strength.[v] When we regularly exercise, our bones adapt by becoming dense and building more bone.
How do we exercise for bone strength?
As bones adapt to the forces on them to grow, exercises that include weight bearing and strength-training are best for building strong bones.
Weight bearing exercises involve working against gravity and include things like
hiking,
walking,
jogging and
dancing.[vi]
Strength exercises involve moving against resistance. By building muscle in resistance exercises, the stronger muscle fibres pull on the bone when they contract which stimulates the action to strengthen the bones. Resistance exercises include things such as
Additionally, regularly high impact exercises are associated with greater improvements in bone mineral mass. This includes things such as
Running,
Jumping,
Skipping, and
Plyometrics. [ix]
Additionally, exercise need to be specific to particular bones. So if we want to strengthen our leg bones we need to work on exercises that apply force to our legs.
Conclusion
We don’t often think about our bones as needing growing or maintaining .But bone is living tissue. It changes over time and responds to forces we place on it. As we age, our bones can get weaker and fragile putting us at risk of broken bones. A sedentary lifestyle makes this worse. Exercise helps to make our bones stronger. When we are younger it is importing for building strong bones and as we age it helps to maintain bone strength. When we regularly exercise, our bones adapt by becoming dense and building more bone.
[i] https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/exercise-and-bone-health/
[ii] https://www.newportortho.com/About-Us/Our-NOI-Blog/2016/December/Benefits-of-Exercise-on-Your-Bone-Health.aspx
[iii] https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/exercise-and-bone-health/
[iv] https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/ConditionsAndTreatments/osteoporosis-and-exercise
[v] https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/exercise-and-bone-health/
[vi] https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health
[vii] https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/exercise-and-bone-health/
[viii] https://www.bones.nih.gov/health-info/bone/bone-health/exercise/exercise-your-bone-health
[ix] https://www.newportortho.com/About-Us/Our-NOI-Blog/2016/December/Benefits-of-Exercise-on-Your-Bone-Health.aspx
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